Issue - meetings

The Board considered the Sickness Absence Performance and Health report for Quarter 4, which included statistics for the 12 month period ended 31st March 2012.  The acting Shared Human Resources & Organisational Development Manager informed Members that a new format for the report had been used which should be more useful and informative; however Members comments and feedback would be welcomed.  It was also the final quarter before the majority of shared services had been put in place.  The movement of staff between sites had presented some difficulties as no comparable data was available, from April 2012 there would be an opportunity for Members to access details of shared services which were not hosted by the Council. 

The following areas were highlighted and discussed by Members:

• A 20% reduction in absence for quarter 4.
• The modifications made to the pie chart used to highlight categories for absence.
• The statistics for the full year 2011/12, which were below the corporate target.
• Seasonal absences and work being done to identify reason for peaks in absences at particular times throughout the year.
• Long term absences compared to short term and the relevance to particular areas of work, for example Environmental Services.
• Targets for 2012/13 and the inclusion of this within the review of sickness reporting. (This would be circulated to the Health & Safety Committee for discussion.)

The Board discussed and the acting Shared Human Resources & Organisational Development Manager responded to questions in respect of the following areas:

• Any established patterns identified in respect of short term sickness absence (particularly in respect of Environmental Services).
• The inclusion of agency staff sickness absences within the figures provided for Environmental Services. (Officers to clarify whether this was the case and if not the reasons for not including this information.)
• The training events which had been held to assist managers in the understanding and dealing with mental health issues in the work place.  The Board were informed that these had been provided by a staff member who was appropriately trained and therefore funded from existing budgets.
• Stress related absences in relation to transformation and other work related issues.
• Members noted that within the pie chart used to highlight categories of absence there was a category classed as “unknown” – the acting Shared Human Resources & Organisational Development Manager agreed to clarify this point.

RESOLVED that the Sickness Absence Performance and Health Quarter 4 Report be noted.