Review of temporary redeployment following sickness absence

If you agreed to an employee temporarily working in a different role on their return to work from long-term sickness absence, it will need to be reviewed after a period of time. Use our letter to confirm the outcome of that review.

Temporary redeployment

Where you agree with an employee that they can temporarily return to a different role from sickness absence, for example, as a reasonable adjustment in order to enable a disabled employee to return to work, you can use our Temporary Redeployment following Sickness Absence Letter. Remember that you will always need the employee’s consent to a temporary redeployment, and it’s preferable to get that in writing.

Review

When agreeing a temporary redeployment, you should also have agreed an anticipated end date for it, as your ultimate aim is for the employee to return to their permanent role once they’re fit enough to do so. When that end date comes around, you’ll therefore need to carry out a review with the employee, which will need to explore their current state of health, whether they’re fit enough at that stage to return to their permanent role (possibly with temporary work alterations in place, if feasible) or whether the temporary redeployment can and should be extended. Once you’ve conducted that review meeting and agreed a way forward, use our Review of Temporary Redeployment Following Sickness Absence to confirm the outcome.

Letter options

Our letter has different sections covering the following three options:

1. The temporary role is no longer required as the employee is now fit enough to return to their permanent role - this section therefore simply gives a date for that to happen.
2. The employee will return to their permanent role but with agreed temporary work alterations in place, for example, amended duties, altered working hours or workplace adaptations – this may also involve consequent temporary changes to their employment contract, so we’ve covered that too, as well as asking for the employee’s written consent to the temporary work alterations/contractual changes. In this situation, you will need to set a date for review of the temporary work alterations as you should ensure progress is being made towards a full return to work in the permanent role, so that’s included in our letter too.
3. The temporary redeployment will be extended for a further specified period - this section sets out how long that extension will be and sets a new date for review.

In scenarios 2 and 3, our letter also emphasises that the situation remains temporary and doesn’t constitute a permanent change to the employee’s employment contract.