SCHOOL STAFF ABSENCE: SETUP CHECKLIST
Leavely | https://leavely.online/schools
Updated: 16 September 2026

School: ____________________  Setup owner: ____________________
Policy version: ___________  Planned review date: _____________

1. SCHOOL AND LEAVE YEAR
[ ] Choose primary or secondary school profile.
[ ] Confirm the leave-year start month. September is a suggestion.
[ ] Review the suggested phase groups or subject departments.
[ ] Identify staff working across more than one department.

2. PEOPLE AND HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENTS
Check each person's contract; do not infer the setting from the job title.
[ ] Confirm working days, hours, start dates and reporting lines.
[ ] Identify staff who book annual leave and confirm their allowance.
[ ] Identify staff whose paid holiday is taken during closures.
[ ] Review term-time and all-year support roles individually.
[ ] Record who will approve leave and who will cover an approver's absence.

3. ABSENCE TYPES
[ ] Review sickness and annual-leave settings.
[ ] Review appointment, compassionate leave, public duties and unpaid leave.
[ ] Replace preset allowances and notice periods with your agreed settings.
[ ] Confirm which absence types apply to each group of staff.
[ ] Agree how staff report unexpected sickness to the school office.

4. DATES AND CLOSURES
[ ] Collect the school's own closure dates. Dates are not imported for you.
[ ] Check which dates mean staff are away, rather than only pupils.
[ ] Keep INSET days when staff are working out of their time-off records.
[ ] Before saving a closure, review who it affects and whether it deducts leave.
[ ] Check both a closure-only and a bookable-holiday staff record afterwards.

5. SICKNESS FOLLOW-UP AND RECORDS
[ ] Assign responsibility for return-to-work follow-up.
[ ] Agree where medical documents are held and who can access them.
[ ] Restrict access to the source document before adding a fit-note link.
[ ] Agree report dates and recipients; share only necessary information.
[ ] Set a routine for reviewing absence with the appropriate context and support.

6. PILOT BEFORE WIDER ROLLOUT
[ ] Invite a small pilot group with a manager and different staff arrangements.
[ ] Test a planned leave request, decision and balance update.
[ ] Test a sickness record and return-to-work follow-up.
[ ] Check the calendar from the staff and manager views.
[ ] Run and export a report for your chosen date range.
[ ] Resolve setup questions, then invite the rest of the school.

For trusts: decide whether schools need separate workspaces. Confirm the
required reporting structure in a demo; cross-workspace reporting should not
be assumed.

This is an operational checklist, not a school absence policy. Use your own
contracts and agreed policies for entitlement and decision-making.

Notes and decisions:
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