Long term sickness

Report: 15
Date: 25 July 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

The report has been produced in response to a request from the Human Resources Committee for additional information on long-term sickness absence for police officers and members of civil staff, following the briefing provided on police cases at the May meeting of the Committee.

A. Recommendations

That Members note the contents of the report, and the position paper submitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee on the issue of police reform. The committee will be updated with work being undertaken in relation to the issue of Regulation change.

B. Supporting information

Sickness Data

1. At the end of March 2002 165 police officers and 52 members of civil staff had been continuously sick for six months or more. A breakdown summary of that data is provided at appendix 1. A detailed breakdown of police officer relevant data by OCU, is provided at appendix 1a and a breakdown of sickness by gender is provided at appendix 1b. For civil staff the data is provided at appendices 1c and 1d.

2. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of sickness by ethnic origin as the data is not recorded. There is some disproportionality in sickness between male and female officers with a higher proportion of female officers represented in categories of sickness up to 2 years. The only female officers who were sick as a result of a gynaecological and obstetrics related condition were 8 of the 96 in the '28 days to 6 months' category. Further work is required in this area.

Management of cases

3. The service has a comprehensive attendance management policy, which was introduced in 1998 and revised in September 2001. The current policy is available to Members if required. The policy is in line that of other forces and was well received by the District Audit Office, following their 2001 inspection.

4. The overriding principle applied to managing sickness absence is that of early intervention by line managers, and referral to occupational health services.

5. A detailed description of initiatives undertaken by Occupational Health under the 'hotspotting' process is provided in the Analysis of Sickness paper also submitted to the committee for this meeting. In addition, data on long term sickness, restricted and recuperative duties have recently become available and will be used to target management intervention.

Pay arrangements

6. Both police officers and members of civil staff are entitled to up to 6 months sickness on full pay and a further 6 months on half pay. Full or half pay may be extended, according to specific criteria, but benefits for members of civil staff are much more limited than for police officers.

7. Sickness pay arrangements for police officers are prescribed by Police Regulations, whereas the arrangements for civil staff are based on Civil Service Treasury rules. Decisions to extend pay for members of civil staff have recently been devolved to OCU commanders or heads of branches, whereas for police officers the relevant Assistant Commissioner makes the decision.

8. A breakdown of pay decisions, by gender and ethnic origin is set out at appendix 2a or police officers and 2b or members of civil staff. When considering the data it is important to recognise that the small number of visible ethnic minority officers subject to Regulation 46 make meaningful analysis difficult. In relation to issues of gender, the percentages of officers at full, half and off pay are similar, with the greatest difference of 5 percentage points in the 'off pay' category.

9. Work on Regulation 46 issues is being undertaken and proposals will be made shortly on the means to ensure consistency in pay decisions.

Discipline / Unsatisfactory Performance Procedures

10. The unsatisfactory performance procedures are little used throughout the country, the MPS is no exception. It is not really possible to identify specific difficulties in respect of sickness. Police officers, unlike members of civil staff, cannot be dismissed for poor attendance in respect of sickness. Whilst it is possible to take such action, a member of civil staff would be ill health retired if he or she had an underlying medical condition that rendered them unable to continue with the service. Officers who are both suspended and sick are not subject to a reduction in pay. Such officers are also counted against the sickness figures, even though they would not be able to return to work even if fit.

Recuperative and restricted duties

11. Both police officers and members of civil staff are eligible for consideration for recuperative duties for up to 12 months. As an alternative to retirement on grounds of ill health, restricted duties are available for police officers. For members of civil staff the Disability Discrimination Act provisions are applied, with managers being required to consider reasonable work adjustment or a change of role, prior to considering ill health retirement. Procedures relating to civil staff ill health retirement have recently been adjusted to bring them closer in line with those for police officers. A full description of restricted and recuperative duties available to Members if required.

12. In the past month recuperative and restricted data has begun to be recorded on the Computer Aided Resource Management system used by all Boroughs. A number of other units do not yet have access to the system, and from these, data has had to be collected manually. The data still has to be reconciled, but will allow comparison between OCUs and better targeted interventions. A breakdown of data was provided for the May meeting and is updated for the table at appendix 1. It is not at this stage possible to provide a breakdown of data relating to either gender or ethnic origin as this is not recorded on the system.

13. Case studies relating to the difficulties experienced when managing long- term sickness will be provided separately to the members at the meeting.

14. The attendance management processes employed by the Royal Parks Police (RPC) have much in common with those of the MPS. Whilst the processes are similar, parks officers are not subject to Police Regulations, instead they operate under the civil staff rules in relation to pay extensions and pensions. The R.P.C. do not have their own OH service, but utilise the services of B.M.I. who provide access to a medical officer. Working days lost within the RPC in the 12 months to February 2002 averaged 16.65 per officer whereas for the MPS they averaged 10.5.

C. Financial implications

There are no financial implications identified at this stage as a result of the information contained within the paper. Actions under the attendance management policy are undertaken within current resources.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report author: Chief Inspector Mike Tarry, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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