Officers have taken action on this and created a detailed action plan to improve sickness absence performance attached as Appendix 1.

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1 BACKGROUND Measuring and monitoring sickness absence is a requirement of the Audit Commission and is calculated across all local authorities (BVPPI 12 the number of working days/shifts lost due to sickness absence). Recent trends at Dacorum have been disappointing, with an increase in 2006/7 of 1.23 days to an outturn level of days per fte. The target for 2007/8 is 10.2 days per fte. Officers have taken action on this and created a detailed action plan to improve sickness absence performance attached as Appendix 1. Sickness absence for Quarter 1 of 2007/8 was reported as 2.84 days and Quarter 2 as 2.66 days, projected as 11 days to March 2008 year end. Although this shows a slight improvement, these figures are still higher than Q1 2006/7 (2.25 days) and Q2 (2.8 days). Short-term sickness absence (less than 50 days) accounts for the majority of sickness for quarters 1 and 2 = 64% of all sickness reported. 1 Sickness Absence Strategy The Council has based its strategy for reducing sickness absence upon: sickness absence management to support employees back to work as quickly as possible or to enable the Council to make informed decisions on their continued employment; health promotion and other measures to encourage healthy lifestyles and a sound work/life balance and thereby reduce the likelihood of sickness absence; health surveillance to identify medical conditions that might be developing amongst employees over time and deal with them before they become problems; delivery through a partnership of managers and professionals from Human Resources, Occupational Health and Health and Safety. The sickness absence action plan adds detailed actions to this strategy and thereby enables clearer measurement of results. 2. Actions Taken since April Identification of Sickness Absence Key Priority Areas Detailed analysis of Quarter 1 sickness absence reports revealed the following service areas as high priority for action: Quarters 1 and /08: Service Days Lost Quarter /8 1. Grounds Maintenance Operational Finance Days Lost Quarter /8

2 3. Special Needs Housing Refuse & Collection Cemeteries Street Cleansing CCTV Revenues & Benefits Housing BTO s Paradise Customer Services These areas have all been contacted by the HR team and now have individual action plans for reducing sickness absence, focussing on the key areas for concern in each service. 2.2 Progress on Key Priority Areas Progress on individual key priority areas is detailed below: Grounds Maintenance Weekly meetings are taking place with the Occupational Health Advisor (OHA) and monthly meetings with HR/managers/OHA. Service action plan will be created by the end of November. Four short-term absence meetings have been carried out and all long-term absence cases individually discussed Operational Finance Long term sickness has now been resolved, no further issues identified Special Needs Housing Weekly meetings are taking place with OHA to resolve short-term problems. Individual service action plan has been created Refuse & Collection Three long-term sickness absence dismissals since 31 August 07. Target letters sent to short-term cases. Three major long-term cases remain outstanding, all with occupational health the Occupational Health Physician will be asked to assist with resolving these cases Cemeteries Long term sickness has now been resolved, no further issues identified Street Cleansing Long term sickness has now been resolved, short-term sickness is being discussed with managers and some specific areas of concern being discussed with Occupational Health and Drug Link CCTV Quarter 1 absence was high due to long term sickness, this is being addressed. Persistent short-term sickness in this unit will be investigated Revenues and Benefits Long Term sickness has largely been addressed, through retirement, return to work or resignation. Sickness levels will continue to fall as managers monitor attendance and continue to carry out regular meetings with HR.

3 2.2.9 Housing BTO s Paradise One case of long term sickness case is being addressed by Occupational Health and two staff have now returned to work. Absence levels remain a concern and are being actively managed and monitored by managers and HR Customer Services Monthly meetings are taking place with Head of Service and senior managers. One case of long term absence has been resolved. Managers are dealing with short-term absence efficiently through regular monitoring, review and action. 3 Occupational Health Services Dr Geoff Davies, a professional Occupational Health physician has been engaged to provide fortnightly surgery visits at the Civic Centre, commencing 13 th November. These visits will enable services to reduce the length of sickness absence by making earlier assessments and taking quicker decisions on: Return to work dates Phased returns to work Ill-health retirements Sickness capability issues Dr Davies will also be advising the Council on stress management and short term frequent absences. 4 Flu Vaccine Programme The Flu vaccine programme will commence in the last 2 weeks in November and will be offered to front-line employees, as in previous years. 5 Training Six dates have now been set, commencing in December, for mandatory training for all mangers in effectively applying the Council s sickness absence policies. An additional training session has been organised in December for Council staff who have been trained as Coaches, to receive specific training in Coaching for managing Health and Attendance. The Coaches will be able to offer further support to managers who are experiencing high levels of sickness absence in their services. 6 Value for Money Review Sickness Absence Management is also a current Value for Money review in the Council s cross-service programme. This will enable further benchmarking to be carried out so that best practice in other organisations is identified and where feasible those methods of improvement will be adopted at the Council. 7 Short Term Sickness Absence Beginning in January there will be targeted effort at frequent short-term absence. This will include:

4 Monthly health promotion visits to all sites a different topic each month Specific sessions on managing stress for all staff and targeted training for managers on supporting staff in the workplace Drop-in clinics for blood pressure checks, general well-being advice and support Staff who, through short term frequent absences, have exceeded the Council s half-year target of 5.1 days at the end of September 2007, or where their pattern of absence suggests that they will have exceeded the annual target by the end of March 2008, will be interviewed individually by their manager and the Occupational Health adviser to offer support, identify issues and agree solutions. 8 Options for Further Measures to be Introduced to Reduce Absence Levels Consultation with Heads of Service Heads of Service were recently consulted on the Sickness Absence Management Action Plan and offered a further number of measures for the Council to consider in attempting to reduce sickness absence levels. These are: Recommendations from Heads of Service group for inclusion in November 27 th Cabinet report on Sickness Absence Management Item Actions to implement subject to Cabinet approval 1. Introduce a specific procedure for stress-related cases especially work-related stress and introduce early intervention by an expert where work-related stress is indicated 2. Introduce specialist training for managers on how to deal with stress-related illness, including mental health issues 3. Consider not paying increments to staff with poor sickness records (there would be clear guidelines to support this action and it would be formally linked to the Council s appraisal system) 4. Introduce loss of pay (for self-certificated short term sickness) after time off for sickness absence exceeds the Council s annual target (e.g days in 2007/8) and ask the employee to provide a doctor s certificate for every subsequent absence (i.e. no further self- certification) 5. Ask staff to phone daily to their manager to report sickness. If this does not happen staff do not get paid for that period of sickness 6. Consider not paying for the first 3 days of any self-certificated sickness 7. Make sickness absence records part of the mid point and annual appraisal process linked to increments/salary and subject to satisfactory performance

5 9 Sickness Absence Policy It is proposed to conduct a thorough review of the current sickness absence management policy to take into account current best practice and feedback from managers. 10 Conclusions Sickness absence management continues to be an area of high concern for all services and will continue to be closely monitored across the organisation until significant and sustainable improvements are achieved.