Sick leave crackdown sees more police at work
Fifty more regular police officers are available for duty every day in Northern Ireland than a year ago following a reduction in sickness absence, it was revealed tonight.
Details released by the Policing Board showed the average number of regular officers off on sick leave each day in September was 418 (5.6%) – a reduction of 53 officers a day from a year before.
Commenting on the progress, Pauline McCabe, chair of the Board’s Human Resources Committee said tackling sickness absence was an integral part of the PSNI human resources planning strategy.
Strident efforts were obviously being made to tackle the issue among officers, she said, something which the committee “very much welcomes as it means that more police officers are available for duty”.
Ms McCabe added: “The accountability in place will continue to ensure that the performance of the Police Service is scrutinised by the Policing Board on behalf of the community the PSNI serves with the goal of making our streets safer.”
The planning strategy set targets for the Chief Constable to reduce the average level of sickness absence for officers to 17 days per officer a year by March 2005.
Figures given to the committee today showed that with six months to go to the deadline officers were doing better than hoped – just over seven days' sick leave per officer in the past six months.
“Three years ago last week, when both the PSNI and the Policing Board were established, there were on average 1,000 regular and full-time reserve officers off sick per day,” said Ms McCabe.
Latest figures showed that was now down to 584 officers 6.5%.
She said that was “considerable achievement” and showed “a healthy downward trend that the Policing Board welcomes and will continue to monitor and expect to be continued”.
While extensive efforts were obviously being made in some District Command units to tackle sickness leave among officers, Ms McCabe said she would be asking Chief Constable Hugh Orde what measures were being put in place to tackle increasing absence among civilian staff.
On average 247 civilian members of PSNI staff were off sick per working day in September, compared with 221 a year earlier.
