Fit notes: what employers need to know

What a fit note is

The form used to be called a sick note. The current name is a fit note, or a statement of fitness for work. A doctor, nurse, occupational therapist, pharmacist or physiotherapist can issue one. The person does not have to be seen in person for every note, and a hospital discharge can stand in the same role when the clinician says so.

The note covers a period. It says the person is not fit for work, or that they may be fit for work. It can name the condition if the person agrees. It is advice to the employer and the worker. It is not a contract change, and it does not by itself decide whether Statutory Sick Pay is due.

The first seven days

For the first seven calendar days of sickness, including weekends, an employer can accept the person’s own account. That is self-certification. Many workplaces use their own short form. There is also an HM Revenue and Customs form if you want the official one. You do not have to ask for a fit note in that first week.

Day one is the first day they were too ill to work. Count seven calendar days, not seven shifts. A person who was due to work on Monday and is still off the following Monday has passed that week. From then, you can ask for a fit note as evidence of the ongoing absence.

May be fit for work

A note that says “may be fit for work” is suggesting a way back, not declaring the person fully recovered. The usual suggestions are a phased return, altered hours, amended duties, or a workplace adaptation. Those are options. If you cannot make the change, you treat the person as not fit for work for the period the note covers. You do not have to invent a job that does not exist.

Talk to the person before you decide. The note is short. The person knows which part of the job is the problem. A café close that needs standing for five hours is a different question from a stock count they can do seated. Write down what you agreed, and for how long, so the rota and the conversation match.

You do not need a further note that says “fit for work” before someone returns. When the note ends, or when you have agreed a return that fits what it says, they can come back. If they are still unwell, they need a further note or a further conversation. Do not leave them guessing.

How this sits next to the rota

Sickness is a reason someone is not on a shift. In Shiftbrook you record it as leave of the sickness type, on the dates it covers, and the reason stays with the person and the people allowed to see it. The product does not score absences, and it does not read a fit note. You keep the note with your own records.

Publishing the week still matters. If someone is off, the shift should not stay on their name as if they will be there. Move it, cover it with an open shift, or take it off the published week. The leave page is where the request and the approval live. Sick pay itself is outside the product. The SSP calculator is an estimate of the 2026/27 weekly figure, not a payment.