Employee absence and unauthorised absence procedure

All policies and procedures

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Date of Issue:	3 June 2026
Approved by:	PCC
Review date:	Annually in May

Bracknell Parochial Church Council (“the PCC”) sets out the following procedure approved by the PCC.

Introduction

The Parish of Bracknell knows that there will be times when you can’t come to work because you’re ill or something else unexpected has happened. We want to support you as employers and pastorally. We want to help you come back to work as soon as you are able. We will need to review and manage your absence though, to minimise the impact on the Parish.

Purpose

This policy sets out our approach to managing absence. The absence reporting procedure applies to all forms of unplanned absence – including sickness absence and things like emergency leave and compassionate leave.

Just so it’s clear, in some cases the Disciplinary Policy may apply rather than, or as well as, the Absence Policy, such as:

• If you don’t follow the absence reporting procedure,
• If we have reasonable grounds to believe that your sickness absence isn’t genuine,
• If you give inaccurate or misleading information about your sickness absence,
• If the absence is unauthorised.

Scope

This policy applies to all employees in The Parish of Bracknell. We expect all those working on behalf of The Parish of Bracknell to act in accordance with this policy when engaged in the business of The Parish of Bracknell.

Definitions

Unauthorised absence – is when someone does not turn up for work and either: has not got permission from us beforehand, does not follow the policy for reporting an unexpected absence (for example someone is off sick but does not tell us), when someone is late for work, and any absence that has not authorised beforehand (for example, returning late from annual leave).

Policy statement

Authorised absence

Absence Reporting Procedure

If you can’t come to work for any reason, you need to let us know. You must call the Incumbent or Churchwarden at least one hour before the time you’re due to start work or by 10am (whichever’s earlier). Your contract may specify if you are in a role that requires additional notice.

If it’s not possible for you to call an hour before you’re due to start work, then call as soon as reasonably possible. If you are too ill a friend or family may make this call but it should be as reasonably possible.

When you call in you’ll need to tell us:

• Why you’re absent and how long you expect to be off work,
• Your phone number so we can contact you,
• Details of any urgent or outstanding work that needs picking up while you’re off.

It’s important that you follow the absence reporting procedure for every unplanned absence. If you don’t, this will be viewed as unauthorised absence which is a serious matter and could result in your pay being stopped and disciplinary action being taken against you, up to and including dismissal.

Sickness and holidays

If you’re off sick and have pre-booked holiday that you’re too unwell to take, you can ask for the holiday to be cancelled so you can take it another time. Also, if you become ill during your holiday, and are unwell enough that you wouldn’t have been able to go to work, you can ask for those holiday days to be cancelled.

Instead of using holiday, you’ll be recorded as sick and get any sick pay you’re eligible for. But you must follow the absence reporting procedure - otherwise you won’t be able to change your holidays to sickness. Just so it’s clear, if your holidays are changed to sickness, this absence will count towards any absence triggers.

If you’re abroad when you become ill, you still need to follow the absence reporting procedure if you want to change from holiday to sickness. You’ll need to agree with your manager how you’ll stay in touch with them, bearing in mind your access to a telephone/computer and the time difference. If you’re sick for more than seven consecutive days, you’ll still need to give us a medical certificate for this period, just like if you’re ill in the UK.

If you’re off sick for a prolonged period, you can choose to take holidays during your absence – contact the Incumbent or Church Warden to discuss.

Disability-related absence

If you think you have a disability, talk to the Incumbent or a Church Warden about it and discuss any adjustments you need.

If you’re off sick due to a disability-related illness, we will try to support you to return to work. We might refer you to Occupational Health to find out more about your condition, how it may affect you at work and whether there are any adjustments we could make to help.

These absences might count towards the absence triggers in some circumstances. But it might be a reasonable adjustment to agree a revised absence trigger with you for absences related to a disability or to not include them when calculating absences triggers. If you have any questions or concerns about disability-related absence, speak to us.

Third party accidents

If your absence is caused by an accident or act of negligence by a third party, you must tell us. If you get compensation for loss of earnings, you’ll need to refund The Parish of Bracknell the equivalent amount for sick pay you’ve been paid. If the amount is repaid in full, the absence won’t be included when calculating your remaining sick pay, but it may be included when calculating absence triggers.

Keeping in contact

During the call you should agree with us how you’ll stay in touch during your absence. This should be daily in the first week unless it wouldn’t be appropriate in the circumstances. But if your absence lasts for longer than this, you should agree with us when you need to call.

It’s important to stay in contact with us in addition to providing Fit Notes and attending any absence review meetings. As a minimum, you should always call us the day before your Fit Note expires, to let them know whether you’ll be returning to work.

Keep us updated with any new information about your health and how you’re progressing towards recovery. And tell them if your doctor gives you any likely timescales for coming back to work. If you feel that the reasons for your absence are to do with your work, please talk to the Incumbent or the Churchwardens, about this as soon as possible and they’ll try to resolve things.

Also, just so you’re aware, while you’re absent from work, we might call you from time to time if there’s anything they need to speak to you about, or just to keep in touch with you.

Sickness certification

You should self-certify your sickness up to and including seven calendar days either verbally or preferably by letter or email. But if you’re off sick for over seven days you need to get a Fit Note from one of the following approved Healthcare Professionals - doctor, nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist, or physiotherapist in order to cover your absence from the eighth day onwards. If you want to keep the original Fit Note that’s okay – we will take a copy.

We may ask you to get a Fit Note before the eighth day of your absence – but we’ll only do this in exceptional circumstances and we will arrange to pay you back if there’s a charge for this if you give us the invoice you receive.

Remember, any period of sickness absence which isn’t covered by self-certification or Fit Note is classed as unauthorised absence. So, if you’re absent from work for any length of time, it’s important to make sure that the documents you give us cover the whole time, with no gaps in between them.

Sick pay

Details of your sick pay are in your contract of employment.

You may qualify for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). More information about SSP is available at www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay.

We may stop paying SSP if the rules around this payment haven’t been met. Which are that:

• You don’t follow this Absence Policy without good reason:
• You don’t provide a required Fit Note.
• You don’t attend a scheduled Occupational Health appointment, without good reason or without giving the required notice, until you attend a rescheduled appointment.
• You’re absent from work due to sickness pending any investigation, disciplinary or performance improvement meeting.
• We have evidence that you’re behaving in a way that’s inconsistent with the reason for your absence or engaging in activities (including other work, paid or unpaid, or any sports or hobbies) that are likely to delay your recovery or make your condition worse. If you’re in any doubt about doing certain activities, get advice from your doctor.
• If you’re undergoing voluntary cosmetic surgery. If so, we may agree to let you take holiday, so your pay isn’t affected. In some cases, cosmetic surgery can be necessary for medical reasons – so talk to us about your circumstances.

If a medical authority tells you that you mustn’t attend work after being in contact with a notifiable disease, make sure you tell us as soon as possible. This will be classed as paid leave and won’t count towards the calculation of absence triggers.

If you’re off sick because of a physical or psychological injury caused by a member of the public whilst in work, and we think the incident was serious enough for you to be absent, we’ll give you some paid leave and this won’t count towards the calculation of absence triggers.

Occupational health

If you’re off sick, we may want to refer you to Occupational Health to get more information about your condition. You don’t have to agree, but if you don’t, we’ll manage your absence based on the limited information we’ve got.

Return to work meeting

We will meet with you after every absence to talk about how you’re feeling and if there are any adjustments suggested on your Fit Note. We’ll record details of what you discuss.

This meeting must take place on the day you return to work. If you work in a safety critical role, including roles that involve driving or operating machinery, then the return-to-work meeting must happen before you start work again and we may also carry out a Risk Assessment to make sure that you’re fit to return to work. If any changes need to be made to your work or working environment to support you to return to work, these will be recorded.

In the meeting, we will talk to you about the reason for your absence and about any concerns you may have, and about the impact of your absence and any next steps that might be taken. It’s important to tell us if you think there may be underlying reasons for your absence, or if you were absent for a work-related reason. It may be that prolonged absence raises a question as to your capability to perform the role.

Phased return

If you’re coming back to work after an extended absence, you might need a phased return. This means you’ll return to work gradually, helping you get back up to speed and to check that any adjustments we’ve made are working.

Phased returns can include returning on reduced hours or doing amended duties. They usually last for 4-6 weeks but can be for up to 12 weeks in some circumstances. Any phased return will be based on the advice from Occupational Health or your GP.

Just so you know, if you’re working reduced hours during a phased return, you’ll normally get paid for the actual hours you work. Talk to us about options such as using holidays or any remaining sick pay for the hours that you’re not working.

Absence triggers

At The Parish of Bracknell we have a system of absence triggers in place to help us manage short-term periods of absence. These triggers are:

• Three periods of absence in a rolling 12 month period from the 1st day of absence
• 20 or more days of absence in a rolling 12-month period
• Where there’s a pattern of absence (such as the Tuesday after a bank holiday weekend or the day after a big social or sporting event)

If you reach one of these absence triggers, you’ll be invited to an absence review meeting to talk about your levels of absence. At the end of this meeting, we may give you an absence warning (although we won’t do this for sickness absences that are pregnancy-related).

If you have a live absence warning and you’re absent again, you’ll be asked to attend an absence review meeting so we can discuss your absence levels and see whether things have improved since the warning was given.

Unauthorised absence

The Parish of Bracknell does have a duty of care towards our employees. We will do all we reasonably can to support their health, safety, and wellbeing. When an employee does not turn up for work, we will follow steps to check where they are and if they're safe.

We will first check if the employee has a planned absence. For example, if they're on holiday or have an appointment.

If the employee should be at work, we will:

• Try contacting the employee using their work contact details,
• Try contacting them using their personal contact details,
• Get in touch with the employee's emergency contact,

Employees should make sure their emergency contact is happy:

• for their contact details to be shared with the employer,
• to be contacted if we are concerned about the employee's safety.

When speaking to an emergency contact, we will take care not to cause them unnecessary panic. For example, we will:

• speak calmly
• explain why they're calling
• ask open questions
• not jump to conclusions

If we cannot contact an employee and tried all options we may

• go to the employee's home address – if appropriate
• contact the police to ask for a welfare check – if we have serious concerns about their safety

Recording unauthorised absence and lateness

We will record when an employee is late for work or has an unauthorised absence.

Keeping a record means we can:

• identify any patterns of absence or lateness, for individuals or across the organisation,
• speak to an employee if they're repeatedly late or absent, to find out if there's a reason for it that they can help with.

If there's a valid reason

An employee who is late for work or does not come to work might have a valid reason for it. For example:

• they're unwell,
• they have been delayed by travel disruption,
• there's an unexpected emergency involving someone who depends on them, or
• someone close to them has died.

We will therefore:

• follow our policy for recording the absence,
• remind their employee of how to report absences or lateness – if it's appropriate, and
• offer any support the employee needs.

Checking if there are reasons for absence or lateness

An employee might not give a reason for their unauthorised absence. However, we may consider if there's something they reasonably could know about that is causing absence or lateness. For example:

• mental health problems,
• a disability, or
• being bullied at work.

An employee might not feel comfortable telling us about the reason behind their absence or lateness, The Parish of Bracknellwill try to create an open and supportive environment to discuss this by:

• making sure conversations are in private,
• asking open questions and not make assumptions,
• allowing the employee to bring someone with them to any meetings if they wish – this could be someone they work with or a trade union representative if they're a member.

Employees should be honest with us about the reasons for their absence or lateness. If we know what's happening, we can offer support. For example:

• flexible working,
• reasonable adjustments if the employee is disabled.

If there's no valid reason

If an employee is off work or late for work with no valid reason, we will first try to handle the situation informally, if it's appropriate. This can help stop unauthorised absences or lateness in the future.

We will speak with our employee after the unauthorised absence to:

• check if there's a reason for the absence or lateness that they can support them with,
• make sure they know the policy for unauthorised absence and lateness, if there is one, and
• ascertain if the absence is a disciplinary issue.

We might treat the absence or lateness as a disciplinary issue, for example if:

• the absence or lateness has serious consequences, and/or
• the employee is repeatedly late or absent without a valid reason and they're making no attempts to improve their behaviour.

We will then follow a fair disciplinary procedure. You may be dismissed for unauthorised absence or lateness. Dismissal will always be a last resort.

Pay during an unauthorised absence

If someone does not turn up for work or is late, we do not have to pay for the time the employee did not work.

General

Confidentiality and medical information

If you’re off sick, we’ll keep the reason for this as confidential as possible. But if there are times when we need to discuss your medical condition with third parties, we’ll agree this with you before sharing your information.