Departments must "reduce sickness rates by
30%"
Summary
Ministers have challenged all Departments to reduce their
2004 sickness rates by 30% by 2010.
This Report
‘The
Management of Staff Sickness Absence in the Department for Transport and its
Agencies‘ (HC 527) looks at the sickness levels in the Department of
Transport (DfT) and its seven executive agencies. Sickness levels at DfT
average 10.4 days sickness for each full-time employee, compared to a Civil
Service average of 9.8 days.
However the performance is varied.
The central Department and four agencies have sickness levels at or below
comparable organisations but three agencies have higher levels and the Driving
Standards Agency and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency have absence rates
of 13.1 and 14 days respectively.
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How does it affect
me?
The NAO suggests that if there is going to be a significant change
there needs to be action at the corporate and individual business level.
Corporately, there needs to be:
- Targets for each part of the
Department, tailored to circumstances
- Quality standards for recording
sickness with the provision of management information
- A consistent
framework for evaluating initiatives and sharing good practice.
At
a business level more could be done to ensure that line managers were aware of
their responsibilities and improve intervention in long-term cases.
Find out more about
the work of the NAO.
See more on the Department for
Transport website.