Employment law, health and safety, wellbeing support

We know that looking after patients will be your top priority. But if you manage or own a practice, looking after your staff will be just as important.

As a principal or corporate member of the DDU, your membership includes unlimited free access to an employment law helpline provided by Peninsula, a leading provider of employment law and health and safety services in the UK.

And principals in our practice scheme GROUPCARE, as well as our corporate members, get the added benefit of unlimited access to a health and safety helpline.

Need more than advice?

We can offer you great savings on further support from Peninsula. Scroll down for more info on their employment law and health and safety essentials packages, and their day-rate HR consultancy service, Peninsula HRFace2Face.

Contact an HR expert

Email or call 03301 231 986. Quote DDU001 (MDU002 for corporate) and your membership number.

Email now

Free employment law helpline

Free employment law helpline

There are laws that govern what employers can expect from their employees. They state what an employer can ask an employee to do, and the rights employees have in the workplace.

Through Peninsula, our practice principal and corporate members get free access to an unlimited 24-hour employment law helpline. 

Email now or call 03301 231 986 to get advice on a variety of employment issues. Simply quote DDU001 (MDU002 for corporate clients) and your membership number.

Email now

Free employment law advice includes:

  • Contracts and documentation: template and bespoke letters, flexible working, restrictive covenants.

  • Payroll: expenses, statutory sick pay, PAYE, tax codes, student loan deductions, statutory maternity and paternity.

  • Leave and absence: holidays, sickness, family leave, maternity and paternity leave, emergency leave.

  • Employee relations: bullying and harassment, conduct and capability, data protection.

  • Recruitment: discrimination, agency and temporary staff, references.

  • Termination: resignation, dismissal, redundancy, retirement.

  • Pay and benefits: pensions, holiday pay, pay rises, pay dates.

  • Disciplinaries: grievances, misconduct.

  • Equality: disability, unconscious bias.

Peninsula's Face2Face HR support

Peninsula's Face2Face HR support

Disciplinary? Dismissal? Grievance? Being the boss means making tough decisions. But you don’t have to deal with challenging issues on your own.

As a principal or corporate member you can save 10% on Peninsula Face2Face, a consultancy day-rate service that lets you to connect with a consultant who can visit your premises and discuss your needs.

They can either 'hold or conduct' your meeting, or 'support and assist'. You'll get a full report and recommendations, and afterwards you’ll be given all the legal paperwork to back up your outcome.

Email now or call 03301 231 989 to find out more.

Email now

Employment law essentials

In addition to free 24/7/365 employment law advice, principal and corporate members can upgrade and save up to 20% on Peninsula’s employment law essentials package.

To find out more, members can email or call Peninsula on 03301 231 986. Simply quote DDU001 (MDU002 for corporate clients)and your membership number. The employment law essentials package includes:

Bespoke employment documentation

You'll get an audit and review of your employment files and documentation. This covers all your contracts and employee handbooks.

Bi-weekly employment law e-learning

Each month you'll be sent an email that covers all the latest topical employment law news and legislation changes and you'll get access to unlimited bi-weekly employment law e-learning sessions.

BrightHR

This is an award-winning online employee management tool that allows you to log all employee annual leave, record late attendance, sick leave and absence, view holiday planners and more. You can also enjoy unlimited document storage space to store all your HR documentation. 

With BrightHR you also get access to Bright Exchange, Blip! and PoP.

Bright Exchange

With BrightExchange, you can get your products and services in front of 40,000 businesses completely free.

Blip

Blip! is a contactless clocking app that enables employees to clock in and out of work and gives you real time tracing of staff working hours, breaks and work locations.

PoP

PoP is a proof of purchase business expense tracker that will enable you to say goodbye to piles of receipts and manage employee spend the simple way.

Free health and safety helpline

Icon showing a headset with a circle in the middle with the words 24/7 365

Free health and safety helpline

Failure to safeguard your employees in the workplace could result in work-related injuries, costly claims of negligence and reputational damages.  

Through Peninsula, our practice principal members in a GROUPCARE scheme, and corporate members, get free access to unlimited health and safety advice, 24/7.

Principal members in a GROUPCARE scheme and corporate members can Email now or call 03301 231 986 to get advice on a number of health and safety issues. Quote DDU001 (MDU002 for corporate clients) and your GROUPCARE or membership number.

Email now

Free health and safety advice includes:

  • Workplace safety: home working, night work, social distancing.

  • Management of health and safety: accidents, policies and procedures, fire safety.

  • Occupational health: violence, manual handling, hazardous substances, drug testing.

  • Plant and equipment safety: permits to work, gas supplies and equipment, PPE.

  • Fire and manual handling risk assessment guide.

  • Risk assessment template for COVID-19.

Health and safety essentials

As well asa free 24/7/365 health and safety helpline, principal members in a GROUPCARE scheme and corporate members can upgrade and save up to 20% on Peninsula’s health and safety essentials package.

To find out more, members can email or call Peninsula on 03301 231 986. Simply quote DDU001 (MDU002 for corporate clients) and your GROUPCARE or membership number. The health and safety essentials package includes:

Practice visit

A health and safety expert consultant will visit your practice and help you to identify any potential risks and hazards. They will also give you a report with practical and cost -effective steps on how to remove or reduce them.

Written policies, guidance notes and forms

Written by experts, you'll get health and safety policies, guidance notes and checklists, and forms that will help you to protect your practice staff.

BrightSafe

With BrightSafe you get a complete, easy-to-use, online health and safety management system that:

  • provides hundreds of professional and compliant risk assessment templates
  • records workplace accidents to meet HSE reporting rules and help reduce hazards at work
  • enables you to securely store all your documents online in one place.
CPD accredited e-learning courses

With these CPD accredited e-learning courses, delivered by health and safety experts, you can be confident that your staff are getting the required training they need to stay safe.

Annual review

Each year of your agreement you will get an annual review of your health and safety process and further advice on how to keep your business safe.

Employee health and wellbeing

Employee health and wellbeing

Looking after your staff - and yourself - is as important as looking after patients. 

As well as supporting members with a complaint or a claim, we also offer all our dental and corporate members (and their staff) access to a 24-hour confidential employee wellbeing helpline, where individuals can speak to trained advisers and mental health nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Where to find sources of support

Further support and resources

Webinar

Webinar

Learn more about communicating with challenging people and misconduct in the workplace.

Watch now
e-learning icon

e-learning

Ensure your own wellbeing with our short CPD course on health and wellbeing.

Start now
Book icon

Article

Read three common employment dilemmas and how Peninsula provided support.

Read now
Seminar icon

Advice

Get advice with our free associate contract checking service. Available to both practice owners and associates.

Get advice

GROUPCARE - Unlock practice savings and benefits

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GROUPCARE is our practice scheme. As a GROUPCARE practice you and your dental colleagues can save on individual membership and get access to additional exclusive benefits. It's easy and free to apply and includes:

  • up to 10% saving on membership
  • 50% saving on dental nurse membership
  • free health & safety advice for principals
  • free practice-based dento-legal CPD seminars
  • free practice manager membership
  • dedicated membership support

Find out more about how to set up and access the benefits of GROUPCARE.

 

Case scenarios

Dismissal for stealing

A patient has told me he has reported an employee to the police for stealing from his shot. Should I dismiss them?

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Monday absences

I have noticed that a dental nurse has been regularly off sick on a Monday for several months. The absences are always for different reasons rather than general sicknesses but there are often pictures of them partying on social media the previous weekend. How should I raise this issue with them?

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Changing sick pay entitlements

An employee has been off sick for over three months with anxiety and depression. Contractually, they get full sick pay and I feel they are dragging out their absence. Can I change their sick pay or make them come back to work?

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Dealing with grievances

Two receptionists are refusing to work together after an argument. One has submitted a grievance saying they hate coming into work because they feel excluded. They are known to exaggerate so can I ignore these comments and wait for everything to blow over. I’m sure they’ll be friends again soon.

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Managing redundancies

Due to unavoidable financial pressures on the practice, we can’t afford to keep the same number of staff. We can manage with one receptionist but there are currently three. How do we decide who to keep?

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Maternity entitlements

One of our dental nurses is pregnant. She’s asked me what she is entitled to and what other information I’ll need before she goes on maternity leave. It’s been a long time since we’ve been in this situation so I’m not sure.

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