Nhs fitness to practice sick pay

[Changeisneeded]

So I am currently working full time in the NHS but as part of this I am studying one day a week. I have recently been off with mental health issues and need to get fully back on my feet before I am able to do clinical work again and obviously need to go through Occupational Health and get approval from my psychiatrist.

The difficulty comes with the university course as if I do not start teaching in May I will be unable to continue until this time next year and so I will lose my job as it is dependent on me studying.

The issues around fitness to practice don’t impact upon my ability to go and sit in university and whilst I wouldn’t be looking to return today I know I could return by May and hopefully by June (at the latest) get the go ahead to be building up my hours to full time again.

I know on sick notes drs can say that you are fit to do xyz but not fit to do abc so in my case I could attend teaching but not do clinical work but I am unsure of whether this would mean I had any entitlement to sick pay or if I would have to go to part time hours aka doing just 1 day a week until I could be considered well enough to start seeing clients and in turn start with a fairly rapid phased return to work.

I think you need you need to discuss with occy health then your boss/hr

Occy health could see you and suggest to your boss (if OH think you are well enough)
That you do back on a graded return, starting with your uni day and maybe one day a week for x amount of weeks then build up your phased return.

Most employers will pay you full time for a phased return over 2-4 weeks, then you can use AL to build it up over a longer period.

You cant get part time sick pay.

I think of you intens to be returning in may, you will need to see occy health soon as they may request information from your gp or psychiatrist before whittling a report on their assessment of you for your boss.

Also. Could gp and occy health agree you could return to work in a different role (admin etc) for a period before being client facing?

Thank you that’s what I thought I’ve been referred to Occy health but with the wait for an appointment it’s all going to be last minute so I am trying to plan as much as I can in advance because I can’t afford to be without work for a year so it’s all a nightmare.

You definately can get part time sick pay as I had it when I was pregnant. But I think it's trust dependant.

I wouldn't expect too much from occy health, they've always been pretty rubbish in my experience.

Can you talk to your gp and manager and see what they suggest?

My gp signed me off for reduced working hours when I was struggling to cope when pregnant. He did maximum 20hs a week, no more than 5hrs in a day. This stayed until I was on sick fully.

Thank you!

I have no faith in Occy health so just trying to figure this out on my own. It seems like there may be an entitlement to statutory sick pay so I wonder if this would translate.