Bradford Factor Software UK | Equality-Safe Absence Management Post-SSP Reform

Absence management that holds up - when SSP reform is making it harder.

Bradford Factor scoring done properly - five tiers across the business, schedule-aware pattern detection, exclusion categories and per-employee threshold multipliers for the Equality Act 2010, a wellbeing-first gate before any disciplinary route, and return-to-work interviews with a protected-characteristic question. Time Clock no-shows feed the score automatically, so the picture you act on is the picture today, not last quarter's spreadsheet.

Eight problems paper bradford factor & absence management keep causing.

Each one costs UK operators hours, ratings, insurance excess or worse. Each one disappears when the bradford factor & absence management becomes digital.

The 2026 SSP reform - Day-1 pay and the removal of the Lower Earnings Limit - has pushed short absences and SSP costs up.

Cost:Single-day absences that used to be unpaid are now paid from hour one, the cost lands on the rota and the operator, and the spreadsheet that tracked absences before isn't fit for the new reality.

Fixed:A live Bradford Factor across every employee and site - short absences scored properly, costs surfaced in reporting, patterns spotted while they still mean something - built for the world where Day 1 counts.

Bradford Factor calculated by hand in a spreadsheet - formula wrong, rolling period drifting, thresholds inconsistent across managers.

Cost:One employee at 200 gets a conversation, another at 250 gets nothing, and when someone challenges a decision you can't show the maths.

Fixed:The Bradford formula (S² × D) calculated against a configurable rolling period for every employee, with a business-wide tier-and-colour heatmap (Low / Medium / High / Very High / Critical) so the picture is one number and one rule, not eleven branch interpretations.

A capability discussion turns into an Equality Act claim because a disability-related absence was treated like any other.

Cost:A tribunal you should have settled, a compensation award you can't budget for, and a reputational hit you can't undo.

Fixed:Exclusion categories built in - Disability, Pregnancy, Work Injury, Bereavement and a manager-discretion category - with excluded spells removed from the score, per-employee threshold multipliers as a reasonable adjustment (so a disability-related employee's thresholds are scaled, not their score hidden), and a protected-characteristic question built into every return-to-work interview.

A pattern - the post-rest-day cluster, the always-on-a-Monday, the absences right before a peak period - is invisible until it's obvious.

Cost:By the time the manager can name the pattern, good colleagues are demoralised and the conversation is already overdue.

Fixed:Schedule-aware pattern detection - post-rest-day, pre-rest-day, peak-period, shift-type, position/location, bank-holiday-adjacent, seasonal and schedule-change patterns - surfaced with a confidence score, compared to a peer baseline of staff on similar schedules, advisory only and never an auto-action.

Return-to-work interviews are skipped because no-one has a template, time, or the right questions.

Cost:The legal protected-characteristic question never gets asked, occupational health is never offered, and there's no record when one is needed.

Fixed:Configurable return-to-work templates with a built-in Q5 protected-characteristic question (disability or pregnancy linkage), a fit-for-work decision, adjustments captured with a duration, follow-up scheduling, and a scanned form attached if it had to be done on paper.

A no-show happens at the Time Clock and HR finds out three weeks later.

Cost:The Bradford score is stale, the conversation never happens, and the next no-show is the second one before anyone knows.

Fixed:Time Clock no-shows are detected automatically against the published rota, an absence record is created, the Bradford score is recalculated and any threshold action is fired - hands-free, next day, with the source flagged so a genuine reason can correct it.

A disciplinary route starts before any wellbeing check, because no system enforces the order.

Cost:A tribunal asks why occupational health wasn't offered, why an EAP referral wasn't made, and the case falls over.

Fixed:A wellbeing-first gate enforced in code - when the Bradford tier would trigger informal or formal review, the action is overridden to a wellbeing check first, and the disciplinary route is unblocked only when that check is completed and recorded.

The board asks what absence actually costs this quarter and what the protected exclusions look like, and you can't answer.

Cost:No defensible report, no number for the cost line, and a question that quietly stays unanswered.

Fixed:A compliance dashboard with the counts that matter - excluded spells by reason, flagged-but-unreviewed spells, reasonable adjustments due for review, return-to-work interviews where the protected-characteristic question was answered "Yes" - and a PDF export for the audit folder.

Bradford done right - fair, defensible, and built for the new SSP reality.

AssistantManagerHQ Bradford Factor is two things at once. It is built for 2026 SSP reform - short absences cost money from Day 1 now, the Lower Earnings Limit is gone, and the spreadsheet that tracked absences before is no longer fit for purpose. And it is equality-safe by design - exclusion categories for protected absences, per-employee threshold multipliers as a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010, a wellbeing-first gate enforced in code before any disciplinary route, and the protected-characteristic question built into the return-to-work interview. The Time Clock feeds it automatically. The schedule informs the patterns. And the compliance dashboard gives you the numbers a tribunal - or a board - actually asks for.

From the missed shift to the right conversation - automatically.

STEP 01

Detect

A Time Clock no-show against the published rota becomes an absence automatically, with the source recorded so a genuine reason can correct it.

STEP 02

Score

The Bradford Factor recalculates with the new spell, against the configurable rolling period, with any protected exclusions and reasonable-adjustment thresholds applied.

STEP 03

Gate

If the new tier would trigger a formal route, the wellbeing-first gate overrides it to a wellbeing check - discipline is blocked until that check is completed.

STEP 04

Interview & evidence

The return-to-work interview captures the protected-characteristic question, fit-for-work, adjustments and follow-up; the compliance dashboard shows the audit summary and exports the PDF.

Why managed absence beats a spreadsheet that nobody trusts.

A spreadsheet, a copy of the rota and a guess

Bradford done by hand - formula errors, rolling period drift.
Protected absences treated like any other; Equality Act risk.
Patterns spotted late, by the manager who sat across from them.
A no-show at the Time Clock that takes weeks to land in HR.
Discipline starts before anyone offers a wellbeing check.
No report for the board, no audit for a tribunal.

AssistantManagerHQ Bradford Factor

One Bradford score per employee, one rule, one heatmap.
Exclusion categories and reasonable-adjustment thresholds built in.
Nine schedule-aware pattern types with confidence scores.
Time Clock no-shows fed into the score automatically.
A hard wellbeing-first gate before any disciplinary route.
Compliance dashboard + PDF export for the audit folder.

Everything absence management needs, nothing it doesn't.

Bradford Factor (S² × D)

Calculated against a configurable rolling period, business-wide and per-employee.

Five-tier heatmap

Low / Medium / High / Very High / Critical across every employee, with drill-down.

Per-employee trajectory

Score history charted over time with a 'if one more spell' predictive card.

Schedule-aware patterns

Post/pre-rest-day, peak-period, shift, location, bank-holiday, seasonal and schedule-change.

AI insights, advisory only

Confidence-scored natural-language patterns; acknowledged by a human, never auto-disciplinary.

Exclusion categories

Disability, Pregnancy, Work Injury, Bereavement and manager discretion - removed from the score.

Reasonable adjustments

Per-employee threshold multipliers or custom tiers, with reason and review date.

Wellbeing-first gate

Hard block: no disciplinary route until a wellbeing check is recorded.

Five intervention types

Wellbeing check, informal conversation, OH referral, EAP referral, GP referral.

RTW templates & interviews

Custom templates with the protected-characteristic question; PDF/scanned-form upload.

Time Clock auto-feed

No-shows detected against the rota; score and triggers fire automatically.

Compliance dashboard & PDF

Excluded-spells counts, flagged unreviewed, adjustments due, RTW Q5=Yes, export.

Every capability, organised by how you'll use them.

Skim the themes on the left, or scroll the full set. Each capability surfaces the specific frustration it removes and a real-world use case.

Scoring

Bradford Factor calculated the way it should be

One formula across the business - B = S² × D (spells squared times total days lost) - calculated against a configurable rolling period (default 52 weeks) for every employee. A five-tier heatmap colours the business view (Low green / Medium yellow / High orange / Very High red / Critical dark red) and a per-tier action is configured (none / wellbeing check / informal review / formal review). Snapshots are written every night for trending, and the score recalculates on every dashboard view so the number you act on is the number now.

Use caseA multi-site operator sees the same Bradford rule applied to 220 employees across 14 sites, with the same colour and the same action threshold - one definition of "out of range", not eleven.

Per-employee detail, trajectory and prediction

Open an employee and you see the score breakdown (the number of spells, the total days, the formula and the rolling window), the tier and recommended action, a score trajectory chart over time (12 months / 5 years / 10 years / all, scaled to tenure), the absence spells timeline with exclusion flags, any active reasonable adjustment with its multiplier and review date, and a predictive card - "if one more spell, the score would be X and the tier would be Y" - so the conversation happens before the threshold is crossed, not after.

Use caseA manager sees a colleague at the top of the Medium band, two days from rolling out the oldest spell, and chooses to wait for the natural fall rather than open a formal route.

Equality

Exclusion categories for protected absences

Absences can be flagged into exclusion categories - Disability, Pregnancy, Work Injury, Bereavement and a manager-discretion category - with the reason recorded. Excluded spells are removed from both S and D before the formula runs, so a disability-related absence does not count against a Bradford threshold the same way a cold does. Categorisation is reviewed per spell rather than blind-mapped from a free-text reason, so the workflow is auditable and the decision is human.

Use caseA care worker has a recurring absence pattern linked to a chronic condition; the manager reviews each spell, applies the Disability exclusion with a reason, and the Bradford score reflects the absences not protected by law.

Reasonable adjustments - per-employee threshold multipliers

A reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010 is not "ignore the absences" - it is "apply a different threshold". Set a per-employee threshold multiplier (e.g. 1.5×, 2×) or a fully custom tier set, with a required reason and a review date, and the formula stays the same - only the tier boundaries move. The score is visible and unchanged; the trigger threshold is adjusted. That is the legally defensible posture: thresholds scaled, scores never hidden - and the review-date alert means the adjustment is revisited, not forgotten.

The protected-characteristic question, built into return-to-work

Every return-to-work template carries Q5 - "is this absence linked to a disability, pregnancy or other protected characteristic?" - by default, alongside fit-for-work, adjustments needed (with a duration), follow-up scheduling, manager notes and employee comments. When Q5 is answered Yes, the spell is flagged for protected-characteristic review on the compliance dashboard. The question that a tribunal would expect to see asked, is asked - every time.

Pattern detection — advisory, never disciplinary

Schedule-aware pattern detection

Patterns are detected against the actual rota, not a Monday-to-Friday assumption - so a hospitality kitchen porter on a four-on-three-off rotation is analysed against their real working week, and an absence rate is normalised by scheduled shifts, not calendar days. Nine pattern types are surfaced - post-rest-day, pre-rest-day, peak-period, shift-type, position/location, bank-holiday-adjacent, seasonal, schedule-change and general - with a confidence score out of 100 and a comparison to a peer baseline of staff on similar schedules.

Use caseAn employee is flagged with a 78% confidence post-rest-day pattern; a 1-to-1 surfaces a childcare clash that's resolved with a small shift swap, not a formal route.

AI insights - advisory, never automatic

A weekly AI-insight job generates natural-language summaries of an employee's pattern data alongside the structured detections - with the same confidence score displayed - and a reviewer acknowledges them with their name and time. AI insights never trigger a disciplinary action automatically; they make the manager's pre-conversation smarter, no more. Where the AI is unavailable, the structured pattern detections continue.

Wellbeing

A wellbeing-first gate, enforced in code

When a Bradford tier would trigger an informal or formal review action, the platform checks whether a wellbeing check has already been completed. If it hasn't, the action is overridden to a wellbeing check first - a hard logical block, not a soft reminder. The disciplinary route only unblocks when that wellbeing check is recorded. Duty of care is not a policy paragraph; it is the order of events the system enforces.

Use caseAn employee crosses the threshold; the manager opens what they expected to be an informal review - and the platform routes them to schedule a wellbeing check first, which is then recorded and unlocks the next step.

Five intervention types and a follow-up loop

Wellbeing isn't a single conversation. Schedule a wellbeing check, an informal conversation, an occupational health referral, an EAP referral or a GP referral, with outcome notes, a follow-up required flag, a follow-up date and follow-up notes, and a record of any onward referral with its type and date. The pattern of who has been offered what - and what is overdue - is on the wellbeing dashboard, not on a Post-it.

Return-to-work interviews that meet the law

Configure your own return-to-work templates - sections of questions, types (text, yes/no), the protected-characteristic Q5 by default - and conduct an interview against a specific absence spell, capturing dynamic question responses, fit-for-work, adjustments needed with a duration, follow-up, manager notes and employee comments. If it had to be done on paper, upload the scanned form (PDF) and it's on the record. Templates and completed interviews each export to PDF.

Cross-module integrations

Time Clock no-shows feed Bradford automatically

The Time Clock and the rota are the same platform as Bradford, so a published shift with no clock-in is a no-show the system can see. A scheduled job detects no-shows against yesterday's rota, creates an absence record with the source flagged as AUTO_NOSHOW, groups it into a spell, recalculates the Bradford score synchronously and fires any threshold action in the same job run. From a missed shift to an updated score and an alert is automatic, next-day - not three weeks and a chase.

One record across HR, the rota and Bradford

Raw absences live on the employee's HR record (date, time, reason, attachments, return-to-work basics), the rota informs the pattern detection (post/pre-rest-day, shift-type, schedule-change all use real shift data), and Bradford reads both. The person on the rota, the person being scored and the person you'll have a wellbeing conversation with are one record - entered once, scored consistently, reviewed safely.

Compliance

A compliance dashboard that answers the audit

A dedicated compliance dashboard tracks the counts a board or an ICO/tribunal will ask for - excluded spells by reason (Disability / Pregnancy / Work Injury / Bereavement / Manager Discretion), flagged but unreviewed protected-characteristic spells, reasonable adjustments due for review, return-to-work interviews where Q5 was answered Yes, and the rolling-period context. The summary is on screen; the PDF export is for the audit folder. (This is summary-level compliance logging, not a per-decision granular audit trail.)

Settings that match how you actually manage absence

Configure the rolling period (default 52 weeks), the five tiers with their score bands, colours and action types, the wellbeing-check threshold, the wellbeing-check-before-disciplinary hard-gate toggle (default on), the auto-detect from no-show toggle, and the default return-to-work template. The platform follows your policy; you don't bend yours to fit a vendor's defaults.