Ars Q4 2223

Renfrewshire Council · 22 May 2023
Back to Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board — 22 May 2023 and its agenda

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___________________________________________________________________
To:  Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board
On:  22 May 2023
________________________________________________________________
Report by: Director of Finance and Resources
___________________________________________________________________
Heading: Absence Statistics – Quarter 4 of 22/23.
___________________________________________________________________
1. Summary
1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board with the
absence information for the period 1 January to 31 March 2023. 
1.2 During the period, Short- and Long-term absences continue to be exacerbated due to
lengthier NHS treatment and medical intervention waiting times. 
1.3 The report details the absence statistics by service and by category of staff. The
report provides information in relation to absence targets and how services have
performed against them. An analysis of the reasons for absence has also been
compiled and details are included within the report. 
2. Recommendations 
2.1 It is recommended that the Board notes the content of this report. 
_______________________________________________________________ 
3. Background 
3.1 The Audit Risk and Scrutiny Board agreed that absence levels will be reported on a
quarterly basis. It was agreed that the report will include the following information 
relating to supporting attendance: - 
 Absence statistics broken down by service and category of staff.
 Reasons for absence broken down by service and category of staff.
 Progress made by services in relation to their supporting attendance action plans.

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4. Sickness absence statistics for quarter 4 - 1 January to 31 March 2023. 
4.1 A comparison of the council overall absence performance for the quarter (Q4) with the
same quarter in 2022 is detailed in table 1. Table 2 details services performance. In
line with the reporting requirements for Scottish Councils, absence is expressed as a
number of workdays lost per full time equivalent (FTE) employee.            
Table 1 Council performance – Q4 
4.2 Table 2 Service performance - Q4 
5. Sickness absence targets analysis for Quarter 4. 
5.1  The local government employee absence level of 4.16 days lost per FTE employee is
1.56 days above the council target of 2.60 days. 
5.2 In addition, the teacher absence level of 2.72 days lost per FTE employee is                                     
1.18 days above the council target of 1.54 days. 
5.3 The council has recorded an overall absence rate of 3.79 days lost per FTE
employee, which is 1.19 days above the council target of 2.60 days. 
Employee Group  Quarter Ending 
March 2022
Quarter Ending 
March 2023
Variance
+/- year
on year
Local Government 3.63 4.16 +0.53
Teachers 2.15 2.72 +0.57
Council Overall 3.24 3.79 +0.55      
Service Quarter Ending
March 2022
Quarter Ending 
March 2023
Variance
+/- year
on year
Chief Executives 1.97 0.97 - 1.0
Childrens Services 3.12 3.89 +0.77
Communities and
Housing Services
3.20 3.90 +0.70
Environment and
Infrastructure
3.50 3.80 +0.30
Finance & Resource
Services
2.24 2.38 +0.14
Renfrewshire Health
and Social Care
Partnership
4.69 5.47 +0.78
Council Overall 3.24 3.79 +0.55
Council Overall
Target
2.60 2.60    n/a

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6. Sickness absence reasons and related support measures during Quarter 4. 
6.1 The main sickness absence reasons, and their total of the overall absences
expressed as a percentage, across the council, during this quarter were:
• Psychological   29.5%
• Respiratory      18.9%
• Muscoskeletal  17.6%
• Stomach/bowel/blood and metabolic disorders 15%                                    
6.2 To support employees with psychological absences, the council provides a range of
support services that employees can be referred to at an early stage for assistance,
such as the council’s Occupational Health Service and the Time for Talking employee
counselling service. 
6.3 The Time for Talking (TFT) counselling service provides 24-hour confidential support
to employees with a range of personal health and well-being issues. It operates a
flexible approach to appointments offering consultations in the early mornings or
evenings as well as throughout the day. 22.9% of the sessions were face to face,
25.7 % were by secure video call and 51.4% were by telephone. 
6.4 326 sessions were offered by TFT during quarter 4 of which 83% were attended.
82% of the staff attending felt significantly better after their sessions. The main
presenting issues are detailed below: 
Personal 
Stress/anxiety/depression 
Family Relationships  
Change 
Work & Personal 
Stress/anxiety  
Demands 
Work related 
Change  
Demands  
Roll 
6.5 Stress risk assessments are undertaken to support employees who have identified
stress as having an impact on their wellbeing. An action plan is agreed and undertaken
at a local level with the specialist support from HR and OD. 
6.6 HR and OD work in collaboration with NHS colleagues, to offer safeTalk and ASIST
courses on suicide awareness and prevention as well as anxiety awareness courses.
We also promote the “Doing Well” service which supports employees with depression
and low moods. 
6.7 HR and OD have been working with the mental health first aiders (MHFAs) across
the council. A forum has been set up and further training is in the process of being
organised. MHFAs can play a significant part by supporting or sign posting an
individual who may be experiencing mental ill health.

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6.8 The Physiotherapy service supports employees with Muscoskeletal and Joint
Disorder conditions through the council’s Occupational Health Service. The service
has continued to be provided throughout the quarter using secure face to face
appointments, video conferencing and telephone consultations. Employees will
receive an appointment within 10 days, following a referral.
6.9 The council’s usage of the Occupational Health Service (OHS) for Q4 was 1025
appointments. OHS provides advice and guidance on the impact of ill health on work
and what steps the council and/or the employee may make to secure a return to
work.
Appointment referral type Number Main types of issues
Wellbeing 354 CBT/DBT/Physiotherapy
Management 506 Various health issues
Health surveillance 165 Audio/ Hand arm vibration
7. Measures to support attendance at work
7.1 A number of measures continue to be progressed to support attendance at work,
including the following: -
• HR and Organisational Development (OD) continue to develop a health and well-
being strategy that will be launched later this year.
• HR and OD have been working with service management teams to focus upon the
absence data and look at interventions to support their staff. The biggest focus has
been on the reduction of longer-term cases.
• HR and OD have been promoting the employee benefits scheme, which includes
cycle to work. This may encourage employees to become active and healthier, which
may help reduce spells of absence.
• HR and OD have been working with the corporate procurement team to change the
current employee counselling contract into an employee assistance scheme. This will
allow for other types of support and therapies to be made available to those suffering
from mental ill health.
• We continue to actively manage our OH provision. We will ensure that we continue to
fully utilise all the available resource to support our staff who are off sick as well as
those who are returning to the workplace either with an ongoing condition or are in
recovery.
• The council offered the flu vaccine out to all staff not covered under the criteria for an
inoculation from the NHS. We worked with our OH provider from October 2022 and
the last of the sessions were delivered in January 2023. We offered vouchers for
those who could not attend in person. As part of this programme, we collaborated

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closely with our partner organisations (One Ren, RVJB and Scotland Excel) to offer
to their staff too.
• As part of the council’s health and safety management system, occupations which
include manual handling activities as part of the role, require task risk assessments.
These risk assessments are reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure that safe
working practices are maintained.
• We continue to review our statutory and mandatory training courses. Included in the
review is the suitability of the moving and handling training courses for people
movement and manual handling training for objects.
__________________________________________________________
Implications of this Report
1 Financial Implications - Improvement in attendance impacts on the financial costs of
absence.
2 HR and Organisational Development Implications - HR and Organisational
Development Practitioners will continue to work with service managers and consult
with the Trade Unions, on the implementation of the Supporting Attendance at Work
Policy and Guidance and initiatives detailed in this report.
3 Community Planning
Children and Young People - none.
Jobs and the Economy - none.
Community care, health, and wellbeing - provides for continuous improvement in
health and attendance.
Safer and Stronger - provides for improved service performance across the Council.
Greener - none.
Empowering our communities - none.
4 Legal Implications - none.
5 Property/Asset Implications - none.
6 Information Technology Implications - none.
7 Equality and Human Rights Implications - none.
8 Health and Safety Implications - it is integral to the Council’s aim of securing the
health and well-being of employees.
9 Procurement Implications - none.

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