Sickness absence

With the county council failing to meet its 8.75 days a year absence target for employees, the review will consider procedures for managing sickness absence, the reasons and patterns of absence and compare practices in other local authorities and organisations.

Read a copy of the Sickness absence scoping document [PDF 27KB]

Previous meetings

15th September 2008

Members were given an opportunity at the final meeting of the select committee to consider any further information and to agree recommendations in the final report.

21 July 2008

Members of the select committee heard from Nigel Hughes, Senior HR consultant at Derbyshire County Council, on the good practice that has seen the sickness absence figure fall from 10.7 days as the average number of days lost each year for each employee, to just over 7.5 in three years. The improvement has been the result of a cultural change: better employee wellbeing - including health promotion and rehabilitation - and greater working flexibility, with sickness reviews triggered after just eight days absence in any year. Derbyshire also employ an attendance manager for each department, but achieving sustained improvements comes from the better management of sickness absence through existing service managers.

Read the minutes of the 21 July meeting [PDF 26.0KB]

23 June 2008

Members received a scene setting presentation from Steve Morley, Programme Director of the Absence Management team, showing how sickness absence at the County Council is slowly improving, despite missing the target of 8.75 as the average number of days lost for each employee. Nottinghamshire performs badly compared to other county councils, but an improved absence management system is expected to reduce the current 9.75 days to meet the audit commission target.

Read the minutes of the 23 June meeting [PDF 25.0KB]

Nine County Councillors make up the Sickness Absence select committee:

• John Knight (Chair)
• Andy Stewart
• Reg Adair
• John Allin
• Vince Dobson
• Andy Freeman
• David Shaw
• Parry Tsimbiridis
• Brian Wombwell

The lead Scrutiny Officer is Martin Gately, e-mail: martin.gately@nottscc.gov.uk

For further information about the sickness absence review contact the scrutiny team.