Press Release - Managing Attendance in the Department for Work
and Pensions
8 December 2004
The Department for Work and Pensions, the largest employer in
central government, like other organisations loses a significant
amount of staff time to sickness absence. The Department has
introduced good attendance management procedures, but, according to
today’s report by the National Audit Office, it could do more to
ensure that these procedures are adopted by all of its staff, and
that its managers improve the management of staff attendance.
Levels of sickness absence are influenced by a range of factors
including the age, gender and grade of staff, their motivation and
attitudes, and the extent of organisational change under way. The
Department faces a major challenge in relation to all these factors
and has large numbers of staff in categories which, in any
organisation, have higher levels of sickness absence. In addition,
changes such as the shift towards more call centres – which in the
private sector have been shown to have high sickness absence rates
- may be making the task of controlling absence rates harder. The
Department had an average sickness absence of 12.6 days per person
in 2003-04: without any adjustment for age, gender or grade, one of
the highest levels in the Civil Service.
Levels of sickness absence on this scale can have an impact on
the Department’s performance, and on the well-being of those at
work who have to cover for absent colleagues. This is particularly
important at a time when the Department is expected to reduce its
staff numbers by 30,000 full-time equivalents by 2008. In 2002, the
Department agreed new targets: to reduce sickness absence to an
average of 10 working days lost per member of staff by 2004 and
eight days by 2006. The 2004 target has been missed and that for
2006 is unlikely to be met.
The National Audit Office examined the Department’s policy on
attendance management against good practice and found that it
measured up well. Key features include a trigger point (eight days
of absence) at which management action should be considered,
compulsory return-to-work interviews, a taskforce to deal with
long-term absence cases and better access to occupational health
services. It has also already evaluated progress with the new
policy and is acting on its findings, many of which accord with
those of the National Audit Office. The Department therefore has
strengths on which to build, including a well designed policy, high
levels of staff commitment and the experience of many good managers
at a local level.
However, today’s report notes that the policy could have been
launched more effectively and that many basic procedures in the
policy – such as the issuing of warnings - are implemented
inconsistently or not at all at local level. For example, the
National Audit Office found that the Department had introduced a
well-being at work policy aimed at reducing workplace stress; and
good support mechanisms such as occupational health services are
available, but could be more effectively used. Managers also
currently lack access to timely and reliable data on absence. The
Department has developed a new staff information system, to be
rolled out by the end of 2004, to address this.
The National Audit Office considers that the Department has the
potential to achieve substantially better performance by doing more
to ensure that these good management policies and practices are
adhered to systematically across the Department. The National Audit
Office has made recommendations, which the Department accepts and
on which it has started to act. The recommendations focus on the
following:
- reinforcing the culture of attendance in the organisation,
underlining the Department's commitment to reducing absence and
improving workplace health;
- better communication of its attendance policies to ensure it
gives clear, consistent messages to all staff which take account of
our findings;
- more effective use of management information to identify and
tackle attendance problems; and
- improved support for managers in fulfilling the role expected
of them, with better training, monitoring, and clearer roles and
responsibilities especially for long-term absence.
Head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn said
today:
"Achieving better staff attendance at the Department for
Work and Pensions, the largest government department, would be an
important step towards improving central government efficiency. The
Department's absence rate is high and has not yet been reduced by
the introduction of a new policy. There are no easy solutions,
particularly at a time when the Department is undergoing a heavy
programme of change, but the Department needs to do more to ensure
that the good attendance management procedures it has introduced
are adopted by all staff and managers across the
organisation."
Notes for Editors:
- The National Audit Office assessed the Department’s performance
against widely recognised good practice. It was assisted in this by
attendance management experts from the Institute for Employment
Studies and the Institute of Work Psychology. They have produced a
supporting report, aimed at a practitioner audience summarising the
evidence on different types of absence problems and the efficacy of
different solutions, which is being sent today to all central
government bodies.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website at www.nao.org.uk. Hard copies can
be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office which employs some 800 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 73/04
All enquiries to Barry Lester, NAO Press Office:
Tel: 020 7798 7937
Mobile: 07748 181692