Sick/Fit Note request form
Please complete this form to tell us about your illness and we will direct you to the most appropriate form or service.
Self-Certification and requesting your First Sick/Fit Note
First 7 Days: You do not need a fit note from the practice for the first 7 calendar days of illness. You must self-certify during this time using your employer’s standard process.
After 7 Days: Contact reception to arrange a routine appointment for a new illness.
First-Time or Unrecorded Conditions: We can only provide notes for known conditions already on your medical record, or following an assessment with a healthcare professional.
Hospital Procedures: Fit note requests following hospital stays, surgeries, or specialist treatments must be issued directly by the hospital care team, not your practice clinician.
Appointments, Extensions and Backdating
Turnaround Time: Standard requests take up to 5 working days to process.
Urgent and Same-Day Care: Sick/Fit note requests are never handled in urgent or emergency clinics. If you book an emergency appointment solely for a fit note, you will be asked to rebook a routine appointment.
Extending a Sick/Fit Note: Contact us before your current note expires if you remain unfit for work.
Backdating: Sick/Fit notes can be backdated to cover a previous period of illness once it has commenced. They cannot be predated for future dates, nor issued in advance of an event.
Long-Term Absence: Indefinite fit notes are not provided by your clinician; long-term support is managed via the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Eligibility and Practice Policy
Who Can Issue Fit Notes: A range of healthcare professionals can certify and issue fit notes, including doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists.
Signatures: Physical ink signatures are no longer required by law; digital signatures are fully valid for employers and the DWP.
Clinical Discretion: Issuing a fit note is subject to clinical regulations and assessment. Submitting a request does not automatically guarantee a note will be issued if it is not clinically indicated.
Taking Sick LeaveSelf-Certificate
If you have been sick for more than four days in a row, but less than seven, you can self–certify your illness using a SC2 form. You can obtain this form from your employer or the HMRC website. If you are unwell for more than four days you are advised to contact the surgery to assess your fitness to work.
More than seven days off sick
If you’re off work sick for more than seven days your employer will normally ask for a Fit Note (or Statement of Fitness for Work) from your GP or Hospital Doctor.
How to count sick days
When you work out the number of days that you’ve been sick, you need to count all the days in a row you’ve been sick, including days you don’t normally work such as weekends and bank holidays.
Statement of Fitness for Work
The Doctor will provide you with a Statement of Fitness for Work (‘Fit Note’) if you are still not well enough to work. Your employer will most likely request this statement as evidence to support payment of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
Further information is available at the Direct.Gov website.
When do I need a Fit Note?
7 days off sick or less
If you’re off work sick for 7 days or less, your employer should not ask for medical evidence that you’ve been ill. Instead they can ask you to confirm that you’ve been ill. You can do this by filling in a form yourself when you return to work. This is called self-certification.
More than 7 days off sick
If you’re off work sick for more than 7 days, your employer will usually ask for a fit note.
Child off School
The Health Protection Agency has produced guidelines to help you know when it is safe for you to let your child go back to school or nursery.
Guidance notes on infection control in schools and other childcare settings
Examinations and sickness certificates
It should be noted that GPs do not provide sick notes for school children. When children are absent from school owing to illness, schools may request a letter from a parent or guardian, and this is no different during an exam period. However, children who have missed exams due to illness are frequently told by schools that a note from a doctor is required; but this cannot be provided by a GP.
Aside from the fact that parents/guardians are responsible for excusing their children from school, GPs cannot provide retrospective sickness certification.
When a child suffers from a long-term condition, any certification will be provided by the responsible specialist.
General Practitioners Committee (GPC) has sought and received confirmation from the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator that Awarding Organisations make no requirement for pupils to obtain a medical certificate in support of their application for special consideration. Students are asked for information in support of their application, but this may take the form of a statement by the school. The Joint Council for Qualifications has confirmed that as far as they are concerned, if a student was absent from an examination as a result of illness and has the support of the school or centre to be absent, special consideration will be granted on that basis. Awarding organisations do not insist that medical proof is provided.
Private Certificates
If you or your employer require further information concerning your period(s) of illness , then your Doctor may require to issue you with a letter. Please note that a charge may apply for this service. Please check with our Reception Desk.