Times are tough and we are all experiencing growing and largely critical scrutiny of council pay and rations. Paying attention to housekeeping essentials, such as managing sickness absence, is one way of encouraging more balanced comment on terms and conditions. And, even if your customer satisfaction is largely supportive of your council and its staff, a firm and fair approach to dealing with unacceptable levels of sickness absence is crucial to maintaining morale and motivation. Today's climate leaves less room than ever for a ‘carpet, slippers and cardi' culture and, as a former matron, I'm comfortable taking a lead from Mary Poppins with a firm but fair approach to managing sickness absence and a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. Good working conditions, the best two-way communication possible, training and career development opportunities, lots of social events, lunchtime activities, discounted leisure facilities, celebrating successes and health and wellbeing initiatives are on offer to nurture hard-working and enthusiastic staff. And, as well as physical and social treats, we are keen to look after emotional and mental needs too, with medical support, compassion and confidential, freely-available counselling. Any member of staff who is genuinely ill is offered support – but they have to be willing to play by the rules. However, swinging the lead in matron's domain is definitely not playing the game. Malingerers are cheating the public purse and letting down their team, big time. No management team can afford to leave sickness absence unchecked. So, if you work for Teignbridge and you're spotted in your lycra rather than your jimjams, competing in a 66-mile endurance biking competition across Dartmoor when you're off sick with a chest infection and stress, you can expect a good dose of unpalatable medicine being administered. For those who persist with frequent absences, vague explanations and reluctance to communicate, we've issued a fresh prescription for curing their sickness absence. Stronger medicine includes formal return to work interviews after every absence. These record the reason, the day(s) of the week, proximity to bank holidays and annual leave, date of last sickness absence and – importantly – action required to prevent further absences. Absent staff must speak with their line manager and voice mails, texts, e-mails, etc, are not acceptable methods for notifying absence. If we have good grounds to suspect abuse of sickness absence, then we use properly-authorised surveillance to gather evidence. Strong medicine, yes, and perhaps for some, a bitter pill to swallow, but necessary and effective in getting the balance right in looking after the wellbeing of the majority of our staff, and working to our best capacity for our customers. Nicola Bulbeck is chief executive of Teignbridge DC
