Agenda item

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

Paula Maginnis, the Assistant Director (Human Resources) introduced the sickness absence report for quarters 1 and 2. It was noted that the Council’s target for sickness absence for 2015/16 was an average of 7 days per employee. The outturn figure for 2014/15 was an average of 9.2 days per employee. This put the council above its target for the first time in 4 years. This year, although still running above target the figures were slightly better than this time last year. It was also noted that the 2015 Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) report stated that a number of organisations (not just in the public sector) reported that they had seen an increase in stress related absence and mental health problems. Although minor illness accounts for most short term absence whereas acute conditions such as stress, musculoskeletal, mental health and back pain are the most common reasons for long term absences. The council reflected these findings.

It was worth noting that according to Mind (the mental health charity) in some instances staff report that they are absent due to musculoskeletal problems rather than mental health reasons. Individuals can experience back and other musculoskeletal pain when suffering from mental health issues. However, in all cases it seems that there were no underlying mental health issues for those recording this reason as sickness absence.

The number of days taken due to mental health issues had increased significantly from 2013 to 2015. This may be due to internal factors such as change within the authority, there has been a number of directorate/team reorganisations or that mental health issues have lost some of its stigma and staff are more comfortable  recording their absence correctly.

As part of the improvement plan HR will arrange workshops for managers on mental health issues. The first four of a number of workshops have been arranged for December and it would be mandatory for all managers to attend. The Council was also working with ‘Rethink’, a mental health charity and Vine HR to arrange these sessions.

Councillor Bedford asked if there would be feedback forms from these sessions. He was told that this was done for all training sessions. These sessions have also been previously piloted and improved where necessary for our use.

Councillor Watson commented that 2013 was the last good year for sickness levels. Was it unrealistic to hark back to this target, it may now settle down at a different level. Ms Maginnis replied that they were doing a lot of training with managers and were also looking to do something different in the future, such as attending team meetings and speaking to staff directly. It should be noted that the Council did start out at a high level of 10 days average when the national average was 8. They were looking to bring it down to this level eventually.

Councillor Patel asked if return to work interviews were conducted. He was told that they were, for every absence.

RESOLVED:

That the Select Committee noted the report on sickness absences.