Proposed changes to attendance management

After more than four years of campaigning to everyone that will listen, up to and including the permanent secretary, PCS have finally received the consultation on the long-awaited Attendance Management review.  The department has agreed that this consultation can now come to members for their views.

The review has not gone as far as PCS had expected, however it is hoped that the result of the consultation exercise will enable PCS to push back further on elements of the proposal.

Members should note that the proposals outlined below are, at this stage, proposals for consultation and it is not until the policy is published that these elements become policy.  Because of this that we are unable to share the policy documents with members at this stage, however we can give a broader overview of the proposed changes to the policy.

The proposed changes are:

The Home Office has split the Attendance Management Policy into two distinct areas:

• Informal Attendance Management Procedure which details the expected standard from managers and employees and supportive informal action.
• Formal Attendance Management Procedure which details the formal procedure to follow for discontinuous absence (individual absences of an intermittent nature), continuous absence (an absence of at least 14 days) and when the absence is a cause for concern.

The GEC would like to thank the hundreds of members who responded to the survey that was circulated in a recent members briefing and as such have submitted our feedback on the consultation based on these responses. We have also included areas that have been highlighted by the numerous motions to conference on this subject in recent years.

We will keep members updated on any progress that we make and any replies we receive from the Home Office based on our submission.