Sickness Absenteeism (Hansard, 9 March 1995)

§ Mr. Waldegrave

I am pleased to say that the rate of sickness absence in my Department is already well below the civil service average. Nevertheless, a fundamental review has been undertaken of existing arrangements for the management of sick absence in the core Department and a range of measures designed to introduce even more effective controls are now being developed.

Responsibility for such matters within the Intervention Board and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate has been delegated to the agency chief executives and I have asked them to reply direct.

Letter from Guy Stapleton to Mr. David Chidgey, dated 3 March 1995: The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has asked me to reply to your question about sick absence control measure: in the Intervention Board as this is within my operational responsibility. The Agency employs the full range of Civil Service procedures for dealing with staff who have problems with recurring or long-term sick leave. Where appropriate, this involves personnel action, with individual counselling and the use of informal and formal warnings aimed at resolving problems and improving attendance. Professional advice on prognoses is obtained from the Civil Service Occupational Health Service (CSOHS) at fixed trigger points or at any time when it is felt this is warranted by the circumstances. There is also input to this process from our Welfare 330W Officer. Following professional advice, early medical retirement may take place or, in the absence of any improvement despite advice and counselling, the inefficiency procedures may be initiated which can lead to dismissal on grounds of poor attendance. I commissioned a review in the Agency's Personnel Group during 1994 with the objective of achieving better overall management control of sick absence cases. Recommendations from the review for strengthening the current arrangements, in particular in respect of our approach to individual cases involving regular, short-term absences, were approved by the Agency's Management Group and will be introduced in 1995. The changes will clarify the division of responsibility between personnel and operational managements, and will give more emphasis to the devolvement to managers of the front-line control measures that need to be taken immediately following the return of any member of staff after sick leave. To help implement the new arrangements, we are planning to provide revised written guidance and a bespoke training programme for all managers in the Agency. The aim will be to ensure a consistent and effective policy for the handling of sick leave cases throughout the Agency. To supplement the administrative changes and improved control measures, the review also made a number of recommendations to improve the level of general staff awareness about the negative aspects of sick absence. Accordingly, we also propose to issue a booklet for circulation to all staff that describes the impact that sick absences can have on the overall level of service that we provide to our customers, as well as the cost and efficiency implications this has for the smooth running of the department. The general aim will be to heighten awareness about individual responsibility and the impact that sick leave has on the organisation, as well as the additional pressure it imposes for immediate work colleagues. We consider that an important factor in the success of these changes will be to achieve, as far as possible, the understanding and support of staff and the Trade Union Side. The Agency is making a clear commitment that the changes are aimed at improving the dialogue and communication that takes place when staff have sick leave problems. We have no intention of diluting or neglecting the normal duty of care that we have towards our employees and we shall continue to act reasonably and fairly towards all our staff on these issues. Finally, while it is somewhat difficult to forecast the impact these changes will have, we are, nevertheless, setting ourselves ambitious targets to reduce sick absence rates to less than 4.5% in 1995/96 and to under 4% in 1996/97. This represents achieving overall improvements equivalent to around 33% on the level of sick absences recorded last year and of about 40% on the 1992/93 figures.

Letter from J. M. Rutter to Mr. David Chidgey, dated 8 March 1995: The Minister has asked me to reply to your question about the measures being taken to combat sickness absenteeism in the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, as this is an operational matter for which I am responsible. You are aware from my earlier letters of 20 December 1994 and 30 January 1995 of the sickness absenteeism rates in the Directorate over the last 4 years. These are well below the Civil Service average. My senior managers and I receive monthly reports of sickness absence, and the same procedures for the management of such absences are applied as in core MAFF. The Minister has advised you that these have been reviewed, and a range of measures designed to introduce even more effective controls are now being developed. These will apply also to staff in the Directorate.