Overview
There are a number of reasons you may need to block a permanent or bank staff member from picking up shifts — for example, if their visa, DBS, or insurance has expired, or if they are suspended or on long-term leave.
When a staff member is blocked:
They cannot pick up any shifts going forwards.
Their upcoming shifts will either be moved to open shifts or cancelled — you choose which when blocking.
On the Florence Go app, the worker will see that they have been blocked and will be prompted to contact their manager with any questions.
Blocking is fully reversible — you can unblock a staff member at any time.
How to Block a Staff Member
Navigate to Staff > My Staff.
Search for and open the relevant staff member's profile.
Scroll to the bottom of their profile and click the Block button.
A confirmation panel will appear. Complete the following:
Reason for blocking — enter a reason (e.g. "Long-term parental leave", "DBS expired"). This is recorded against the profile.
What to do with upcoming shifts — choose to either move shifts to open (so they can be picked up by other staff) or cancel the shifts.
Click Block to confirm.
Once blocked, a banner will appear at the top of the staff member's profile showing the block reason and the date the block was applied. The block takes effect from that day onwards.
What You'll See on the Rota
After blocking a staff member, their profile will show as blocked on the rota view. You will not be able to assign new shifts to them while they are blocked.
If you copy shifts from a previous week that included the blocked staff member, those shifts will automatically be added as open shifts rather than being assigned to them.
How to Unblock a Staff Member
When the reason for the block is resolved — for example, a staff member has provided a valid right-to-work document or updated DBS — you can remove the block.
Navigate to Staff > My Staff.
Search for and open the staff member's profile.
Click the Unblock button at the top of their profile.
The block is removed immediately and the staff member can pick up shifts again as normal.
Audit Log
All block and unblock actions are recorded in the audit log on the staff member's profile. This gives you a full history of when a block was applied, the reason given, and when it was removed — useful for compliance and HR record-keeping purposes.
To view the audit log, open the staff member's profile and navigate to the Audit Log tab.
What's Next
Blocking is the first step in Florence's broader compliance workflow. In future, expired documents and compliance checks will be used to prompt you to block workers automatically — helping you stay on top of compliance without manual monitoring. For now, you can view expired documents in the Expired Documents section and check compliance status within individual company profiles.