Attendance Management An update by John James, London Fire Brigade

The story so far……….. CFOA HR established a workstream to specifically address OH issues with the strategic aim of: “enabling effective liaison between interested stakeholders in delivering Occupational Health services within the FRS. To ensure consistency in the delivery of OH services across FRS for the benefit of individuals and organisational productivity”.

7 objectives were developed and are: To establish a strategic medical and occupational health network of relevant interested stakeholders To establish an effective communication conduit and network between the interested stakeholders To ensure the provision of and access to consistent and up-to-date guidance to Practitioners on medical and occupational health issues for recruitment, retention, redeployment and ill-health retirements across the Fire and Rescue Service To support the development of a fitness framework for operational firefighters in the Fire and Rescue Service Development of good practice on attendance management in the Fire and Rescue Service To support targeted medical and occupational health research To ensure the provision of consistent and up-to-date guidance on the implications of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) to the Fire and Rescue Service

Objectives Within the specific objective on attendance management Carol McCletchie and John James were asked to lead a project “identifying and preventing the major causes of long term sickness”

Why Sickness absence is costly Reducing sickness absence makes us more efficient to deliver organisational aims If we identify differences in major causes across different groups we can develop appropriately targeted approaches to prevention

Project Objectives Identify major causes related to: –Different occupational groups (eg control, retained, support) –Diverse groups (eg gender, race) –Geographical groups (eg regional) Identify good practice in relation to disability Identify good practice preventative measures and increasing awareness Encourage consistency of monitoring and definitions Improve opportunities for collaboration and sharing of expertise Improve opportunities for performance benchmarking

So where did we start We asked all FRS to let us know their top 4 major causes of long term sickness across a number of categories We asked them to let us know of any good practice they believed they were already doing Of 52 FRS approached we got 39 responses – EXCELLENT!

Results of the Survey Top two categories were Musculo-skeletal (MS) and Mental Health (MH) Those two categories alone cause approximately 70% of all sickness The next categories were too low statistically to be determined There were no differences in the top two across all groups (occupational, diversity, regional) In the occupational group ‘Control’ the top two were reversed (ie MH top and MSD second) The next priority was to report back to the OH Network Group to sign off the first stage of the project and move onto the second stage

Stage 2 involved getting some qualitative data to support the quantitative data. Those FRSs who had indicated a level of good practice and a willingness to get more involved were invited to a workshop in London

The Workshop 9 FRS representatives who were a good cross section of HR and OH disciplines considered good practice under the following model: –Prevent (ie preventing sickness) –Protect and manage (ie supporting people in work when sickness or potential sickness is identified) –Respond (ie supporting people back to work as quickly as possible) Heard 3 presentations on Healthy Lifestyles; Attendance Management; and funded treatment Captured views on what good practice is around – still collecting that data using the CFOA good practice template if anyone would like to contribute…..

The Process The 9 Fire and Rescue Services on 8 March 2010 included, Cleveland, North Wales, North Yorkshire, Strathclyde, London, Dorset, Royal Berkshire, Avon and Hampshire All provided responses on the three presentations on Healthy lifestyles, Attendance Mgt model and Funded Treatment.

Final stage: Will be to collate all the information we have and develop a good practice guidance document on behalf of CFOA which will be placed on the CFOA website for all to access.

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