CRMG Scrutiny Committee
Dec 2015
SICKNESS ABSENCE REPORT – 6 MONTH REVIEW (Apr-Sep 15)
Report of the Deputy Chief Executive
1.0
Purpose of the Report
1.1
The purpose of this report is to update the Committee on the half year position in
terms of sickness absence. The report outlines performance in the first six months of
this year and the plans to continue focusing on this area of activity in the next review
period.
2.0
Recommendations
The Committee is asked to note and comment upon:
2.1
A half year outturn of 5.54 days per FTE and the projected out-turn of 12 days which
exceeds the Council target of 9.5 to 10.5 days and the associated activity being
undertaken to manage absence.
3.0
Policy Position
3.1
The Council’s Policy for Absence Management is contained within our Sickness
Absence Management Policy and Procedure which are available for reference and
guidance to managers and employees on the intranet. In accordance with the
national conditions of service, the council operates an occupational sick pay scheme.
Maximum occupational sick pay entitlement is linked to length of service and details
of the scheme are highlighted below.
3.2
During 1st year of service
1 months full pay and (after completing 4
month’s service) 2 months half pay.
During 2nd year of service
2 months full pay and 2 months half pay
During 3rd year of service
4 months full pay and 4 months half pay
During 4th and 5th years of service
5 months full pay and 5 months half pay
After 5 years’ service
6 months full pay and 6 months half pay
All employees should expect to receive a return to work interview after being off sick.
An employee is taken through the sickness absence procedure when they meet one
of the following sickness absence triggers:


5 occasions of absence in a rolling 12 month period or 10 working days absence
in a rolling 12 month period (for short term absence - stage 1)
3 occasions of absence or 5 working days within a 6 month review period (for
short term absence - stages 2 & 3)

Continuous sickness absence which exceeds 6 weeks (and then for long term
absences, 2 months later - stage 2 and a further 2 months - stage 3)
3.3
These triggers are applied on a pro-rata basis for part time staff. In the current Policy
there are up to 4 stages for short term sickness absence procedure and 3 stages for
long term sickness absence procedures. Further details of the manager’s role and
responsibilities is attached at Appendix 1 for information.
4.0
Half year position
4.1
The average number of full time equivalent days lost per employee, across the
Council, as a result of sickness between 1 April and 30 September 2015 is 5.54 FTE
days. The comparable figure for 2014 was 5.27 FTE days lost and in 2013 was 4.77
FTE days lost.
4.2
The adjusted year-end forecast figure for 2015/16 (taking into account what are
anticipated to be higher levels of absence in Q3 and Q4) is approximately 12.0 FTE
days. This would be outside the tolerance target set by the Council 9.5 to 10.5 days.
4.3
The Directorate position at the half year point can be summarised as follows:
Total days
lost per FTE
People
Place
CSS/OCE
Council
4.4
Workforce
1337.77
349.18
834.37
2521.32
6.5
3.42
4.9
5.54
Short term
(days lost per
FTE)
1.42
1.26
1.95
1.58
Long term
(days lost per
FTE)
5.08
2.17
2.92
3.96
The days lost per FTE is made up of 1760 individual instances of sickness taken by
1157 people (accounting for 38% of the workforce). Services to People continue to
be the area of the Council which experiences the highest level of sickness; this
service area also has the most contact with potentially vulnerable service users in
their own homes. Sickness in that area accounts for 48.45% of the total number of
instances and 62.35% of the total time lost suggesting that longer term sickness is
also more prevalent. Services to Place continue to be the area of the Council which
experiences the lowest level of sickness. This can be summarised as follows:
%
%
Workforce Instances Time Lost workforce Instance
People
1337.77
871
8796.34
53
48.45
Place
349.18
202
1216.01
14
11.64
CSS/OCE
834.37
687
4095.63
33
39.91
Total
2521.32
1760
14107.98
100.0
100.0
4.5
%
Time
lost
62.35
8.62
29.03
100.0
The Council also analyses the duration of sickness absence in order to identify
trends and target hot spot areas. The table below provides an analysis of 1760
individual periods of sickness between 1 April and 30 September 2015:
Number of
FTE Days
Sickness
No. of
People
No. of
instances
%
Instance
s
Time Lost
in Hours
% Time
Lost in
Hours
Less than 2
days
286
298
16.93%
2203.64
2.08%
2-5 days
423
578
32.84%
9468.75
8.96%
6-10 days
149
316
17.95%
8260.11
7.81%
11-15 days
66
140
7.95%
6051.47
5.72%
16-20 days
41
77
4.38%
5399.00
5.11%
21-40 days
89
175
9.94% 18833.25
17.81%
41-60 days
46
88
5.00% 16851.20
15.94%
61-80 days
25
38
2.16% 12670.03
11.98%
81-100 days
14
21
1.19%
9267.17
8.77%
11
20
1.14%
8974.20
8.49%
5
5
0.28%
4662.00
4.41%
1
2
0.11%
1169.20
1.11%
1
2
1157
1760
0.11%
1911.40
100.00 105721.4
%
2
1.81%
100.00
%
101-120
days
121-140
days
141-160
days
161+ days
1
WEEK
1
MONTH
3
MONTHS
6
MONTHS
4.6
As the table above demonstrates 95% of sickness absence instances last less 60
working days (approximately 3 months) and this represents 64% of the total time lost.
A further 4.5% of instances extend to 120 working days (which is the point at which
occupational sick pay reduces to 50% for longer serving employees). The majority of
individual instances last less than 5 days accounting for 50% of instances. This is
approximately 11% of time lost to the Council. There are clearly a very small number
of employees who are experiencing exceptionally high levels of sickness absence for
over 6 months.
4.7
The Service Areas currently exceeding the Council half year average of 5.54 FTE
days lost are as follows:
CSS
CSS
CSS
CSS
People
People
People
People
People
People
Place
Service Area
Community Safety & Neighbourhoods
Customer Engagement
Business Support - CSS
Business Support - People
Mental Health
Provider Services
Reach
Services to Adults
Early Help & Prevention
Integrated Children’s Services
Learning & Employment
Days lost per FTE
9.6
9.09
5.8
5.57
12.14
9.77
12.5
7.33
18.88
6.44
9.89
FTE
42.39
108.82
52.28
133.38
61
220.43
95.46
167.73
4
150.93
11.37
4.8
The top two reasons for sickness absence in Stockport continue to be mental health
reasons (stress, depression, anxiety) and muscular/skeletal reasons. Mental health
reasons account for 25.68% of the total absence, a further decrease of 1.24% from
the 2014/15 year end figure. The reduction follows previous decreases in this type of
absence which saw a 7% reduction in 2013/14 and a 4.08% reduction in 2014/15.
This is a total decrease of 12.32% since 1 April 2013. Muscular/skeletal absence
accounts for 11.18% of the total absence which is also lower by 1.51 % compared to
the 2014/15 year end figure which also followed a of 3.09% in 2013/14.
4.9
62% of the total workforce has had no sickness recorded on i-Trent in the period
under review. The table below shows the Service Areas where employees have
good attendance, with an average of less than 3 FTE or less sickness absence in the
period 1 April to 30 September 2015.
Service Area
Estate & Asset Management (CSS)
Finance (CSS)
Information & Communications (CSS)
Revenues and Benefits (CSS)
Strategy & Performance (People)
Growth (Place)
Libraries and Information (Place)
Days lost
per FTE
1.17
2.62
1.36
2.65
2.15
0.88
1.05
FTE
24.55
57.28
110.05
91.31
59.12
21.8
75.4
4.10
The information contained within this report has been shared with Heads of Service.
In order to further develop the information available on high performing areas, People
and Organisation Development have produced information showing Service Areas
with the highest proportion of employee reporting no sickness absence in the period
from 1 April to 30 September 2015.
5.0
Comparison and benchmarking
5.1
North West Employers Organisation (NWEO) usually provides comparator data from
a range of Councils across the North West Region. The half year comparator data is
shown below. Six of the other nine AGMA Councils that reported half-year outturn
data have a lower sickness level than Stockport at the half year point:
Absence days per FTE (Apr-Sept 15)
8
7.28
7
6.14
6
5.6 5.54
5.2
5
4.8
4.49
4
4.06 3.91
3.35
3
Days per FTE
2
1
10
9
8
7
6
5
t
or
3
St
o
ck
p
2
1
0
6.
Progress to date
6.1
The Council is clearly data-rich in this area and now provides a detailed analysis of
sickness absence by type, duration and service area to Corporate Leadership Team
and Heads of Service on a regular basis. In addition I-Trent is able to provide
managers with reports on demand relating to their area of responsibility. Despite this
sickness absence continues to rise.
Action being taken to address absence management
6.2
Stockport’s Wellbeing contracts for Physiotherapy and Counselling services were
reviewed during quarter two and aligned with the AGMA timetable to review the
Occupational Health contract. This contract is now scheduled to be renewed in
March 2016. It was agreed to align these contracts with the AGMA timetable in order
to enable Stockport and other AGMA Councils to explore the potential for working in
collaboration on wellbeing contracts to enhance buying power and bring economies
of scale. Work on the collaborative occupational health specification is complete and
the tendering process is now underway. The new AGMA Occupational Health
contract is scheduled to commence in March 2016.
6.3
Discussions with our wellbeing contract providers continue in order to ensure
effective service delivery. Management information is now received quarterly from
the Physio and Counselling contracts and is being monitored by the Council’s
Corporate Health and Safety Committee. Performance of the two contracts continues
to be good with positive feedback being received from employees using these
services. Satisfaction levels from users of the Physio service continue to be positive,
with satisfaction levels in the past six months increasing from a score of 4.5 to 4.7 out
of 5. The main reason for referral to the Physio service continues to be lower back
problems accounting for 40% of referrals. Managers continue to report an improved
service, particularly in the way in which the provider keeps them informed about the
outcome of sessions and future plans.
6.4
A new evaluation form has been introduced for users of the Counselling service, this
is simpler to complete and is resulting in a greater level of feedback. Thirty three
employees have completed the form to date, thirty reporting an excellent service, two
reporting a good service and one a satisfactory service. All reported that counselling
had helped them “a lot” and many supplied very positive comments about how the
service had helped them. Take up of the service was similar to the previous quarter
85 cases (84 in previous quarter) however the number of sessions attended had
increased from 203 to 266. Users of this service continue to be predominantly female
accounting for over 80% of referrals. Members are reminded of the improving
performance in this area, for periods of absence relating to stress and mental health.
Wellbeing at Work
6.5
Over the past six months there has been an increased focus on employee wellbeing
and resources from the People and Organisation Development team have been
allocated to progress work in this area. Following endorsement of the Wellbeing
Management Steering Group and a significant consultation process the Corporate
Leadership Team approved a Wellbeing Framework called ‘Live Well Work Well’ on
the 29th September 2015. The document has been communicated to employees and
was given a ‘soft launch’ during Wellbeing at Work Week from the 5th to the 10th
September 2015. People and Organisational Development also facilitated a
Wellbeing Festival to mark the start of Wellbeing Week in the Town Hall Ballroom on
the 5th October. Over thirty organisations/services participated in the event with
stalls based around the 5 ways to wellbeing. It is estimated that between 400 and
450 people attended the event with very positive feedback. A number of seminars
were held as part of the event including Stress Awareness, CPR and Mindfulness; all
sessions were very well attended.
7.
Sickness Absence Audits
7.1
As previously stated the trigger points in the sickness policy where a formal sickness
stage must be instigated is either 5 separate instances or 10 or more days for short
term absence or 6 weeks or more for long term absence, in a rolling twelve month
period. These triggers are applied on a pro-rata basis for part time employees. The
table below shows the numbers of employees in each directorate who have hit the
trigger point in the twelve month period from 1 October 2014 to 30 September 2015.
Directorate
People
Place
CSS
Total
5 instances or 10
days + or both
195
50
140
385
6 weeks +
Total
99
14
53
166
294
64
193
551
7.2
HR continues to provide general advice to managers on all aspects of sickness
absence, physiotherapy and counselling services. Managers are therefore able to
access advice on how to deal with what can often be very sensitive matters. However
the number of cases where HR advice and support has been requested seems low
when compared to the number of employees who appear to be hitting triggers as
outlined above.
7.3
We have therefore made contact with all employees who have been off in October to
audit whether or not the correct Policy has been applied and to ensure that the
absence was accurately reported in I-Trent. This exercise will be repeated for
absence in November and December.
7.4
We have also recently made contact with the line managers of all 551 staff hitting
triggers in the previous 12 months (as detailed above) requesting details of the action
which has been taken to support these employees. The purpose of these two
exercises is to establish if the sickness absence procedure is being correctly applied
and whether additional management training may be needed. In the first instance
where a manager indicated that they have not undertaken the required activity, they
will receive additional support to implement our Policy. A further update will be
provided to CRMG in our next report.
7.5
In order to further assist managers in dealing with sickness absence issues promptly
and in line with the Council policy and procedures, we have also recently
implemented a series of prompts and alerts via I-Trent. This will mean that when
sickness absence is recorded in i-Trent for an employee their line manager will
automatically be sent an email reminding them to manage this absence in line with
the sickness policy and to conduct a return to work interview when appropriate. If
employees continue to be absent then further alerts will be sent to the line manger
when trigger points in the sickness policy have been reached, for both short and long
term absence, and that formal stages in the policy may be appropriate. These alerts
will be implemented in December 2015.
8.0
Sickness Absence Training
8.1
The Council’s Sickness Absence Training is mandatory for managers who have
people management responsibilities. The training consists of a short e-learning
module with a 2-hour follow up face to face training session. The programme was
designed to skill up managers to help ensure the effective management of sickness
absence across the Council in line with the Council policy, which was refreshed as
part of the people related policy review in 2014. The initial roll out of this training
began in June 2014 with a briefing of the Senior Management Group.
8.2
To date approximately 61% of managers have successfully completed the e-learning
module and 36% have attended the face to face training. This is clearly not as high
as we would like or expect and further data has now been distributed to Corporate
Leadership Team, Heads of Service and directly to managers instructing them to
attend additional sessions which are scheduled from January to March 16. A
summary at Directorate Level is as follows:
People
Place
CSS/OCE
Total
Reporting
Attended faceWorkforce Managers
to-face training Percentage
1337.77
234
46
24%
349.18
94
37
19%
834.37
204
107
56%
2521.32
532
190
36%
10.0
Conclusions
10.1
The data shows an increase in sickness absence levels compared to the half year
point in 2015/16. Effective management of sickness absence is crucial in terms of the
overall performance of the Council because of the direct impact on the capacity of
the organisation to deliver services and be cost effective.
10.2
Whilst the Council continues to make good progress with regards to wellbeing and
occupational health, further targeted intervention work is underway in order to audit
whether or not the Council’s managers are applying the Council Policy. In addition
those managers that have not engaged in the training have been instructed to attend
the training over the next 3 months. Finally additional automated alerts have been
built into the Council’s I-Trent system to provide further prompts to managers to apply
the Council Policy. Further analysis will be completed in the next 3 months and this
will be combined with internal communications activity to the whole workforce.
APPENDIX 1
APPENDIX 2
Extract of Managers Guidance
Summary of data provided throughout the report
Appendix 1 Extract of Managers Guidance
Sickness absence management - summary of manager responsibilities in the Council
policy
Managers, supervisors and team leaders are responsible for taking a pro-active approach to
tackling sickness absence within their teams. When managing sickness absence,
managers should ensure that: The employee notifies you of the absence and anticipated duration (if employees fail to
notify you of the sickness absence then occupational sick pay may be withheld)
 Self-Certification information is recorded on the Return to Work interview form for
absences of 7 calendar days or less
 A medical note is submitted for absences over 7 calendar days
 Contact is maintained with the employee during the sickness absence and details
recorded on a Record of contact during absence form.
 Details of the sickness absence is recorded in i-Trent and the employee inputs their
return date when they come back to work
 For employees without access to i-Trent - details of the sickness absence is recorded on
the Sickness Absence Return Form and forwarded to Payroll on a weekly basis. Nil
returns are also required to ensure the correct calculation of sick pay entitlement
 A Return to Work Interview is carried out with the employee following any period of
absence and information recorded on the Return to Work form.
 The employee is taken through the sickness absence procedure when they meet one of
the sickness absence triggers, which are
 5 occasions of absence in a rolling 12 month period or 10 working days absence in a
rolling 12 month period (for short term absence - stage 1)
 3 occasions of absence or 5 working days within a 6 month review period (for short term
absence - stages 2 & 3)
 Continuous sickness absence which exceeds 6 weeks (and then for long term absences,
2 months later - stage 2 and a further 2 months - stage 3)
 A reasonable review period is set, usually 6 months
 Employees suffering from stress related absence and/or employees absent on long term
sickness are immediately referred to the occupational health provider, Health
Management Ltd
 A phased return to work is considered for employees returning after a long period of
sickness absence
 Reasonable adjustments are considered for employees covered under the Equality Act
2010 (formerly known as the Disability Discrimination Act)
 Other alternatives are explored with the Occupational Health provider such as medical
redeployment or ill-health retirement if reasonable adjustments are not possible
 They manage pregnancy related illness differently to other types of absence
 Absences caused by industrial injuries are recorded in i-Trent as an industrial injury so
that the correct occupational sick pay is paid
 For employees without access to i-Trent – absences caused by industrial injury is
recorded on the Sickness Absence Return Form and forwarded to Payroll on a weekly
basis.
 Comply with the Data Protection Act and maintain the confidentiality of all sickness
records within the employee’s workplace
 They contact a member of the HR team within People and OD Services on 474 4777 for
advice on how to manage individual cases of sickness absence.
The above information is available for managers and employees on the People and
Organisational Development intranet site. Links are included to the appropriate
documents and more detailed information is available relating to all the above points.
Appendix 2 -Summary of data provided
Workforce FTE
Total days lost per FTE
Short term (days lost per
FTE)
Long term (days lost per
FTE)
Percentage of total time lost
due to sickness absence
Instances of sickness in 6
month period
Time Lost in 6 month period
Total number of staff hitting
short term triggers5
instances or 10 days + or
both
Total Number of staff hitting
long term trigger (6weeks +)
Total number of staff hitting
triggers (short and long
term)
Percentage of managers
trained
1337.77
349.18
834.37
2521.32
6.5
3.42
4.9
5.54
1.42
1.26
1.95
1.58
5.08
2.17
2.92
3.96
5.42%
2.85%
4.08%
4.61%
871
202
687
1760
8796.34
1216.01
4095.63
14107.98
195
50
140
385
99
14
53
166
294
64
193
551
24%
19%
56%
36%
People
Place
CSS/OCE
Council