Carmarthenshire puts focus on reducing sickness
Work is being carried out to further reduce sickness absence in Carmarthenshire County Council and potentially save up to half a million pounds a year.
In recent years, rates have fallen from 12.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) days lost to 11.1. However, members of the Policy and Resources scrutiny committee set up a task and finish group to look at the issue, with the aim of reducing the sickness levels even further.
This included evaluating the effectiveness of the current sickness absence policy; identifying the principal causes of sickness, gathering a range of data and identifying areas of best practice, internally and outside of the authority.
Chair Cllr Mair Stephens said: “While the overall sickness absence rate for the authority has been reducing in recent years, the Committee has been concerned about the need to identify the true costs of sickness absence.
“There is no doubt that sickness absence costs the authority money and that it has an impact on the delivery of its services. In an age when there is continuous talk of the need to make efficiency savings, the review has concluded that by strengthening the approach to the management of sickness and supporting procedures and systems, the authority could realise significant financial savings.”
It is estimated that sickness absence incurs between £2million and £3million additional costs to the council. A 20 per cent reduction could result in savings of around £500,000.
The task and finish group is making several recommendations aimed at improving sickness absence. They include a need for more consistency by line managers in applying the policy; and strengthening the way sickness absence data is captured and reported.
The report has now been finalised and will go before members in the next few weeks.
In recent years, rates have fallen from 12.6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) days lost to 11.1. However, members of the Policy and Resources scrutiny committee set up a task and finish group to look at the issue, with the aim of reducing the sickness levels even further.
This included evaluating the effectiveness of the current sickness absence policy; identifying the principal causes of sickness, gathering a range of data and identifying areas of best practice, internally and outside of the authority.
Chair Cllr Mair Stephens said: “While the overall sickness absence rate for the authority has been reducing in recent years, the Committee has been concerned about the need to identify the true costs of sickness absence.
“There is no doubt that sickness absence costs the authority money and that it has an impact on the delivery of its services. In an age when there is continuous talk of the need to make efficiency savings, the review has concluded that by strengthening the approach to the management of sickness and supporting procedures and systems, the authority could realise significant financial savings.”
It is estimated that sickness absence incurs between £2million and £3million additional costs to the council. A 20 per cent reduction could result in savings of around £500,000.
The task and finish group is making several recommendations aimed at improving sickness absence. They include a need for more consistency by line managers in applying the policy; and strengthening the way sickness absence data is captured and reported.
The report has now been finalised and will go before members in the next few weeks.
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