Council workers who take days off to look after ill children or relatives are inflating sickness absence figures, a meeting heard.

Bradford has no policy for staff to take special leave instead and it is recorded as if they themselves were sick.

The Council is in the bottom quarter of authorities in terms of sickness absence records. Last night the head of employee relations and resourcing, Matt Burghardt, insisted the same policies were in place as at the top-performing councils.

"The key is how they are being interpreted and management accountability," he said. "We haven't got the basics in place yet."

He said something needed to be done about the 14-day average last year and a "cultural change" was needed.

"It's the cultural issue that we need to get to grips with," he said.

The top councils also have family-friendly policies, something Bradford is to consider.

Other measures include getting tough on the growing number of staff on long-term sick leave as 115,067 days were lost in nine months last year.

Patrick Kerry, of public services union Unison, said targets to reduce sickness would not work and would only serve to increase stress levels among staff.

"Staff are frightened to record illness as stress or depression for fear of their capability being questioned," he said.

"We propose to manage sickness while the Council wants to control it."

Councillors at last night's corporate improvement committee agreed that management should hold talks with the unions to work out a way forward. An action plan to cut the high sickness rate will also be prepared by August.

Councillor David Green (Lab, Wibsey) said: "I don't have a problem with having targets, but can somebody explain to me how a target will actually reduce the level of sickness?"

Vanda Rogers, human resources director replied: "My view is that a target is an aspiration and it indicates a desire to improve."

She also said that a new system would be in place by next year to accurately record the cost of illness to the Council both in terms of employing agency staff and paying for overtime.

"The report says you want to reduce the amount spent on agency staff while maintaining a level of service," said Councillor Andrew Thornton (Lab, Royds).

"If we do that, don't we put extra stress on existing members of staff and therefore exacerbate the sickness problem?"

Yesterday the Telegraph & Argus reported that the Council was considering taking "measured risks" when dealing with employees who have been off work for more than 20 days. This could include dismissal.

The Council has already managed to reduce short-term sickness levels, but long term absence has increased.

Those departments with the highest sick day rate were environmental services and social services. The lowest was education.

e-mail: jo.winrow@bradford.newsquest.co.uk