Agenda item

Further to minute 7.2 of the meeting held on the 21^st March 2018 the Committee considered a report which provided sickness absence data for the cumulative period Q4 2018/19 financial year plus a summary of actions.

The Assistant Chief Executive [People Management] commented that whilst the corporate sickness absence target for 2018/19 had been narrowly missed the results overall were encouraging in that sickness absence rates had reduced. Furthermore, pockets of underreporting of sickness were being addressed and data from the WLGA indicated that the Authority was probably ranked 5^th or 6^th out of the 22 local authorities in Wales in terms of least number of days lost due to sickness. In terms of the ‘better performing’ local authorities it was considered that account should be taken of the fact that some of those authorities outsourced services which Carmarthenshire County Council retained.

It was highlighted that the Wales Union Learning Fund [WULF] had confirmed its intention to recommend the Carmarthenshire model for raising mental health awareness to Welsh Government as a model of best practice for other authorities to emulate.

Amongst the issues raised on the report were the following:

·         Reference was made to the need to discourage or even prevent the sending of work-related e mails outside normal office hours and particularly late at night or early morning in view of concerns that this could be stressful for both the sender and the recipient. The Assistant Chief Executive [People Management] responded that the issue had already been raised at Corporate Management Team and that he would raise it again in view of the concern expressed;

·         It was considered that the profile of the Occupational Health Team and its excellent work needed to be raised amongst staff;

·         The Employee Wellbeing Manager agreed to extend invitations to attend Mental Health First Aid Training to elected members;

·         It was commented that whilst the reduction in the staff sickness absence level was to be welcomed it was still higher than every non-profit sector comparator. In response the Employee Wellbeing Manager reiterated the role of the Challenge and Review Forum which had interviewed most Heads of Service regarding sickness management and emphasised good practice where appropriate. It was also queried as to why the Health Service was not included as a direct comparator;

·         The Employee Wellbeing Manager commented that the Occupational Health Team had provided assistance to staff at special schools and there had been a significant reduction in absence;

·         Officers agreed to circulate a divisional profile including sickness absence data alongside other people management data such as overtime costs, agency costs etc where a Head of Service is invited to P&R Scrutiny to discuss sickness absence performance monitoring;

·         Officers agreed that the figures for the number of employees from each department seen at the Occupational Health Centre could be provided as percentages of each department’s employees;

·         Officers noted a suggestion that it might be beneficial to employee a GP within the Occupational Health Team.

The Chair, on behalf of the Committee, thanked officers for organising the recent visit to the Occupational Health Unit. 

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the report be received.