Agenda item

(Director of Resources) To consider the attached report (FPM-006-2015/16).

The Director of Resources presented a report regarding Sickness Absence. The latest figures published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) for 2014 showed that the average number of days taken as sickness absence across all sectors was 7.4. In public services it was 8.2 days and 6.6 days in the private sector. In local government the figure was an average of 8 days. The Council was currently above these figures. The report provided information on the Council’s absence figures for Q3 and Q4, 2014/2015 and included absence figures by Directorate, the number of employees who had met the trigger level, those who had more than 4 weeks absence and the reasons for absence. 

The Council’s target for sickness absence under KPI10 for 2014/2015 was an average of 7 days per employee.  The outturn figure for 2014/2015 was an average of 9.20 days per employee. At 9.20 days the Council was above target for the first time in 4 years. The Council outturn figure for Q3 (2014/15) was 2.30 days against a target of 1.77 days and Q4 (2014/15) was 2.69 days against a target of 2.18. During Q3, 6.6% of staff met the trigger levels or above, 30.4% had sickness absence but did not meet the triggers and 63% had no absence at all.  During Q4, 6.6% of staff met the trigger levels or above, 32.4% had sickness absence but did not meet the trigger levels and 61% had no absence.

Under the Council’s Managing Absence Policy there were trigger levels for initiating management action in cases of excessive sickness absence. These were:

(i)   during any ‘rolling’ twelve-month period an employee has had 5 or more separate occasions of absence; or

(ii)  during any ‘rolling’ twelve-month period an employee has had at least 8 working days of any combination of un/self certificated, or medically certificated absences.

In addition to the above, a manager should consider referring an employee to Occupational Health when an employee had been absent from work for at least one month if there was no estimate when they would be fit to return, or if this was unlikely to be within a reasonable period.

The Director of Resources advised that the Council had an aging workforce which could account for the increase in the number of days taken for other musclo-skeletal problems (the period had not include staff absence for operations and recuperation time) and there was an increase of flu and the Norovirus within the general population before and after the Christmas period, which could account for the increased number of days taken and number of staff off for infections and gastric problems during Q3 and Q4.  The number of days taken due to mental health issues had increased significantly from 2013 to 2015.

The Director Resources advised that the report had been discussed in detail by the Council’s Management Board which agreed the following actions;

(1)              The Assistant Director (HR) to carry out further analysis on the increase in the number of days taken for mental health issues;

(2)              HR would arrange mandatory workshops for managers to ensure that the Council’s Managing Absence Policy was applied consistently and timely across the authority. In addition, managers would be encouraged to become proactive when managing absence;

(3)  HR would arrange workshops for managers on mental health issues;

(4)  HR would work with Directors to produce the most useful management information regarding sickness absence; and

(5)  The Assistant Director (HR) to meet with the Council’s Occupational Health provider regarding the information provided to managers by their doctors.

In addition to the above an article on the Council’s sickness absence position would be published in District Lines.

The Cabinet Committee suggested that posture could also be looked into, in connection with musclo-skeletal problems.

Resolved:

(1)        That the report on sickness absence be noted.

Reasons for Decision:

To enable members to make decisions regarding actions to continue to improve the Council’s absence figures.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

For future reports the Committee may wish to include other information or receive no further information.