Nurses back council workers' sickness service

Nursing leaders have backed the involvement of their colleagues in a controversial scheme to cut high sickness absence rates among public sector employees.

From next week, staff starting sickness absence from York council will have to telephone occupational health nurses employed by a private contractor. Nurses may also make follow-up phone calls to the employee's home to check on their progress and offer further advice.

The pioneering initiative will be trialled in York's adult services team for three months from September. Sickness rates in adult services are 28 days per year per staff member, costing the council ?2.3m.

The nurses are employed by Active Health Partners, a private company that offers the same service to 10 private companies.

Carol Bannister, occupational health adviser for the Royal College of Nursing, said: "Research shows the sooner an employer gets in touch with an employee the more likely there is to be a positive outcome for both employer and employee. If you ignore the employee they are likely to stay sicker for longer.

"The government has a number of pilots ongoing on managing sickness absence and occupational rehabilitation - the pilots are probably very similar to this one. It can be positive for employees and for the employer."

Stephen Forest, the York council's human resources manager, said: "In the past we have only used very traditional methods to tackle the problem of sickness absence, such as back to work interviews with staff when they return.

"To the best of our knowledge, Active Health Partners is the only organisation out there that can offer this sort of service. We were impressed to hear about their work with private sector companies."

Council employees are not convinced about the scheme, however. Peter Household, general convenor of Unison's York City Branch, said: "We are deeply suspicious about the company's motives. We think it will be more a question of nurses applying subtle pressure for staff to return to work.

"We will advise our members that they are not obliged to speak to the nurses. We don't want our members browbeaten into it.

"Staff are grossly overstretched and our members tell us that sickness is stress-related. We're resentful that, rather than come to us to discuss the sickness problem, we were just told that we've got this medical scheme."

The council says it has met with the unions on a regular basis to try and allay their concerns.

Haakon Overli, chief financial officer for Active Health Partners, said: "We only pass on to management what we are allowed to under the Data Protection Act. We cannot pass on any medical information without the employee's consent.

"Similar companies in Sweden and the US get good results. Our software picks up on symptoms of stress, for example, and we can give a much better picture than anecdotal evidence from managers."