Agenda item

This report presents the final report arising from the Sickness Absence Management scrutiny review at Appendix 1.  It asks Cabinet to note the work on the scrutiny review, endorse the implementation of the recommendations by HR and where appropriate, approve the remaining recommendations arising from the review. Members of the Task Group will be in attendance to present the report and answer any questions.

RESOLVED:       That Cabinet agree to endorse the  recommendations already implemented by HR and approve the remaining Recommendations arising from this review, as shown in paragraph 7 of the report.

REASON:           To conclude the Scrutiny Review in line with CYC Scrutiny procedures and protocols.

Consideration was given to a report which set out the recommendations arising from the Sickness Absence Scrutiny Review, with a copy of the full final report at Appendix 1.

Councillor Steward was in attendance to present the report as a member of the Task Group. He advised that the review had been long running and many issues with staff sickness data had been resolved with the introduction of iTrent. However, some work on policies still needed to be undertaken.

Consideration was then given to the following recommendations:

i.     The Council’s policy be rewritten as two separate documents – one to be a short, clear and succinct policy for employees, and one to be a separate guide for managers.

ii.    Both documents be written in a clear, assertive and more formal language.

iii.   Both new documents incorporate the amendments identified in Annexes A & B of final report, as appropriate.

iv.  Mandatory training on absence management to be introduced for managers e.g. through the introduction of an eLearning package and use of Team Talk.

v.   HR should consider the one off purchase of an online training package for managers in an effort to reduce Health Nurse training costs.

vi.  Mandatory induction for new staff should be introduced.

vii.Manager’s should be held accountable for employees in their team failing to attend Occupational Health appointments without an appropriate reason, and the number of missed appointments should be reported to the Corporate Joint Consultative Committee.

viii.Managers should report quarterly to DMT on absence figures.

viii.               HR should look at positive ways of promoting good attendance, e.g. recognition for those employees who have no or low rates of absence e.g. letter from Chief Executive, Xtra Factor Award. 

ix.  Two HR officers should be designated as ‘GO TO’ officers (see 4^th bullet point in paragraph 49 of final report).

x.   CYC’s Counselling Services should be re-publicised.

xi.  Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee should re-visit the question of how best to create a change in culture once the revised policy and change to working practices had been embedded throughout the organisation.

The Chair thanked the Task Group members for their work on this review and it was:

RESOLVED:       That Cabinet agree to endorse the  recommendations already implemented by HR and approve the remaining recommendations arising from this review, as shown in paragraph 7 of the report. ¹

REASON:           To conclude the Scrutiny Review in line with CYC Scrutiny procedures and protocols.