Sick Leave

The request was successful.

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,
how many staff, by Department, are on sick leave of periods longer than one, two, three, etc years and what level of remuneration are they each receiving, please?

Furthermore, what steps are taken to resolve these issues and how are the reduced staffing issues in their Departments solved?

Yours faithfully,

John H Hutchinson

John H Hutchinson

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Sick Leave' because the period allowed by Law for the response has been exceeded.

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

Yours faithfully,

John H Hutchinson

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,

This email reply is in response to your request for information shown
below.  We apologise for the delay there has been in responding to your
enquiry.

 

In order to facilitate your original enquiry, Officers have estimated it
would take them over the appropriate limit of 18.5 hours allowed by the
legislation; and as such, I am refusing your request.  Further information
relating to this exemption is given below.

 

“Where an authority is not obliged to comply with a request for
information because, under section 12(1) and regulations made under
section 12, the cost of complying would exceed the "appropriate limit"
(i.e. cost threshold) the authority should consider providing an
indication of what, if any, information could be provided within the cost
ceiling. The authority should also consider advising the applicant that by
reforming or re-focusing their request, information may be able to be
supplied for a lower, or no, fee.” 

 

You have the right under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
to ask for an internal review of the refusal of the information
requested.  Please direct any request for an internal review to
[Wirral Borough Council request email]  and your request will be allocated for
review.

 

To advise you further, perhaps you could reduce the timeframe of your
enquiry and we would happily review it.

 

You do also have the right to complain to the information Commissioner, if
you are dissatisfied with the outcome of any internal review, whose office
is situated at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Fax: 01625 524510 [1]www.ico.gov.uk <[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/>

 

Kind regards

Jane Corrin

Information Manger

Transformation and Resources

Wirral Council

 

 

From: John H Hutchinson
[mailto:[FOI #130006 email]]

Sent: 14 September 2012 11:53

To: InfoMgr, FinDMT

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Sick Leave

 

     Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

 

     how many staff, by Department, are on sick leave of periods longer

     than one, two, three, etc years and what level of remuneration are

     they each receiving, please?

 

     Furthermore, what steps are taken to resolve these issues and how

     are the reduced staffing issues in their Departments solved?

 

     Yours faithfully,

 

     John H Hutchinson

 

     -------------------------------------------------------------------

 

     Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

 

     [FOI #130006 email]

 

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John H Hutchinson

Dear Corrin, Jane,

Since you have taken nine months to reply, it must must be obvious to all that read this that you would require more than 18.5 hours to compile a meaningful response.

My October 2012 email requested an Internal Review, which you have ignored. I shall be grateful if you will now demonstrate your understanding of the law and plain English and carry out the Internal Reviews that will explain

1. Why it should take more than 18.5 hours to peruse accurate digital records, and

2. Why it has taken nine months to reply?

Yours sincerely,

John H Hutchinson

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your further email below and request for an internal review. Please see detail below as Council's reply and I trust the information is useful to you.

Because of the way the recorded information is held on sickness absence, we are not able to simply extract a report which answers your query and manual review of the recorded information is needed. This would take us over the 18.5 hours.

To explain further and give an example - If an employee was off for a period of time with influenza and then on the day they were to return to work, had a fall and broke their ankle; this would be recorded as 2 separate periods of absence. This is because the coding for the 2 periods of sickness, although consecutive, would be different, one for flu and one for the broken bone.

Therefore Officers would have to manually analyse the recorded information and see were the periods of sickness were consecutive and for how many days.

The method of collection was changed in 2009/10 to weekly submissions with automated upload into the HR system. This enabled a saving of £150,000 to be realised in our Payroll section in addition to providing more accurate information relating to overall lost time. The compromise to achieving these savings was that analysing continuous periods of long term sickness is more difficult. However, given the small number of cases identified at the time of the change this risk was deemed acceptable.

We are now working on implementing a new Management Information tool which will improve the quality of data available in this area.

We are able to give you total number of days of sickness if you wish, please advise?

The Council have been working on a backlog of enquiries and we do apologise for the delay in our original reply to you.

If you are dissatisfied with this response to your request for information, you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner., but would be expected to utilise, firstly, the internal review procedure. The address is the Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire SK9 5AF

www.ico.gov.uk

From: John H Hutchinson [mailto:]
Sent: 07 June 2013 19:58
To: Corrin, Jane
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Sick Leave

Dear Corrin, Jane,

Since you have taken nine months to reply, it must must be obvious to all that read this that you would require more than 18.5 hours to compile a meaningful response.

My October 2012 email requested an Internal Review, which you have ignored. I shall be grateful if you will now demonstrate your understanding of the law and plain English and carry out the Internal Reviews that will explain

1. Why it should take more than 18.5 hours to peruse accurate digital records, and

2. Why it has taken nine months to reply?

Yours sincerely,

John H Hutchinson

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John H Hutchinson

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Sick Leave'.

My original request was dated 14 September 2012.

Because I did not receive a reply in due time, I asked for an internal review (1) on 16 October 2012.

On 7 June 2013, I received a reply to my original question, which I accepted, but no response to my internal review (1).

On 7 June 2013, I requested for a second time an internal review (2) concerning the delayed reply.

On 18 June 2013, I received notes on the way that information is gathered but no reply to my internal review (1) or internal review (2). I was advised that I could seek an internal review.

Please note that I am satisfied by your response to original questions.

I shall be grateful if you will conduct an internal review (3) to explain

a) why my internal interview (1) was ignored; and

b) why my internal interview (2) was ignored.

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

Yours faithfully,

John H Hutchinson

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
With regard to your email below, my response did state:-

"The Council have been working on a backlog of enquiries and we do
apologise for the delay in our original reply to you."

This was the explanation as to why you did not receive a timely response
to your request for Internal Reviews, apologies if this was not clear.

We are unable to conduct an additional Internal Review and if you remain
dissatisfied with this response, you have the right to complain to the
Information Commissioner.

Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
www.ico.gov.uk

Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Transformation and Resources
Wirral Council

From: John H Hutchinson
[mailto:[FOI #130006 email]]
Sent: 18 June 2013 16:15
To: InfoMgr, FinDMT
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Sick Leave

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information
reviews. I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral
Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Sick Leave'.

My original request was dated 14 September 2012.

Because I did not receive a reply in due time, I asked for an internal
review (1) on 16 October 2012. On 7 June 2013, I received a reply to my
original question, which I accepted, but no response to my internal
review (1). On 7 June 2013, I requested for a second time an internal
review (2) concerning the delayed reply.
On 18 June 2013, I received notes on the way that information is
gathered but no reply to my internal review (1) or internal review (2).
I was advised that I could seek an internal review.
Please note that I am satisfied by your response to original questions.
I shall be grateful if you will conduct an internal review (3) to
explain
a) why my internal interview (1) was ignored; and
b) why my internal interview (2) was ignored.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on
the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/si...
Yours faithfully,

John H Hutchinson

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John H Hutchinson

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

I was expecting a full and proper response to my request for an Internal Review.

Please may I have an Internal Review that will reveal why it took so long to reply to my question and why my requests for Internal Review were ignored.

This is my fourth request for Internal Review, which I expect to have been conducted by an official independent of your Department.

Yours sincerely,

John H Hutchinson

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your email below. The backlog of enquiries was the reason
for your enquiry being delayed and you have received an Internal review.
Your next step, if you remain dissatisfied is to contact the ICO,
details as below. If the ICO subsequently contacts Wirral Council
regarding your enquiry, we will act on their instructions.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Transformation and Resources
Wirral Council

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John H Hutchinson

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
I understand that there is at least one member of staff on sick leave at half pay rate for more than one year.

How many staff are there currently on sick leave under similar terms, please?

Yours sincerely,

John H Hutchinson

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your enquiry below which has been opened up as a new
request for information.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Transformation and Resources
Wirral Council

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John H Hutchinson

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
thank you!

Yours sincerely,

John H Hutchinson

John H Hutchinson

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Sick Leave' because my request has not received a response within the due time.

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,

John H Hutchinson

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Sick Leave'.

Because my first request for Internal Review was ignored, I shall be grateful if you will inform me of my rights and what my next action should be.

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,

John H Hutchinson

Corrin, Jane, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Morning,

Apologies for not responding to your original request for an Internal
Review in a timely fashion.  Please see details below, which constitute
our Internal Review and answers your enquiry.

 

Response:

Under National Conditions of Service for Local Government Services, the
sickness pay scheme provides an entitlement of 6 months full pay and 6
months half pay for employees with appropriate length of local government
service.  This sickness payment scheme is applied on a rolling 12 month
period.  The Council does have discretion to extend the terms of the
sickness payment scheme in limited and exceptional circumstances.

 

The Council currently has one employee for whom full contractual sick pay
has been extended beyond 6 months period - this is by one further month. 
 The Council does not currently have any employees who have had
contractual sick pay extended beyond 12 months.

 

I hope the information is useful to you 

 

Kind Regards

Jane Corrin

Information and Central Services Manager

Wallasey Town Hall

Brighton Street
Wallasey
Wirral
CH44 8ED 

Tel:0151 691 8397

Transformation and Resources

[1][Wirral Borough Council request email]

 

 

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