Sick Civil Servants "Challenge"

On the day that it has emerged that local civil servants are top of a UK league for taking off work sick, an urgent review into capital investment priorities across the health and social care service has been commissioned by NI Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey.

The NI Audit Office said while absence levels had fallen in recent years, it was still 40% above the Great Britain figure.

The average sickness absence in the NI civil service is 13.7 days a year compared to 9.3 in the rest of the UK.

Specifically, Social Development staff - who are the local 'leaders' among such NI workers - are off sick an average of 18.7 days while at Regional Development the figure is 9.2.

In fact, Social Development workers are off sick almost four weeks a year on average, according to the public spending watchdog.

The big difference between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK was not that civil servants were absent more often, but that they were off for twice as long, with female sickness levels twice those of Great Britain.

The Audit Office said the target to bring absence levels down to 9.5 days was "a challenge for departments", but added that more could be done to improve the application of best practice.

Meanwhile, Michael McGimpsey's review - also just announced - will examine how money is being spent - current proposals for infrastructure developments in the medium to long term and will include new builds, equipment and information technology as well as considering existing facilities which require significant refurbishment.

It will be taken forward in the context of current policy frameworks, including Developing Better Services, the Primary Care Strategy and the Bamford Review.

The Minister said: "Too many of our facilities are dilapidated and in dire need of renewal or major refurbishment. The cost of maintaining these facilities, which have suffered from years of investment neglect, is too high and is, I believe, a waste of our limited resources.

"I have £3.6billion capital to invest in the infrastructure of our health social care and public safety services over the next ten years. This massive investment will be spent on new and re-furbished buildings, modern equipment and technology, and will bring real benefits to both staff and the public. A number of major projects are already in progress.

"However, even this enormous sum is not enough to address all the capital developments required. We need to urgently review and determine the investment priorities over the next ten years so that we can make best use of the available resources and target them where they will have the maximum impact on delivering high quality services.

"“We must become more efficient and effective. Like all other departments, I have to achieve 3% efficiency savings in each of the next three years as part of the comprehensive spending review. This will not be easy but I have made it clear that proposals should focus on making achievable efficiency savings and not cuts," he said.

With the review scheduled to be complete by September - the cost to the tax payer of the average worker across the whole of the NI civil service taking 13.7 days a year sick - will be something Michael McGimpsey's review team will be well aware off - perhaps noting that that money could be much better spent on improving the "dilapidated" facilities identified.

(BMcC)