The Acting Director of Law, HR and Asset Management submitted a report updating the Committee on the current attendance management position.

A breakdown of sickness absence figures for quarters one, two and three and comparative data for 2008/9, 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12 by quarter and by full year, was shown in appendix 1 to the report. Sickness levels for quarter three (2.82 days) showed an increase on last year’s figure of 2.59 but an improvement on the previous three years (2.85, 2.97 and 3.40 days). The disappointing results for Quarter 2 (2.14 days), reported to November 2012’s Committee coupled with Quarter 3’s results demonstrated a continued increasing trend in levels of absence across the authority with a projected end of year figure of 10.51 days against a target of 9.5 days.

The report also contained information on reasons for absence and work being undertaken around management of absence and improving wellbeing.

An action plan had been developed to deliver change which included the following:

·  Systematic training - Training on absence management would be mandatory for all managers and this would include further specific training on management of stress.  The role and responsibilities of line managers in managing absence would be re-enforced from the top of the organisation through briefings and other communication. 

·  Culture and accountability - Managing of attendance would form targets for managers within performance appraisal. 

·  Policy Change - It was proposed to make the following changes to the Attendance Management Policy in relation to long term sickness to include:

o  Mandatory referral to Occupational Health for all absences at the 4 week point.

o  Mandatory case review at 4 weeks with Occupational Health, line manager and HR or less than 4 weeks for mental health/ stress related issues.

·  Reporting absence - Heads of Service would in future be required to sign off weekly absence returns for their department. This would strengthen accountability and provide an immediate oversight of issues as they arose.

Responding to comments from Members, the Head of HR and Organisational Development informed the Committee that the current policy contained the following triggers, three absences within six months or four within twelve months to precipitate a review prior to formal action. Reviews of levels of absence and formal action could happen at any stage if a manager had concerns about an absence. There were a whole range of support mechanisms for supporting employees with stress. Briefing sessions would be held with managers in June / July following restructures of departments and they would be asked to re-enforce the application of the policy.

The Leader of the Conservative Group suggested that the projected absence figure of 10.5 days was very disappointing and that it did warrant looking at the overall policy again and examining how it aligned with current thinking in the public and private sector.

The Leader of the Council responded that there was a need to give the proposed policy changes an opportunity to take effect and also let the management restructures settle in, so those managers in post could undertake the appropriate training regarding sickness absence. The impact of the changes could then be reviewed at a later date.

The Chair suggested that comparator figures for other similar authorities would be useful in measuring the Council’s performance and the Head of HR and Organisational Development, in response, stated that she would be happy to bring comparator figures with Metropolitan authorities to a future meeting once they were available after year end.

It was moved by Councillor Green and seconded by Councillor Rennie that –

“The policy changes be agreed but Committee notes that the current cost of absence for Wirral is £9.2m and requests that the Head of HR and Organisational Development bring a report to the next meeting outlining current policies for review including comparators of triggers and levels of support in other public sector organisations and also the private sector.”

The motion was put and lost (3:5)

Resolved – That this Committee:

(1)  Notes the content of the report and current sickness absence data.

(2)  Agrees the proposed policy changes in relation to management of long term cases, as outlined in the report.