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Managing sickness absence in the public sector - one year on

A year after the publication of the Managing Sickness Absence in the Public Sector ministers in DWP and the Cabinet Office have published the Ministerial Task Force on Health Safety and Productivity One Year On Report.

This report provides a summary of progress against the key recommendations and actions called for by the Task Force. It includes examples of the approaches being adopted but these are necessarily only a snapshot of the actions in hand. Its purpose is therefore to:

• Report to the Task Force on key developments and areas where further work remains to be done, including issues that have emerged as its recommendations have been implemented;
• Give feedback to stakeholders who have contributed to the Task Force’s work and seek their continuing involvement and support;

• Maintain momentum by stimulating debate about future actions that will deliver sustained reductions in sickness absence as a contribution to improvements in efficiency and productivity across the public sector.

• Managing Sickness Absence in the Public Sector - one year on [173kb PDF ]

News

In the Chancellor’s Spending Review in July, he commissioned the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to undertake a review of sickness absence in the public sector. The Ministerial Task Force took this forward and published the Review of Sickness Absence Management in the Public Sector on December 8th.

• Managing sickness absence in the public sector [270kb]

The review, published by the Minister of State for Work and the Minister for the Cabinet Office highlights the potential saving from better management, and picks out good practice from across the economy. It concludes that further action is needed in three main areas to:

• secure sustainted comittment from managers at the top level;
• deliver the right data and systems to support better attendance management; and
• provide leadership and support for line managers

The public sector will also pilot innovative approaches for managing short and long term absence. The Ministerial Task Force has now drawn up the Delivery Plan to ensure that accountability for achieving targets is clear and that risks are identified and managed.

Based on the Task Force’s recommendations it sets out measures to address:

• fundamental systems changes – those that address senior management, accountability, data and training issues;
• short term sickness absence through a series of pilots, with the outcomes being disseminated widely;
• long term sickness absence, including access to occupational health services;
• the levers that will encourage and sustain improvements in attendance management in the wider public sector.

In each case it includes outlines of accountability for delivery, monitoring and reporting, milestones and evaluation measures.

• Delivery Plan for the Review of Sickness Absence in the Public Sector [165kb]

Progress with projects

The first Ministerial Task Force meeting was held on September 13th. Ministers attending were Jane Kennedy, Minister for Work, Paul Boateng, Chief Secretary, John Hutton, Minister of State for Health. Apologies were made for Ruth Kelly, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paul Goggins Minister of State for Prisons and Probation.

• Terms of Reference for the Task Force

It was agreed that the relevant Whitehall ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would be invited to future meetings.

The Task Force organised a seminar for key stakeholders to discuss the way forward on absence management and best practice. Subsequent Ministerial Task Force meetings finalised the Review of Sickness Absence Management in the Public Sector. A detailed delivery plan will now be drawn up, agreed with stakeholders and published by Budget 2005.