Staff absences/sickness due to psychological and musculoskeletal issues

The request was partially successful.

Dear Boston College,

Under the FOI Act 2000, I would like to request the following information:

1. How many staff absences in the past three years, ie 2013-2014, 2012-2013 and 2011-2012, were a result of musculoskeletal and/or psychological related issues/problems? Please provide this information as a raw number and as the number or full time working days lost (including non-working days).

2. The relative cost to your organisation (in £s) for each of the three years listed above, for these musculoskeletal and/or psychological absences

3. The number of staff employed as full time equivalents in each of these three years

4. The current policy, the processes in place and the occupational health provisions for those staff absent from work as a direct result of musculoskeletal and/or psychological complaint

Yours faithfully,

Samantha Kennedy

Millington, Tim, Boston College

Hello Samantha,

With regard to your request below I have the following response for your consideration.

1. Boston College have not previously published absence information in such a way as to identify what illnesses were responsible. In order to further focus our attention on the causes we have recently started recording information broken down by the main reasons, this information is available for the Academic year 2014/15 ie from September 2014. Included in the headings we use are 'Orthapaedic problems/Broken Bones' and 'Stress' which would seem to be aligned with the information you seek, under the terms of the act we can supply this information from 1 September 2014 as requested within the 20 day limit.

Unfortunately the only way we recorded information on the cause was on the individual's personnel record. While there are some reports available from our HR system to isolate absence none of them are capable of breaking down the information in the way you are requesting. In order to produce this information in the way that you request would require a manual process through the absence records for each of the 3 years. It is estimated that to produce the existing reports, manually produce the information you have requested in the correct format and prepare it for sending would take between 24 - 30 hours, as indicated under the guidance provided by the information commissioner this time would be charged at £25.00 per hour and would equate to an estimated cost of £600 - £750 pounds. This cost exceeds the cost limits laid down in the Freedom of Information Act (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 which state that the request for this particular information can be refused on the grounds of excessive cost, that they would 'cause a drain on....time, energy and finances to the extent that they negatively affect ....(our)..normal public functions. However, under the terms of the Act we can provide the information if you are willing to pay for the time taken to produce it, We request that you pay the lower estimate of £600 initially and on receipt of payment we will commence production of the information, on completion we will produce a final invoice and on receipt of payment of any balance we will release the information. In accordance with the act the 'time for compliance' clock is paused until such payment is received.

As an alternative if you are seeking information generally about these forms of absence I would suggest you contact the Association of Colleges (AoC), this is an umbrella organisation that produces sector reports and conducts an annual survey of absence which includes a breakdown of causes, I hope this is helpful to you and if you would like to have contact information for the AoC please contact me and I will be happy to provide this.

2. As we do not have the information requested in point 1 we cannot provide the historic information for point 2 under the same terms of the act unless we receive the requested payment. As such the 'time for compliance' clock for all information prior to September 1st 2014 is paused until payment is received.

3. The number of staff employed as full time equivalents (FTE) in each of these 3 years is available although obviously it will be a snapshot figure as this figure will have varied throughout the year due to staff turnover, this will be provided within 20 working days.

4. The information regarding current policies, the processes in place and Occupational Health provision are available and will be provided within 20 working days.

I look forward to receiving your responses to the points raised regarding your request in the email above.

Kind Regards

Tim

Tim Millington
Human Resources Manager
E-mail: [email address]
Tel: 01205 365701 ext 3483
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible”!

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Samantha Kennedy

Dear Boston College,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Boston College's handling of my FOI request 'Staff absences/sickness due to psychological and musculoskeletal issues'.

Whilst a response was received, a number of supporting documents should have followed within 20 working days. To date these documents have not been received.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

Yours faithfully,

Samantha Kennedy