Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Elisabeth Jones (Director of Legal Services), Mark Neilson (Head of ICT), Dave Tosh (Director of Assembly Resources) and Gareth Watts (Acting Head of Governance and Audit).

There were no declarations of interest.

Adrian Crompton would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the news page.

The minutes of the 12 May Management Board meeting were agreed as a correct record. 

Leanne Baker attended the meeting to discuss in detail with Management Board the absence rates, how the Assembly faired against the broader absence picture and recommendations on managing sickness. Despite being lower than the public sector, sickness absences had been increasing over the past few years, with mental health being the main cause for long term sickness. The Board agreed that managing absence effectively and supporting the health and wellbeing of staff was very important. Sickness absences could contribute to low staff morale and, potentially, impact on standards of service, as well as being costly.

The Board discussed how the absence policies were applied across the organisation and perceived issues. It was suggested that management data for Heads could be refined further to enable them to identify the issues and understand why absences had increased. The Board considered the recommendations in detail and agreed:

·               additional training on attendance management would be beneficial, but targeted in areas where there were issues, ensuring that the individual’s responsibilities, as both employee and manager, were clear;

·               focused support, through awareness raising, training, toolkit and guidance, to strengthen the capability of managers to deal more effectively with absences;

·               increasing awareness of preventative measures, such as wellbeing initiatives with a possible pilot training to help managers understand mental health matters; considering the extension of existing occupational health support;

·               provision of more detailed data to Service Heads;

·               consideration of how more effective support could be provided to those with caring responsibilities, including through existing policies and if exceptional subsidies are possible;

·               consideration of ways staff could be encouraged and supported to take responsibility for their own wellbeing in relation to work;

·               ensuring support was provided for managers to timely and sensitively deal with health matters - whether a health issue or absence issue - and balance support for the individual with having an expectation of their ability to deliver.

·               using MyView to set automatic alerts to employees and managers through, for example, to prompt managers to keep in touch with absent staff, complete return to work interviews or close absences.

The HR team would arrange to attend team or Service meetings to discuss this further.

The Board agreed to dedicate the meeting to the discussion of absence management, so the other items were postponed until the July meeting agenda.

The Board agreed to dedicate the meeting to the discussion of absence management, so the other items were postponed until the July meeting agenda.

The Board agreed to dedicate the meeting to the discussion of absence management, so the other items were postponed until the July meeting agenda.

The next Management Board meeting would be on 14 July, following their away day on 8 July to discuss in detail the challenges and opportunities facing the Assembly and Commission at the start of the Fifth Assembly.