Agenda item - Sickness Absence Update Report

Agenda item

Sickness Absence Update Report

Minutes:

The Head of Business Transformation and Organisational Development and the Human Resources and Development Manager presented the Sickness Absence Update Report and in so doing highlighted the following areas for Members’ consideration:

 

·                The report framework had been amended, as requested the last time the Board had considered the report, to focus on sickness absence rates for Bromsgrove staff only and to provide a breakdown of absences per service area.

·                Across all shared services there was a sickness absence rate of 5.76.

·                The sickness absence rate for Bromsgrove staff alone was 2.44.

·                The sickness absence levels for both Bromsgrove and the shared services were significantly lower than the national average.

·                The main causes of sickness absence were listed as “other” and “stress” related.

·                The causes of stress related absences could be due to personal circumstances, working conditions or a mixture of the 2 and varied between people.

·                The Council had invested in the Employee Assistance programme and staff using the programme could access useful support.

·                Sickness absence data was updated on the dashboard on a regular basis.

 

Following presentation of the report Members discussed a number of points in detail:

 

·                The significant number of causes of sickness absence listed as “other”.  The Board was informed that the choice of category for the report was influenced by options available on relevant Council systems.

·                The value of identifying sickness absences caused by working conditions.

·                The difficulty of reaching conclusions based on monthly data.

·                The need to reflect on sickness absence days per person in recognition of the differing sizes of teams across the organisation.

·                The differences in rates of sickness absence between departments and the potential causes of this.

·                The number of staff listed for Environmental Services.  Members were advised that these numbers reflected the Council’s role as host authority for the shared service.

·                The difficulties of calculating sickness absence rates per authority in a shared services environment.  The Board was advised that staff divided their time between partner organisations as and where required.

·                The focus on sickness absence for full time equivalent (fte) staff, taking into account part-time workers and job share arrangements.

·                The extent to which the Council was confident that the sickness absence figures provided were an accurate reflection of sickness levels, given the relatively low rate of absences compared to the national average.  Officers confirmed that the accuracy of these figures was dependent on compliance within teams with Council policies.

·                Plans within the Council to introduce a new electronic system which would make it easier to report sickness absences.

·                The length of sickness absence classified as long-term.  Members were informed that the Council treated absences of over 28 days as long-term sickness absence.

·                The role of the manager in cases of sickness absence. The Board was advised that the employee had to contact their manager on the first and third days.  After 7 days had passed the employee and manager would agree a process for maintaining contact, though after a month had passed the manager needed to visit the employee.

·                The recording of sickness absence data for auditing purposes.

 

RESOLVED that future Sickness Absence Update reports provide data across all shared services, excluding Housing Services.

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