Stay-in-work plans, and how to write one.

What a stay-in-work plan is

Most people with a health condition are still at work. A stay-in-work plan is for them: someone who has not gone off sick but is finding work harder than it should be. The plan records what the two of you have agreed to change, who is doing each thing, and when you will look at it again. It is the counterpart of a return-to-work plan, which is for someone coming back after an absence.

The September 2026 Keep Britain Working update puts the stay-in-work plan at the centre of its "keep people in work" principle, and its case studies show why. In one, a 58-year-old in a 14-person building firm has his duties adjusted within 20 working days so he can keep working while he recovers; he is absent for nine days rather than five months. In another, a 26-year-old has her hours rebalanced within a fortnight and is never absent at all. The update is clear that these are composites, not real individuals, but the pattern is the point: the plan came before the absence.

What Keep Britain Working is testing

Source: GOV.UK, Keep Britain Working: a national growth opportunity, September 2026, chapter three. The update describes these as early examples being tested, not firm proposals; the BSI drafting panel will decide whether timelines belong in the final standard.

What makes a good one

• Talk about work, not diagnosis. The update is explicit that managers should discuss the impact on work "rather than make a diagnosis". Ask what a good day and a bad day look like, and what makes work harder.
• Focus on barriers that can change. Hours, workload, start time, tasks, where the work happens, breaks, equipment. Small changes are usually enough.
• Name an owner for every action. "We will look at your workload" is not an action. "Sam moves the Friday reporting to Priya from next week" is.
• Set a review date. Plans drift without one. Two to four weeks is typical for the first review.
• Agree it together. The update frames this as shared responsibility: the employee helps shape and review the plan where their circumstances allow, and is never expected to share personal information they do not need to.

Build a stay-in-work plan

Fill in what you have agreed, and the builder lays it out as a plan you can copy into your own records. It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere, and closing the page clears it. Do not enter a diagnosis or medical detail: the plan is about work.

Why this matters most in a small firm

In a small firm there is usually no HR team or occupational health to notice someone struggling. The plan is the whole system: one conversation, a few written lines and a date to look again. It costs almost nothing, and the update's own numbers show why it is worth it: someone absent for four to six weeks has a 96% chance of returning, and after a year off fewer than half do.

The harder part is noticing early. Most employers only learn someone was struggling when a fit note arrives. A light, regular wellbeing check-in gives you an earlier signal across the team without anyone having to disclose anything individually.

See the free wellbeing pulse

The Intelligent Wellbeing Engine is our free, non-clinical wellbeing pulse. Employers only ever see anonymous, aggregate results, never an individual's answers. It does not provide medical assessment or treatment and is independent of the Keep Britain Working programme.

What it does not require today

There is no legal duty to write a stay-in-work plan, and the five-working-day commitment is being tested, not imposed. Separately, existing duties still apply: the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees under the Equality Act 2010, and your general duty of care. A written plan is good practice either way, and it is your record that you acted.

Read next

Return-to-work plans · Workplace Health Provision · The Workplace Health System

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