Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Organisational Development and the Corporate Director of Education which was presented to provide Members of specific scrutiny committees the opportunity to scrutinise and challenge relevant directorate sickness absence performance and the proposed actions for improvement.

The Director of Education spoke to the report and highlighted the main points contained therein.

A Member enquired if holding annual workforce meetings was adequate.  The Director said that workforce meetings were kept under review and sickness performance data was also discussed at Strategic Headteachers meetings.  Organisational Development worked closely with Headteachers and were guided by Occupational Health and GP advice.

A Member welcomed the report being presented to each Scrutiny Committee but had concerns that the Sickness Absence Policy was not being adhered to, he was aware that some Managers were not using the iTrent system.  He also felt that individual schools should not be identified in the report. The Director would take this point back to colleagues. 

A Member referred to sickness absence within the Authority being a key risk and enquired if high levels of sickness had an impact on school performance and enquired regarding iTrent sickness triggers.  The Director said this did provide challenges and could be linked to well-being.  A successful iTrent pilot had been carried out and 39% of return to work interviews had been recorded on the system, however, further improvement needed to be undertaken.

The Director informed Members that some school based support staff such as catering and cleaning staff were employed by a different Directorate.  As individual Workforce Sickness Absence Performance reports would be considered at each Scrutiny Committee Members comments would be considered for future reporting.

A Member commented that clarity was needed regarding which directorate employed which staff and pointed out that special circumstances may need to be considered when dealing with special schools.

Reference was made to the estimated sickness absence costs.  The Director said that costs to the Authority for the six month period were estimated at £398,718 and did not include supply costs i.e. on-costs, cover arrangements etc. and this would need to be looked at in detail.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1, namely that having scrutinised the absence performance information and proposed arrangements to improve attendance rates within the Education Directorate identify any further areas for improvement in order to drive forward performance improvement.

Councillor Jonathan Millard re-joined the meeting at this juncture.