Council to pilot controversialsystem to tackle absenteeism

A controversial monitoring system which targets staff who are regularly off sick could be used to cut absenteeism at a seaside town hall.

But Scarborough Council bosses have underlined the option is only part of a wider approach to stop abuse and ensure ill employees are fairly treated.

Nationally, the so-called Bradford Factor system has often been viewed with suspicion by union bosses, particularly in the NHS, who claim it can be used to scare people back to work.

Now it could be used by Scarborough Council as part of its strategy for improving staff attendance. But Coun Joe Plant, chairman of the Task Group that drew up the approach, stressed it was nothing for staff to worry about.

He said: “We did some research into the sickness absence. In some places, the Bradford Factor works and people think it is the best thing since sliced bread and others don’t.

“But it depends who is doing it. It is not just the system – it is how it’s run.”

The pilot would be confined to one area of the council. There was no guarantee it would happen anyway because it would depend on costs and staffing.

The Bradford Factor is a system for separating patterns of longer, infrequent staff absences from those which are more frequent, but of shorter duration.

People who are off work more often, for shorter periods, are often seen as more of a management problem than people who are chronically ill, because their unforeseen but frequent absences can cause chaos in some organisations.

When the system was first introduced by several NHS trusts a number of years ago, it was found an employee having a few days off, to recover from a cold, might send their Bradford score through the roof and come to the attention of management.

But Coun Plant said: “We are trying to be fair across the board. It is not aimed at people who genuinely sick. It has taken a year to do the report because we have looked at it thoroughly and looked at other councils and authorities.

“The aim is not to hit the sick but see if we can do more to help, such as having them work from home. We are not pushing people back to work for the sake of it.”