Development of a healthy and safe workforce able to contribute effectively to operational priorities

Report: 8
Date: 8 January 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report sets out the key activities being undertaken to support the development of a safe and healthy workforce and therefore create a more efficient operational service (HR Business and Performance Plan 2003/04: Objective 3). Current performance measures are included for information purposes.

A. Recommendation

That committee members note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

Overview of report

1. At Human Resources Committee on 5 June 2003, the MPA endorsed the MPS Strategy to promote a safe and healthy workforce, in line with Objective 3 of the HR Business and Performance Plan 2003/04 (attached at Appendix 1).

2. This report gives details of progress against the key activities designed to:

• Promote a healthy and safety conscious workforce.
• Identify barriers to good healthy and safe working conditions.
• Provide flexibility to enable maximum input, use of skills and experience from those officers suffering from illness or disability.
• Provide an update of current performance against service targets.

Performance measures

3. Of the eight performance targets set, six have been met including that for the average number of days lost through sickness per police officer, which now stands at 8.9 days per officer against a target of 9 days. Problems persist in reducing police staff sickness - 11.1 days against a target of 11. An action plan was implemented on 6 October 2003, with the aim of reducing police staff sickness to the target of 11 days by 31 March 2004. A dedicated medical officer is looking at all cases of long-term absence. Workshops were run for personnel managers throughout November. Action has already been taken on some of the long-term cases, either by way of ill-health retirement, inefficiency or OH support back to work.

4. Full details of the eight performance measures are attached at Appendix 2.

Key activities

5. There are seven key activities. These represent a combination of structural, reactive, proactive and developmental activities designed to enhance the range and quality of existing and future service provision, and thereby deliver a healthier and more safety conscious workforce.

6. Full details of the individual activities are shown at Appendix 3.

C. Equality and diversity implications

All actions and activities in this paper will support positively the well being of all staff. Additionally, the proposed revised restricted and recuperative duties policy will provide for greater inclusion of disabled officers within the workforce through greater awareness and responsiveness to individual needs.

D. Financial implications

Funding for the activities listed is being provided through a combination of existing budgeted resources and additional funding provided by the Home Office under the umbrella of the National Strategy for a Healthy Police Service.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Bob Crawley, Senior Practice Manager, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

Metropolitan Police Occupational Health strategy for a healthy police service

Introduction

1. This sets out the Occupational Health (OH) strategy for a healthy police service. This strategy reflects the tenets and composition of the National Police Strategy for a Healthy Police Service, as adjusted to reflect the structure and size of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The MPS OH strategy supports the aims and objectives within the People Strategy, the National Policing Plan and the (draft) HR Business Plan for 2003/4 – 2005/6. The OH strategy covers health and safety, occupational health, welfare and attendance management; and applies to all staff; including support staff.

2. Staff are the MPS’s most valuable resource. Their health, safety and well being are critical to the MPS’s ability to deliver the services which London needs and expects. Sickness has a major impact on efficiency in terms of absence, additional overtime costs and stress for staff [and their families] who are left to cover for absent colleagues. Reducing sickness is a priority for the MPS.

3. The main responsibility for implementing this strategy rests with Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources.

Aims of this strategy

4. The strategy aims to deliver the following outcomes on the basis of common standards and procedures:

• Maintenance of good health in all staff
• A reduction in injuries and ill health in all staff
• To help people who have become ill, whether caused by work or not, to return to work and full performance
• To help reduce the number of medical retirements by managing cases of ill health more effectively at the outset.
• The promotion of a healthy and safety conscious workforce.

Responsibilities

5. The MPS will ensure that so far as possible, working conditions enable all police staff to maintain good health, and that the aims of this strategy are embedded in strategic decision-making. The MPS will endeavour to meet its legal obligations under health and safety legislation, and ensure that the Service is ready to comply with the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, when the exception for the police officers is removed (anticipated 2004).

6. In accordance with the National Police Strategy, Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources, will account to the Metropolitan Police Authority for delivery against the strategy and put in place effective procedures for monitoring implementation of the strategy and monitoring its organisational impact.

7. Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources will define the MPS’s structures, policies and processes for managing attendance and will ensure that support and advice is available to line managers. The primary vehicle for the management of sickness will be the Attendance Management Policy, supported by ancillary policies, as approved by Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources. The work of the Health and Safety Unit, within the Department of Occupational Health, will be undertaken in accordance with relevant Health and Safety legislation.

8. The promotion of a healthy and safety conscious workforce is the responsibility of all members of the MPS. The Health and Safety Unit will assist managers to proactively manage known and potential risks to the workforce.

9. Line managers must promote the health and safety of their staff. This should be reflected in day-to-day work practices. Line managers are responsible for managing attendance, with advice from human resource managers, occupational health, and health and safety specialists.

10. Line managers, branch heads and heads of departments will regularly monitor the attendance of their staff and deal effectively with poor attendance in accordance with the Attendance Management Policy and with the support of OH.

11. OH will provide an advisory role to business groups in the management of sickness. The business groups and OH will develop a customer/provider relationship.

12. All staff have a responsibility for their health and well being and developing awareness of the factors that contribute to ill-health and participating fully in initiatives to raise health standards.

13. Occupational health specialists and health & safety advisers will meet the needs of the organisations, and support staff, through providing specialist services of the highest quality. All OH practitioners will be appropriately qualified within their respective disciplines, including practitioners employed on agency or contract basis.

Targets

14. National targets will be published by the Home Office for reducing sickness absence. The targets will challenge the MPS to perform at the level of the best constabulary, with the aim of achieving significant reductions in sickness absence by 2005. The Metropolitan Police Authority will determine targets for the MPS. Performance against the targets will be measured each month using corporate sickness data provided by Performance Information Bureau.

15. The strategy will support the aim of encouraging effective occupational health policies and sound human resource management practices within the MPS, so that potential cases of ill-health retirement are managed more effectively from the outset. This should help to ensure that ill-health retirements in the MPS are reduced by 2005/06, so that ill-health retirement levels in the MPS are consistent with, or better than the performance achieved by the best quartile of all constabularies in 2000/01.

Monitoring

16. The MPS (through the Performance Information Bureau) will record and monitor sickness absence according to criteria and definitions developed by the Home Office-led Police Numbers Task Force. The MPS will take the results of the monitoring into account in human resource planning, and report figures quarterly to the Home Office. The Metropolitan Police Authority will use the results to inform their scrutiny of the MPS’s performance against this strategy.

Analysis of sickness

17. Regular analysis of sickness data will be undertaken to determine reasons for sickness and injuries, trends in the type of illness or injury occurring, by location, gender, rank and role so that appropriate interventions may be tailored to maximum effect.

Interventions

18. Actions to assist staff the safe return of officers to work or to assist in the structured return to work over time, will include a range of options covering internal and external service provision. The different interventions will be assessed to measure their respective success rates with regard to cost and outcomes. Interventions will be changed as necessary to achieve improvements in performance.

Action Plan

19. A costed action plan to drive this strategy forward will be produced by Director HR Services on behalf of Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources, by 30 June 2003. The action plan will encapsulate pro-active measures to assist in the prevention of illness and injury and reactive measures to deal with sickness absence and injuries that have occurred. The action plan will include a service delivery plan that will ensure that:

• Line managers, human resource managers, occupational health specialists and health and safety advisers co-ordinate their efforts to minimise sickness absence and ill health retirement.
• Health promotion and a focus on work life balance are actively pursued.
• Support for staff in posts subject to intense or long-term stress is available, as necessary, at pre-selection, during and post operational stages.
• Occupational Health considers the use of private healthcare where this is justified by a cost benefit analysis, which takes into account the efficiency gains resulting from the projected earlier return to work. The MPS will consult with the Metropolitan Police Authority on a policy governing the use of private health care intervention.
• Occupational Health considers new forms of medical and non-medical interventions together with other funding options available through public/private sector initiatives.
• Occupational Health resources are sufficient to meet demand; are focused on business needs; are customer focused; are utilised in accordance with the strategic aims of the MPS and the Business Plan for Human Resources.
• Line managers and human resource managers are provided with the skills to manage sickness absence in accordance with MPS policies and protocols.
• Staff are helped to remain at work, or to return to work from sickness absence, as quickly and as flexibly as possible.
• The MPS will, in consultation with the Health and Safety Executive and the Metropolitan Police Authority, review its compliance with health and safety legislation and develop actions plans to ensure compliance with the legal obligations under that legislation.

Implementation of the strategy

20. The strategy will be implemented with immediate effect.

Appendix 2

Data for HR Objective 3:

To develop a healthy workforce and safe working practices to enable police officers and police staff to contribute effectively to operational priorities

Appendix 3

Key activities

1. Promotion of a dynamic approach to good health and safety practices. This involves a number of activities and developments including:

• The new health and safety branch structure is finalised. Recruitment activity to fill the additional posts created was completed in December.
• An inspection review of all borough OCUs was completed in November: outcomes are being assessed. A liaison plan with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has also been agreed.
• Management Board approved a new health and safety policy incorporating details of organisational responsibility in October. This is to be launched formally by the Commissioner in January 2004.
• A risk assessment library in relation to a number of policing activities, available through the Intranet went live in November. This is an ongoing activity.
• Training for compliance with HSE notices continues for new members of the MPS.
• An analysis of probationer injury levels has been completed. Outcomes are currently being assessed.

2. Identify principal causes of musculoskeletal injuries and take remedial action.

An initial piece of work has been undertaken using MetAir to identify principal causes of injury. This is being supplemented over a three-month period, commencing 1 November 2003, by information obtained from OH practitioners following referral by clients. It is hoped that this latter approach will provide more detailed information about how, why and when injuries are occurring. We will then take appropriate action to reduce them.

3. Support the National Strategy for a Healthy Police Service

The action plan in support of the National Strategy was approved by Human Resources Committee on 5 June 2003. The action plan comprises nine areas of activity, the majority of which will remain ongoing into 2003/04. Specific activities include pro-active health promotion assessment and awareness campaigns, to be delivered at the workplace commencing January 2004 and themed around prevention of ill health, early detection of illness and active rehabilitation following illness/injury. Other activities include provision of training for personnel managers (second tranche of workshops commenced 10 November 2003) and line managers. The training for line-managers is underway and will be ongoing.

4. Focus on occupational health services agreed with customers and provision of support to local management in the management of sickness absence.

A pilot questionnaire has been produced which seeks comments from OH senior management customers on the mix and allocation of resources both within specific disciplines and within OH service provision generally. Outcomes from the questionnaire will indicate whether the utilisation of OH resources is in accordance with customer needs and expectations. Customer satisfaction with current service delivery will also be assessed and supplement ongoing customer satisfaction surveys.

Support to local managers in managing sickness absence more effectively is undertaken on a number of levels. Day to day support is provided through recuperative duty clinics where concerns about case management on either side can be discussed; through meetings between the medical officers and senior local managers to discuss contentious and/or non-progressing cases; through attendance of OH staff at OCU training days and through training delivered by OH staff to line and personnel managers. An action plan to deal with police staff sickness was recently implemented and this is providing an opportunity for OH staff to mentor, support and encourage local managers on a one to one basis to develop and utilise their attendance management skills. OH also acts as a catalyst for other HR professionals to be brought in to provide specific advice on disciplinary and inefficiency issues where sickness absence warrants a different intervention.

5. Introduce a new Recuperative and Restricted Duties policy

A new policy has been drafted and given initial approval by HR Board. The consultative process with customers on the implementation of the revised policy is underway and should be completed by the end of the year. The revised policy is designed to provide for a more flexible approach for dealing with officers suffering injury or illness and will assist in retaining officers and the skills and experience they posses in meaningful roles, where hitherto they would have been lost to the MPS. Full implementation of the revised policy is scheduled for early 2004.

6. Extend the Spend to Save Scheme in to areas where early intervention will be most effective in assisting officers back to work.

Additional funding provided by the Home Office under the National Strategy for a Healthy Police Service enabled a temporary enhancement to be made to the existing spend to save scheme. The enhanced scheme ran from January 2003 until September 2003. Outcomes will be assessed in January 2004 when treatment regimes are complete. The additional operations provided under the scheme were those which were most commonly requested and which would have the greatest impact on the workforce and provide the greatest return on investment. Provided we receive the same level of funding from the Home Office in 2004/05, it may be possible to extend the Spend to Save Scheme again.

7. Develop and implement a stress management strategy

In February 2003, a business psychology solutions provider was invited to review the work done thus far on stress management and make recommendations. Outcomes and products from that work include:

• A Stress Management Policy.
• A self-help package made available on the Intranet in November 2003 that allows every officer and police staff member in the MPS to access information on how to recognise stress and deal with it.
• Scheduling of a major stress audit to cover 10,000 employees, to commence in January 2004.
• A requirement from the stress audit to produce toolkits and risk assessment procedures for managers.

Funding for this element is being provided by the Home Office under the National Strategy for a Healthy Police Service.

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