Preventing absence

The Bradford Factor score is a diagnostic tool that helps managers / supervisors to identify frequent, short-term absences – the higher the Bradford Factor score, the greater the number of short term sickness absences.

A Bradford Score of 128 or above within the previous 12 month period will act as a trigger for the manager to undertake a more formal review.

The Bradford Score is calculated using the formula:

S x S x D = B

• S = number of spells of absence taken by an individual in 52 weeks

• D = number of days of absence taken by that individual in 52 weeks

• B = the Bradford Score

The Bradford Factor is in no way intended to penalise genuine sickness absence, but introduces a transparent and fair means of identifying an unusually high number of short term absences.

Download a Bradford Score Calculator to assist you with calculations.

Resilience is about staying positive and strong even when facing challenges.

Resilience develops as people grow and gain better thinking and self-management skills and more knowledge.

Try to help your team as a whole to maintain a balance in between rust-out and burn-out to keep them engaged, in control of their workloads and foster their own sense of purpose.

A manager/supervisor should:

• help support their team by spotting and dealing with burn-out and rust-out (not enough work, boredom, no challenge)
• make their staff feel good about what they are doing
• enable their staff to keep engaged whilst being busy and in control of their work
• get to know their staff and focus on individual strengths

Learning, Education and Development offers a workshop – Building Personal Resilience – for people interested in developing a more robust attitude towards challenging and threatening events or situations.

Learning, Education and Development offer the Healthy Worker course which is designed for staff with recurrent health problems which impact on their attendance at work and staff with long term health conditions which impact on their wellbeing and work.

It aims to promote awareness and understanding of personal wellbeing and to empower individuals to improve their health and wellbeing.

It will enable participants to:

• provide ways to change health behaviours and to promote self care
• develop self-esteem and self-confidence and to develop more positive attitudes towards healthier lifestyles
• promote understanding of the psychological and emotional aspects of health and wellbeing, with focus on self care of stress
• explore the health benefits of exercise and healthy eating

Managers/supervisors may consider referring staff to Occupational Health if there is:

• long term or continuing sickness absence where it is not clear when the person is likely to be able to return to work
• persistent and recurrent short term absence
• evidence or concern that the employee’s health is being adversely affected by their work
• a possibility that health may be a factor in performance or disciplinary issues
• the need to consider re-deployment, dismissal or retirement because of health reasons
• a health problem or disability which might be able to be accommodated in the workplace
• a diagnoses of an illness that may cause attendance issues. Occupational Health can provide support and strategies to enable managers and individuals to manage the illness and remain in work.

Self Referral

Any member of staff is able to make a self referral to Occupational Health and this is completely confidential. 

The Staff Welfare service provides information, counselling and support on any issue - not just work related.

The service is available for all government employees.