Report for: Cabinet Date of meeting: 26th July 2011
PART: 1
If Part II, reason:
Title of report: Review of Sickness Absence Management Policy and Procedure
Contact: Cllr Brian Ayling – Portfolioholder for Performance and Service Improvement
Author/Responsible Officers:
Janice Milsom – Assistant Director (Strategy and Transformation)
Matthew Rawdon – HR – Team Leader
Purpose of report: To seek the Cabinet’s approval of the recommended amendments to the Council’s Sickness Absence Management Policy and Procedures, resulting from the conclusions drawn by the Sickness Absence Task and Finish Group.
Recommendations 1. That Cabinet recommend Council to approve the recommended changes to the Council’s Sickness Absence Management Policy and Procedures as explained in the report and set out in full in Annex B. 2. That Cabinet recommend Council to approve the
setting up of pilot areas to test the application of the ‘Stuck not Sick’ principles and procedure, as outlined in the report and set out in full in Annex C.
Corporate objectives:
Dacorum Delivers – the reduction and effective management of sickness absence contributes to the reputation of the Council and its overall efficiency.
Implications: Financial None
AGENDA ITEM: 10
‘Value For Money Implications’
Value for Money
Reducing sickness absence contributes to the Council ensuring that the services it provides represent ‘value for money’.
Risk Implications None. Equalities
Implications
Equality Impact Assessment reviewed on 22nd June 2011 and attached (Annex D).
Health And Safety Implications None. Monitoring Officer/S.151 Officer Comments Monitoring Officer:
The Monitoring Officer’s comments have been incorporated into the report.
Deputy S.151 Officer
The cost implications of the changes outlined in the report are minimal. There are no further S151 Officer comments
Consultees: • Sickness Absence Task and Finish Group
• Finance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee
• Corporate Management Team • JNC
• Group Managers and Team Leaders • HR team
• All recognised Trade Unions Background
papers:
Annex A: Terms of Reference for Sickness Absence Task and Finish Group
Annex B: Revised Council Absence Management Policy and Procedures
Annex C: ‘Stuck not Sick’ – Policy and Procedure (for pilot) Annex D: Equalities Impact Assessment
1 BACKGROUND
1.1 At the request of Members, a Task and Finish group was set up in December 2010, to look at sickness absence management levels and procedures across the Council. The group was established in response to concerns expressed by Members that although sickness absence levels were reducing, it was important to continually ensure that all possible mechanisms for improvement were regularly examined. Also to ensure that any recommended changes to the policy and procedures would prevent any inconsistent application across directorates.
1.2. The Terms of Reference for the group are attached as Annex A. The group examined a wide range of data relating to sickness absence best practice and, as a result of this, recommended a range of additions to the Council’s current policy and procedure. These recommendations are outlined in section 2 of this report.
1.3 The current Sickness Absence Management Policy and Procedures were last fully reviewed in 2008, although some minor updating has taken place in the interim period.
1.4 Additionally, comments discussed at the JNC meeting on March 14th have been taken into account by the Task and Finish group in making their recommendations for updating the current policy and procedure documents.
1.5 Sickness absence levels at the Council have been gradually reducing over the past 4 years: from 11.42 days per FTE in 2007/8 to 8.3 days per FTE in 2010/11. It is important to keep momentum going to ensure that this continues to decline.
1.6 The main areas examined related to consistency in dealing with: • Short term, frequent absence
• Long term absence
1.7 The outturn figure for sickness absence is 8.3 days absence per full time equivalent employee. The annual target for 2010/11 was 8.9 days and the target has been fully achieved. Sickness levels are lower than the nationally reported public sector average of 9.6 days.
2 RECOMMENDED REVISIONS TO THE POLICY
2.1 Following several meetings of the Task and Finish group and detailed discussions with consultees, a number of recommendations (2.4 to 2.7) were made by the group as amendments to the current policy and procedure. These comments have been incorporated into the recommendations.
2.2 It should be noted, that due to the very nature of illness, there will always be a degree of flexibility for managers within the policy, but that any variations should be properly interpreted, in discussion with HR staff, to ensure consistency.
2.3 The complete and amended policy is attached as Annex B. 2.4 The introduction of a First Call Checklist for Managers:
A First Call Checklist to be created for managers to use on the first day that an employee calls in sick and to be inserted as an appendix to the policy (Appendix6 in Sickness Absence Management Policy and
Procedure)
2.5 The routine setting of Attendance Targets:
Where sickness absence is an issue, attendance targets are set for staff to achieve, these are currently optional. Mandatory, rather than optional, attendance targets now to be set for all employees who hit a trigger point and have already taken over 9 days sickness absence within the past 12 months, or 18 days within the past 12 months if the employee falls under the Disability Discrimination Act (Annex B – p11 – 43 (iv). The targets proposed are:
• no more than 4 working days recorded as sickness absence in 6 months; and
• for staff who are registered under Disability Discrimination Act, the attendance target to be set at no more than 8 working days in 6 months
The following types of absence will not count towards sickness absence attendance triggers:
i. Maternity leave or pregnancy related illness ii. Absence due to bereavement
iii. Parental/dependant leave
iv. Hospital medical day appointments
v. Absence due to an operation (this is a new addition to the policy, and requested by Unite)
vi. Recovery from an operation at hospital or at home (this is a new addition to the policy, and requested by Unite) vii. Paternity leave
viii. Discretionary leave authorised by the manager. 2.6 The withholding of Occupational Sick Pay:
For occupational sick pay to be withheld for staff who do not achieve their attendance target and consequently receive a formal written warning, or a final written warning. The occupational sick pay will be withheld for length of the warning validity i.e. 12 months for a warning and 24 months for a final written warning.
This is currently stated as ‘optional’ and has led to inconsistency of application across directorates.
2.7 Referral to Occupational Health:
Staff who are off sick for longer than 4 weeks, or more than twice in 6
current policy this is an option open to managers, but it is not always consistently applied.
Disciplinary action to be taken against staff who fail to attend a pre arranged Occupational Health appointment without a valid explanation. This is not specified in the current policy.
To make better use of Occupational Health, Occupational Health Guidelines to be drafted within the policy to inform managers and staff of their role in supporting DBC in managing absence (see Appendix
9). This was a request made by the JNC.
3 TRAINING FOR MANAGERS
Managers to be provided with a detailed summary of all of the actions available to them to manage sickness and this to be supplemented by ongoing compulsory training.
4 TO PILOT A ‘STUCK NOT SICK’ PRINCIPLE (ANNEX C), IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE CURRENT SICKNESS ABSENCE POLICY This principle is already working successfully at other local authorities and complements flexible working arrangements but does not replace them. It would allow employees taking part in the pilot to take ‘stuck’ hours and repay them within an agreed time frame. A pilot will enable managers to give their views on whether this policy principle could be applied to the whole workforce, bearing in mind frontline service operations. The pilot, if approved, would run in a range of service areas, both frontline and back-office for a period of 6 months.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. That the Cabinet approve the recommended changes to the Council’s Sickness Absence Management Policy and Procedures (Annex B).
2. That the Cabinet approve the setting up of pilot areas to test the application of the ‘Stuck not Sick’ principles, as outlined in this paper (Annex C).
