An update presentation will be given by Matt Rawdon on sickness.
Minutes:
Cllr Harden introduced the report updating the committee on sickness. Last financial year there has been a long term and short term issue with sickness and the presentation explains what we are doing to address this.
M Rawdon gave a presentation giving an overview of what the corporate sickness project is doing to address sickness and the positive impact this has made so far. The sickness statistics after 7 months is the lowest sickness statistics for many years.
M Rawdon was happy to take questions on the report.
Cllr Taylor, has this new approach to managing sickness been included into sickness procedure?
M Rawdon said yes, the sickness policy and procedure was approved in April 2016 and this enables the option to fast track cases to a sickness capability hearing if the manager has concerns over staff attendance.
J Deane said this gives managers more discretion that they previously had we and this is why we are seeing lots of results.
Cllr Taylor wanted to ensure we were protecting DBC by having the new process and whether Legal had approved it?
M Rawdon said absolutely, at the time of drafting Steve Baker was heavily involved and we ensured that he and his legal team supported the approach.
Cllr Adeleke said that you state there are no successful appeals, how many did we have last year and this year.
M Rawdon couldn’t give figures off the top of his head, in terms of dismissal appeals we had one, which went to members and it wasn’t upheld.
Cllr Adeleke said with Cupid Green you have identified some serious cases where attendance was particularly poor, what measures have you taken? The chart also shows in June, without being specific are these down to constant individuals or general across the board.
M Rawdon stated that it’s an average figure so individuals will affect the overall figure and with Cupid Green they are being treated the same as everyone else.
The monthly sickness report incorporates every member of staff off sick, and then the sickness scrutiny panel analyses each case looking at overall sickness records and concerning trends.
Cllr Adeleke asked if it included agency staff.
J Deane stated it doesn’t include agency staff. We have noticed a reduction of agency staff as a result of this project.
Cllr Fethney said that medical democratic like this is quite crucial he knows that around July time there were strains due to the flu virus. His suggestion is that if you talk to Public Health and they can warn you when things like this are going to happen.
Cllr Harden added that this is a valued point and that M Rawdon’s Team have a good working relationship with Public Health and they will look at getting data.
E Collins asked the question if people have to notify their employer of their absence and provide an explanation.
M Rawdon said that they have had cases where people didn’t want to reveal the nature. We can’t force someone but we would ask someone why they felt the need to decline it. The more we know the more we can support individuals.
The individuals will also be speaking to a qualified nurse so they will get full medical support.
Cllr E Collins said that each individual’s recovery time is different is this taken into consideration.
J Deane stated that all cases are looked at individually.
Cllr Birnie welcomed the report and asked where in terms of the graph you took your most recent average from.
J Deane said the average comes from the total amount of day’s sickness after 7 months divided by the FTEs. At this point last year we are over 25% better off.
Cllr Birnie also added that the benefit of adding a new system is that you will always see beneficial improvements in the first year.
Cllr Harden asked to keep in mind the other way, you can also get spikes when you introduce a new procedure as people were under reporting, you could have people that were off sick that were protected by their managers in reporting that. We could introduce a new system and find that more people are off sick and ask the question how this happened, due to people being honest and reporting it.
Cllr Guest welcomes the report as sickness has been a long term issue. She asked is there is a difference between long term and short term sickness. Cupid Green, have you identified what the sickness is, is it occupational health related sickness and if so has there been any health and safety put place to prevent it.
Cllr Chapman stated that in previous meetings with long term sickness and short term sickness they do get reports on this and that it’s ongoing.
J Deane said in terms of are we seeing higher levels of Health and safety issues the answer is no. We have adopted the same approach at Cupid Green as all other areas, what we are seeing generally is that figures are down and is now in line with back office figure. Cupid Green sickness has been reduced by over 50%.
The supervisors at the depot deserve a lot of credit for the way this project has been embraced.
Cllr Douris asked Cllr’s to welcome the work that has been done up Cupid Green in achieving this.
Cllr Douris asked that when the employers talk to a nurse is that confidential.
He was intrigued by the last slide that there may be some under reporting.
M Rawdon replied that the nurses ask the question if it’s ok for their managers to be informed, employers can either say yes or no. So the nurse will know but not the employer. The sickness scrutiny panel look at all cases and only a few are kept anonymous. But if staff does not give a reason we would be asking why they considered this approach, as it makes it more difficult for us to support them
J Deane looking at a team of 30 if they have 1 day off over a quarter that looks suspicious, they would have more than that. However there are some areas that the reporting isn’t as full as it should be. Cllr Silwal asked how we are compared to other boroughs.
M Rawdon said we only have the Public Sector average across England which on average of around 9 days per FTEs, Hertfordshire is similar.
Cllr Howard asked if someone had a mental health issue are they supported enough to keep them in work.
M Rawdon said there is lots of support for this. We have mental health first aiders, a confidential support phone line, stress and wellbeing policies, HSE stress surveys.
Cllr Chapman thanked the officers for a comprehensive report. The sickness project has made a massive difference and is a really positive step forward.
Actions: M Rawdon to get data from Public Health.
Outcome: The report was noted