Do I need to include evidence with my PMC form?
Do I need to include evidence with my PMC form?
Answer
Wherever you can, it is best to provide evidence to support your PMC request, but we recognise that this is not always possible. There are two types of PMC request: a self-certification request and an evidence-based request.
Self-certification is a way of reporting personal mitigating circumstances of up to seven consecutive days arising from unanticipated circumstances where it is not reasonably possible to obtain independent third-party evidence such as
- you have experienced a period of short-term acute illness for which attendance at a doctor is not advised or possible;
- you have had unexpected caring responsibilities;
- you have been affected by a bereavement;
- experiencing a traumatic incident as a result of a protected characteristic, for example the stress or weather effect brought about as a result of racial discrimination or harassment.
You can only use a self certification PMC once during an academic year, so you need to think very carefully about when you use this. Where you have evidence to support your request, you may wish to consider submitting an evidence based PMC request so that you leave the option of a self-certification request open to use, if needed, at a later stage and where it is not possible to obtain evidence.
If you need to submit an evidence-based PMC, further examples of evidence that may support your circumstances can be found here