1. Portfolio/Number/Name:H/T 1 Reduction in sickness absence |
2. Programme/Activity: Each health board will have developed local plans to achieve the target of 4% sickness absence in their area by 31 March 2008. Achievement of these local targets will be expected to deliver 4% sickness absence levels across NHSS as a whole by 31 March 2008. Therefore, health boards which already have sickness absence rates higher than the NHSScotland average will be expected to reduce down to 4% as soon as possible, or, once they have maintained or improved upon this position, to continue the cycle of improvement and strive to minimise sickness absence by effective management in line with staff governance principles. The target will be most challenging for health boards with high levels of sickness absence as they may need to reduce their sickness absence substantially by 2008. The approach used here continues to be to support those health boards which are already working to achieve reduced sickness absence and challenge those boards where more focused management attention is required. The underlying principle builds on previous initiatives in that effective management in line with staff governance principles should reduce sickness absence and be of benefit to employees, employers and patients. Board-by-board data on sickness absence has been collected through the new NHS workforce information repository since autumn 2005, part of the Scottish Workforce Information Standard System project. This led to changes in reported sickness absence rates due to greater accuracy, better coverage of all NHS systems, and new methodologies for collection of data. This may mean that a technical adjustment to the percentage target may need to be made, but this will not affect the level of time releasing savings which are planned. |
3. Efficiency | 3.1 Current target; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Time | 16.3 | 34.5 | 54.8 |
3.2 Efficiencies delivered; £m | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash | 0 | - | - |
Time | 5.85 | - | - |
4. Accountable Officer for delivery | Mr Paul Martin, Interim Director of Human Resources, SEHD |
5. Project Manager | Mr John Turner |
6. EGDD Portfolio Manager | Rowena Simpson |
7. Description of efficiency and actions to be taken | 7.1 What is the efficiency improvement? How will the efficiencies be made? The efficiency improvement is increased attendance levels as a result of more pro-active absence management. Savings will be achieved by using existing staff more effectively and by employing less complimentary or temporary staff. |
7.2 What are the main actions that are needed to secure the delivery of this efficiency improvement? The delivery of these time releasing savings are dependent on: 1. Board Chief Executives recognising the importance of this agenda and delivering on time 2. The support of Partnership colleagues 3. The continued delivery by SWISS to agreed time scales and accuracy. |
8. Associated costs | 8.1 Are there any development or redundancy costs associated with the delivery of this efficiency? There are no redundancy costs associated with this saving. Development costs have been incurred, and recurrent operational costs will be incurred on the SWISS project but as it was not embarked upon on efficiency grounds alone those costs will not be netted of the time releasing saving. |
9. Measurement | 9.1 What are the inputs that will be measured? Payroll costs will be recorded. |
9.2 What are the outputs that will be measured? The associated output is the level of attendance secured by that expenditure on staff (pay). By monitoring sickness absence rates by health board and staff group,, efficiency benefits will emerge by staff group, ie. by evaluating the reduction in sickness absence by different 'groups' of unit labour cost. Sickness absence data will be available from SWISS quarterly as from January 2006 |
9.3 What is the baseline for inputs and outputs? The baseline is the level of sickness absence in 2004/05. There is a possibility that the renewed focus on sickness absence reporting will result in improved reporting of sickness absence, which in itself is positive, but may result in sickness absence levels appearing to increase. As the SWISS data becomes available, there may be a need to make a technical adjustment, reset the baseline and adjust the target accordingly, whilst not affecting the level of time releasing savings. This will be the result of the transfer of data collection from one system to another. The new SWISS system is more accurate, therefore, we will review and possibly adjust the time releasing savings baseline and target by August 2006. |
10. Quality cross-check | 10.1 What quality indicators are being used to ensure that quality of service is maintained or improved? By reducing sickness absence, health boards will increase the number of days contributed, by its workforce, to the delivery of health care and therefore should impact directly on the delivery of care to the public by frontline staff. Reliance on temporary staffing will also be reduced and should result in further savings. The overall impact should lead to a more consistent approach to care delivery as the public should see more NHS staff at the frontline and less staff employed by agencies. We have begun to explore the use of clinical quality indicators to demonstrate improved quality in areas where sickness absence rates are lower. |
11. Monitoring | 11.1 What are the arrangements for monitoring the delivery of efficiencies? The "Scottish Workforce Information Standard System" ( SWISS) aims to provide information on staff in a consistent and accurate format. The project was set up to develop a national database that collects, holds and reports information on all NHS Scotland staff. The monitoring and reportin fits into agreed performance arrangements. SWISS will provide the data on a real time basis, the database will be updated weekly however absence data will be monitored on a quarterly basis initially.. The information provided by SWISS will be monitored by the Workforce Modernisation Division of SEHD The lead responsibility for ensuring the validity of the data rests with ISD and SWISS. The data is also collected as part of the Staff Governance arrangements and for the NHS Board Local Delivery Plans. Health boards are required to ensure that the data they input is of high quality. The quality of existing data, which forms the baseline, may not be accurate. The focus on this target has already resulted in better data quality. The recording of absence for some staff groups has been shown to be poor, therefore, with improved recording it is likely that sickness absence rates will increase, We will review the baseline and recommend any necessary adjustment in August 2006. Better reporting gives the opportunity for sickness absence to be better managed locally, therefore, health boards who improve their reporting, but as a consequence, demonstrate an increase in sickness absence will be supported to continue to strive for improved data quality and effective management of sickness absence. |
12. Reporting | 12.1 What are the arrangements for reporting the delivery of efficiencies? The Workforce Modernisation Division will give 3 monthly updates on sickness absence rates and 6 monthly updates on the progress of action plans to address the issue. |
13. Dependencies | 13.1 Explain if your efficiencies are dependent on legislation or other structural changes being achieved. No legislative dependencies Effective reduction of sickness absence is dependent on effective local management in line with staff governance principles and PIN guidelines and the delivery of an effective Occupational Health Service. The monitoring of progress has been enhanced by the SWISS Project delivering its agenda on time. All health boards are now using SWISS and are contributing to the Workforce Information Repository ( WIR) following its introduction during 2005. Good quality data has been available from January 2006. |
14. Use of efficiencies | 14.1 How are the efficiencies released from improvement activity being used to improve front-line services? Funding allocations from SEHD to NHS Boards did not assume an increase in attendance levels. Any time released from this project will contribute directly to the delivery of local service priorities |