PRINCIPLES OF A REVISED ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT POLICY Prepared by Peter Brown, Attendance Management Officer V4 February 2012
BACKGROUND TO ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT POLICY The Attendance Management Policy was implemented in September 2005 to assist in the management of high levels of sickness absence, which reached as high as 16 days per person in 2003/04. The Policy is now in its sixth year and has been subject to regular review. Sickness absence levels were 9.2 shifts/days per person as at the end of the financial year 2011/12. Whilst the Policy has been successful in reducing sickness absence, it is best practice to review the Policy and its principles on a regular basis. The Attendance Management Officer, Peter Brown, has reviewed the principles and processes of the Attendance Management Policy with the Employment Policy Manager, Marina Hughes. The opportunity was also taken to review the Attendance Management Policy planned for Retained Duty System (RDS) personnel and not yet implemented. A significant number of recommendations have been made which, if they are all accepted, will result in a revised and updated Attendance Management Policy covering all staff, including those on the RDS. AIMS OF THE POLICY The aims of the Attendance Management Policy are to: (i) (ii) (iii) provide a standardised means of reporting, recording and managing sickness absence, thereby benefiting individuals, their colleagues and the local community ensure that all employees who are sick or injured receive appropriate support during their absence, and subsequently return to work assist managers to manage attendance effectively and consistently (iv) reduce days/shifts lost to an average of 7 days per employee by 2015. AREAS TO BE INCLUDED IN THE REVISED POLICY While the existing Attendance Management Policy has been reviewed in its entirety, the proposal will involve the following specific areas. Generally All managers titles will be updated to reflect the recent move from rank to role for operational staff and staff in the Regional Control Centre. As the documentation system has been amended since implementation of the Attendance Management Policy, all references to the SC forms will be reviewed and updated if required. V4 February 2012
Aims It is proposed that Aim 1.3(4) in the existing Policy is changed to reflect the revised shifts lost target. This will involve amending the target of 10 days per employee published in the existing policy to 7 days per employee. The Service has made considerable progress in reducing absenteeism since the Policy was first introduced in 2005 and a revised target is now required to ensure continued management focus on this key area of efficiency and effectiveness. Roles and Responsibilities It is proposed that this section is expanded to include the Medical Case Conference Team and the Impairment Team. Both of these Teams have an important role to play in the management of staff who are absent or may become absent. Setting out the responsibilities of each is regarded as an important step to more transparency and a reflection of the Service s commitment to fairness and equality. Additionally, placing both under the aegis of the Attendance Management Policy is regarded as recognition of the importance of both in the management of attendance in terms of decision support given to managers and support to those staff who are, or may become, absent. Documentation and Certification Required It is proposed that this area will be brought up to date to reflect a written procedure that has been agreed with Finance on the management self and medical certificates. It is also proposed that the DHSS SC2 form should be replaced by the Service s own Self Certificate document, the SC211. The SC211 is readily accessible to all staff through local line managers. (Section 4.1 of the Policy refers) It is proposed that Section 4.4 is removed as the introduction by the Government of the GP Fit Notes negates the need for signing off certificates. The Fit Note replaces the Sick Note and sets out the GP s medical opinion of what an employee is fit to do, as opposed to putting the individual employee off on sick leave. Once a Fit Note expires the employee can resume full time working or full contracted duties. Previously a signing off certificate was required from the GP to conclude the employee s period of sick leave for the purposes of sick pay and employer s liability insurance. Recording and Monitoring of Absenteeism It is proposed that the area on trigger points is augmented by the inclusion of a number of new trigger points. One of these will be if an absent staff member has lost more working days that the Service target at that time, an Attendance Review meeting will be held. The Attendance Review meeting is an informal meeting and is regarded as an essential early intervention mechanism. The other trigger point will relate to the frequency of absence and if the staff member has been off on three occasions in a given year, then further management will be considered. Research conducted last year indicated that over 70% of staff were never off or had been only V3 December 2011 3
off once in that year. This was an increase from 65% when the research was conducted in 2007. The new trigger points will give managers more flexibility to decide if early intervention is required at an Attendance Review meeting with the employee. Disability Discrimination Act It is proposed that Section 7 of the Policy is amended to include more detailed provisions on the management of staff who are impaired due to a disability. Whilst staff who are disabled may not be absent due to illness or injury more than other staff, arrangements relating to the management of any impairment need to be clearly set out within the context of the Attendance Policy should such staff be absent due to illness or injury. The arrangements include the provisions for consideration of reasonable adjustments and the formalisation of the role and responsibilities of the Impairment Team and the Medical Case Conference. Managing the Attendance Process It is proposed that one common process is adopted for the management of long and short term absences. This common process will be augmented by a sub-process to provide separate management arrangements relevant to persistent long and short term absence. THE RECOMMENDATIONS IN DETAIL INTRODUCTION The Attendance Management Policy and Procedure was introduced in September 2005 for application to whole time operational staff, Regional Control Centre (RCC) staff and Support staff. An agreed Attendance Management Policy for personnel working the Retained Duty System was completed in August 2011 but has not as yet been implemented. A review of both Policies has been undertaken. The following recommendations, if accepted, will result in both policies being amalgamated into one attendance policy. GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS The opportunity should be taken to: (a) (b) change the scope of the policy so that it applies to all NIFRS personnel, including those on the Retained Duty System; change the use of ranks mentioned in the original whole time policy to the existing role structure (eg, Station Officer has become Station Commander). The RDS policy had already made this change; V3 December 2011 4
(c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) (k) detail the revised sickness absence target for NIFRS. The RDS policy had already made this change. update the Further Information section to include the new Fire Fighters Pension Order of 2007. The original RDS policy had already made this change. remove the requirement for a DHSS SC2 Self Certificate replacing same with NIFRS form SC211 Self Certificate. The original RDS policy had already made this change. remove the need for a signing off line to take account of the new Fitness for Work Medical Certificate. The original RDS policy had already made this change. change the structure of the Policy by placing the attendance management processes at the beginning after an introductory section and a Statement of Aims. make other key sections annexes after the attendance management processes. place descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of staff, managers, Area and District Commands, HR, OH and the Representative Bodies as they apply to each discrete section of the policy, as appropriate. keep the full list of roles and responsibilities as an annex. change the name of the policy to the Attendance Management Policy. SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS The structure of the policy should reflect the progress of managing an absence and should consist of the following sections: Introduction Absence Notification and Return Certification Requirements Managing Absence Processes Decision Support Occupational Health and Welfare Annexes Create one general process for the management of all absence, whether short or long term. It is accepted that there are several differences in the management of short and long term absence and these can be catered for by the use of a subprocess within the main management process when such absences become persistent. V3 December 2011 5
The general process should consist of the following component parts: Return to Work Interview for all returners. Attendance Review Interview if certain trigger points have been reached. Stage 1 Interview if certain trigger points have been reached or conditions set by Attendance Review Interview have not been met. Stage 2 Interview if certain trigger points have been reached or conditions set by Stage 1 Interview have not been met. Stage 3 Interview if certain trigger points have been reached or conditions set by Stage 2 Interview have not been met. Monitoring Meetings to be conducted every 3 months during any Improvement Period set by any of the above Interviews. Termination Procedure. Appeal Procedure. The persistent absence sub-process should consist of a series of Attendance Case Meetings which will have a professional HR presence if required. A new flowchart should accompany the revised processes. The three formal stages of the management of attendance process must reflect the same three step process set out in the formal stages of the Discipline Policy, namely that staff are written out to giving management s concerns, there is a meeting to discuss those concerns giving staff the opportunity to have their say, and there is an appeal to any sanction issued as a result of the meeting. The common aspects of both the management of short and long term sickness are to be reflected in the above general process. This is to ensure that persistent short or long term absences are examined in detail to determine what early interventions are required to minimise the potential for more formal management action, which may eventually include dismissal. The general process will also include forms of words to be used by managers at various stages of the process. This will include the clear articulation of the fact that if attendance does not improve then continued employment may be at risk. The management of short term absence process should have mandated minimum improvement periods. The management of long term absence should be strengthened by mandating a minimum monthly review frequency which is linked to management actions depending on the frequency and duration of the absence and the content of medical reports. The concept of Rehabilitation Planning should be introduced into the management of individual episodes of long term absence, informed as appropriate by our Medical Advisor. To achieve this a clearly defined planning model is to be developed as a framework on which rehabilitation plans can be built to ensure that cases are managed on their own individual merits. V3 December 2011 6
A new flowchart should be developed to accompany the process of Rehabilitation Planning. Additional triggers for management action should be formed as discretion must be reduced in some areas of process in both the management of short and long term absences. Namely a number of episodes = 3 trigger and an absence level > than annual absence target trigger be added to the existing triggers. The provisions for the use of the Frequency Flag system should be embedded within the process. Equality provisions must also be embedded within the policy. These will deal with absences linked, inter alia, to disability and pregnancy, and issues related to staff undergoing gender re-assignment. The role of the Medical Case Conference should be formally expanded to include referrals of any long term absence of an interesting or challenging nature. The section on Certification should be amended to include the workings of the new Fit Note that was introduced by the Government in April 2010. The section on Termination/Dismissal should be amended to include referral to the Impairment Team. The section on Disability Discrimination should be amended to include the expanded role of Medical Case Conference and the role of the Impairment Team. The section on Occupational Health Service should be amended to include a paragraph on charging for appointments not attended without reasonable cause. The original RDS policy had already made this change. The existing NIFRS Phased Return (incorporating Modified Duties) Policy should be reviewed and embedded into the revised Attendance Management Policy. As this will apply to both long and short term absentees, it should presented as subprocesses within the general attendance management process with links to a definitive annex, depending on individual circumstances. A clearer and more formal link must be established between the management of attendance and the discipline procedure in the event of suspected misconduct. The section for annexes should contain annexes on the following: Roles and Responsibilities The Bradford Scoring System Conducting Return to Work Interviews* The Documentation System Managing Due to Service Absences The Procedure for Making Referrals to Occupational Health Rehabilitation Planning* A list of Authorised Managers The Management of Medical Certificates Procedure V3 December 2011 7
The Register Markings* Absence Categorisation* The annexes marked with an * due to the level of detail and/or length should be accessed by Hyperlink. This will involve the creation of another sub-folder in the G:/Organisational Docs/Human Resources/Attendance Management folder that will contain all the processes and procedures associated with the revised attendance policy. OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS In order to bring RDS personnel under the amalgamated policy the following provisions set out in the RDS Attendance Policy should be sustained. The definition of the term work as it relates specifically to the duties required of Retained Duty Personnel under their Contract of Employment and the operational requirements of the NIFRS. The definition of the terms Line Manager/s/ment meaning a range of uniformed officers in the Areas where retained personnel are employed, including those with direct supervisory responsibilities at District HQ. The main line management focus for retained personnel will be at District HQ level. There will be occasions under the policy where matters will be remitted to Area HQ level. In any event all records will be held at District HQ who will move any attendance issues forward, be it return to work interviews, monitoring or formal action. Retained Duty staff must book sick, forward self and medical certification and book available through their District HQ. The current arrangements for out of hours contact will apply that is either through Regional Control Centre or an existing voice mail facility at District HQ. The current arrangements for reporting absence for all Wholetime and RDS staff as a result of an accident on duty with the Regional Control Centre will remain unchanged. The return to work interview for RDS personnel will be done as soon as practicable, after reporting available, by a member of the District Team (minimal role Watch Commander). The annex dealing with the Bradford Score as amended to demonstrate how it is used for retained duty staff. The current Terms of Reference of the regular Attendance Meetings is to be reviewed. V3 December 2011 8
The current arrangements for the dissemination of written action points (the management letter) coming out of the Attendance Meetings to the managers who have attended to be reviewed. Revised management guidance should be formed once the Attendance Management Policy has been approved by CMT. If possible this guidance should be placed opposite the relevant sections of the policy within a single document in much the same presentational style as the current attendance management policy. The guidance should also be accessed in the new sub-folder mentioned in Specific Recommendations above. The existing attendance management FAQs should be updated and expanded in the light of common queries resulting from the implementation of any revised attendance policy. The FAQs should be accessed in the new sub-folder mentioned in Specific Recommendations above. A revised reference manual should replace the existing Attendance Management Workbook. The reference manual should be accessed in the new sub-folder mentioned in Specific Recommendations above. The current attendance management training session, which includes the use of a case study, should be updated in the light of the revised attendance management policy. Details of any training sessions linked to attendance management, including accompanying handouts and case studies, should be accessed in the new sub-folder mentioned in Specific Recommendations above. CONCLUSIONS The current whole time policy requires overhaul, particularly, but not exclusively, in the management of long term sickness. The review cycle in the management of long term absence is too long and should be reduced. Discretionary issues should be minimised and replaced with mandated minimum management actions. These recommendations have been made as a result of an initial review of both attendance policies. Depending on what is accepted, further and more detailed work will be required to move to a revised policy and procedure common to all our staff. V3 December 2011 9