Agenda item

To consider a report on attendance management within Cheshire East Council during 2014/2015

The Committee received a report which provided an overview of the sickness absence rates within Cheshire East Council during 2014-15 and an analysis of the main reasons for these rates.  The report summarised the actions taken so far to address absence and promote good attendance.

The sickness absence rate in 2014/15 was 12 days per full time employee, which was a rise on the previous year which was 11.3.  Working time lost to sickness absence as a proportion of all working time available in 2014/15 was 4.6% compared with 4.3% in 2013/14.  The most common reason given for absence was stress.  Details of the main reasons for absence were shown in Appendix 1 to the Report.  It was agreed that the sickness absence statistics could be made more meaningful by introducing different measures such as cost of absence; proportion of employees with no recorded absence; frequency of absence rate, and individual frequency of absence rate.

The latest North West Employers’ Organisation report showed that the increase in absence seen by the Council was similar to the increase seen across the region for 2014/15.  Benchmarking against other public sector employers in the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting benchmarking club showed that the Council was slightly above average in its sickness rates in 2013/14.  The data for 2014/15 was not yet available for comparison.  The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development produced an annual attendance report covering the private and public sector.  Their key findings for the public sector in 2014 showed that stress-related absence had increase in three fifths of public sector organisations and stress was the most common cause of long term sickness.  Common causes of stress in the public sector were reported as workload, management style and relationships at work.  

A Task Group, now called the Wellbeing and Resilience Group had been formed, chaired by Brenda Smith, Director of Adults Social Care and Independent Living. The Group included staff from a wide range of services including Public Health, as the work fitted with the wider agenda to promote health in the work-place as well as for residents, HR Delivery, Health and Safety, Workforce Development, Occupational Health, Operational Services Managers and the Trade Unions. 

The Task Group was taking the approach that developing resilience was a critical business issue which needed to be addressed from the three angles of the organisation, mangers and individual staff.  Pressures would always exist at work and in personal lives, and employers could help to create a work environment where pressure was managed appropriately and there was less likelihood of staff going off sick. 

A programme of wellbeing activities would be promoted throughout 2015/16  and would form the basis of an early intervention approach to attendance – details of the programme were detailed in Appendix 3 to the Report.

The Employee Assistance Scheme, which offered counselling, would continue to be promoted and it was hoped that this approach, along with the Council’s emphasis on wellbeing and promoting a climate of resilience, would lead to a fall in the shorter-term absence and stress-related absence.

It was agreed that the Head of HR and the Director of Adult Social Care and Independent Living would look at a range of operational performance measures for attendance management as part of implementing the action plan and report back on overall progress after the year end to establish the progress the Council had made in improving attendance management.  The Group would also look at the options to pay for some employees to undertake health assessments and treatments in order for them to return to work earlier – which already happens in one of the ASDVs, and also the inclusion of this aspect in the tender for occupational health services. 

A further report would be brought to the Committee in due course on the progress of the actions drawn up by the Task Group.

A range of actions resulting from the information and date presented in the report were agreed by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.