The new policy on Managing Attendance Policy and its use with the selection process and Appeal Boards is set out in General Order 31/2003. Experience has shown that members are not fully acquainted with the processes involved and therefore are not submitting the necessary standard of evidence to support their individual appeals. We would therefore offer the benefit of our own experiences in the hope that it may be of assistance to other members.
Members will generally receive fourteen days notice of their Appeal, in which time they are expected to gather and submit their evidence for the Appeal Panel to evaluate. We would suggest that members should be seeking out the necessary evidence at the time they submit their applications. It can be difficult to locate and obtain the necessary information from a number of sources within the given time period. Clearly the better prepared, the easier it should be to evidence a case.
Members must ensure that their appeal is supported by evidence, which documents the substance of their appeal. Evidence will generally take the form of a letter from your Doctor, Consultant, Physiotherapist or OHW, which confirms the nature of your surgery or medical procedure and importantly, the fact that there is little likelihood of any reoccurrence.
Make sure that your evidence is submitted with your appeal. Neither Human Resources nor the appeal panel will enter into correspondence with you. Statements to the effect that 'further evidence can be produced if necessary' or 'I will produce my evidence to the Appeal Panel on the day' would suggest that members believe they will have a further opportunity to present facts or clarify issues. This is not the case. Everyone has one chance to make their case and should not miss it.
There are three general areas around which appeals can be based. Injury on Duty, Pregnancy and Mitigating Circumstances.
Injury On Duty
An injury on duty will be automatically accepted once it has been approved for pay purposes. If you have any doubt, check with your personnel officer. Human Resources will issue a brief report to this effect, once your IOD file is finalised. You should receive a copy and a copy should be kept in your medical file. Clearly you could have a problem if the investigation into your injury is still ongoing. If this is the case we would suggest you attach a copy of your file, it may well contain evidence, which can be considered under mitigating circumstances. If you have any ongoing investigations and you are considering promotion or applying for a post, check with your supervisor as to the progress of your IOD file, in case it has been returned under query. Unfortunately there are situations where no direction will be made if there is a possibility of a prosecution arising out of the incident. Should you find yourself in this type of situation consider where else medical evidence may be - e.g. custody record - FMO report or perhaps you have signed a witness consent form for a medical report.
Pregnancy
The attendance criteria make distinctions between medical conditions, which occur before and after the date of confinement. Female officers should be aware of the change of emphasis this entails. Pregnancy related conditions are not subject to the managing attendance policy while Post Natal conditions are. This means that this group of officers will have to rely on evidencing their particular mitigating circumstances in order to progress their appeals.
All officers are entitled to show that their medical condition is worthy of special consideration by evidencing the particular mitigating circumstances of their case. Mitigating circumstances fall into two basic categories, both of which are governed by the likelihood of reoccurrence.
Surgical/Medical
Surgical/Medical Procedures. While not immediately obvious, I would suggest this covers the whole spectrum of physical and mental health where members have been required to undergo an intervention that necessitated a period off work. The Surgical Procedure aspect is straightforward by definition, however Medical Procedures are more open to interpretation. The attendance criteria do not specify what these may entail, but by implication cannot specify what if anything is excluded. So for instance if you required a course of physiotherapy to hasten your recovery from an injury, which would otherwise prolong your absence from work or perhaps counselling to assist recovery from a traumatic incident, then members should have an equal footing in arguing that in either case, their medical procedure was necessary and importantly, that as a result of either a surgical or medical procedure, a reoccurrence of their condition is unlikely. Do not make the assumption that any physical or mental condition or its treatment are excluded.
