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Video: Top 10 HR/employment law tips for GP practices and primary care providers

This webinar was designed specifically for Practice Managers and Partners in GP practices and primary care providers, who have responsibility for managing employee relations.

GP practices or primary care providers often do not have a dedicated HR professional function. The responsibility for people issues usually falls on the Practice Manager and/or the Partners who may not have had relevant training. Dealing with employees and formal processes can cause stress through the uncertainty and concern that if the matter is not dealt with appropriately this will cause a potential liability in the form of an Employment Tribunal claim. However, employment law does not always need to be difficult and most issues with employees can often be resolved quickly and simply with some basic knowledge.

In this webinar we provide some simple and practical tips on how to deal with the most common employment law related issues we are asked on a day to day basis. We want to help demystify the risks and give you the confidence to tackle such issues in the future.

The session covers the following topics:

  1. The importance of the recruitment process – making sure you are legally compliant and what are the risks of not. Can candidates bring tribunal claims?
  2. Consideration of why contracts of employment are crucial to the employment relationship and what do they need to include?
  3. What is a policy in comparison to a contract – and why do I need them?
  4. Why is it so important to use probationary periods properly and effectively?
  5. Is it is fine to dismiss an employee if they have worked for you for less than 2 years without any risk of a tribunal claim?
  6. How do we deal with sickness absence problems? Do we need to treat short-term absences differently to long-term absences?
  7. Do you always have to carry out a formal disciplinary meeting when considering whether an employee has committed misconduct?
  8. An employee has raised a grievance about a colleague, do we have to have a formal grievance hearing or can we resolve it informally?
  9. If we have concerns about an employee’s performance should we be dealing with that through our disciplinary procedures?
  10. Do I have to give a former employee a reference?

Our speakers between them have over 40 years of experience of advising clients on healthcare employment related matters and have defended hundreds of Employment Tribunal claims. They act for numerous primary care providers and in particular GP practices. Through speaking to their clients, they understand the significant strain that practices in particular have been placed under because of the impact of Covid-19 on top of the pressure from the increasing complexities of regulatory and legal compliance both in terms of the services they offer to patients but also in relation to their employees.

The advice they give is specifically tailored to the sector; it is options based, practical and commercially sensible. Above all, the team are approachable and supportive.

Watch here

You can find a copy of the slides here.

Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.

This page may contain links that direct you to third party websites. We have no control over and are not responsible for the content, use by you or availability of those third party websites, for any products or services you buy through those sites or for the treatment of any personal information you provide to the third party.

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Stuart Craig

Partner | Employment

+44 (0) 330 137 3163

+44 (0)785 092 8013

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Caroline Shafar

Partner | Employment

+44 (0) 330 137 3188

+44 (0) 770 401 7178

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James English

Director | Employment

+44 (0) 330 137 3162

+44 (0) 770 130 9588

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Mark McKeever

Managing Associate | Employment

+44 (0) 330 137 3155

+44 (0)773 846 2151

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