I am submitting this on behalf of a colleague but would be interested in general comments.
I began in post April 07 to set up an in house OH service for a medium sized NHS Trust. Also introduced at the same time was a "Supporting Attendance Team" consisting of the lead +assistant.
Their duties are to receive telephone notification by individuals when they are absent and to inform managers. They also track the individual absences to follow up expected dates of return to work, need to refer to OH, possible need for creative thinking in "stress" issues due to interpersonal difficulties, prompt identification of work related incident/injury absences, etc. They also liaise with managers to support them do what they should be doing.(my interpretation)
I have mixed thoughts on the scheme but absences have reduced and seem to be averaging just below 5% per month.Generally the programme is being accepted at grass roots level after initial suspicions.
I have said I will try to establish whether there are individuals in a similar post through you, my JISCMAIL contacts.
The team members would like to try to network with others in a similar role, have some idea of banding -if NHS- and possibly share job descriptions etc. I am interested in whether other organisations are using a similar system.
Sandy