Making an occupational health referral: advice for managers

There are some useful questions you may want to ask occupational health (OH), to make the referral as effective as possible. The specific issues you raise will depend on the reason for the referral. 

Questions for occupational health

1. When an employee may be fit for work. You can ask whether they will be likely to return in a certain timescale, able to resume full duties, or whether a phased return is advisable and if so, what this should look like.
   
    
2. Whether the employee’s condition is likely to meet the criteria for disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010. If we think an employee could have a disability or the employee informs us that their medical condition amounts to a disability, we should ask this question. Note that whether an employee has a disability is a legal issue for Essex County Council as the employer to determine rather than a medical adviser, so you should not solely rely on the OH view to determine this and seek further advice from the People case team as needed.
   
    
3. Whether any adjustments applied to any policy could assist the employee.
   
    
4. Whether any further external support channels can be recommended.
   
    
5. If there are any medication side effects which might affect the employee's ability to safely carry out their role. It's unlikely you need to know exactly what type of medication your employee is on or a full list of possible side effects.
   
    
6. The impact of the employee's health on their work and what you can do about it. You don’t need to find out exactly what is going on at home but you need to know how you can support the employee.
   
    
7. If the employee has said that their medical condition prevents them from carrying out a particular task, affects their ability to meet performance targets or has caused them to act or fail to act in a particular way, it is important to obtain OH's medical advice to verify if the employee’s explanation is reasonable. This allows us to determine if we need to manage issues under an ill health capability process or under a performance or conduct process. The employee should know that as part of this process, OH may seek information from the employee’s doctor or clinician, with the employee's consent.