Whitehall's biggest department has failed to tackle lengthy sickness absence amongst its civil servants, according to a new report.

A National Audit Office investigation found the Department for Work and Pensions could do more to cut absenteeism rates that are amongst the highest in Whitehall.

The department had an average sickness absence of 12.6 days per person in 2003/04.

The NAO found the department has introduced good attendance management procedures but that it wasn't doing enough to apply them to all staff.

Changes such as the shift towards more call centres, which have high sickness absence rates, may be making the task of controlling absence rates harder.

The report also found the level of absenteeism is damaging the work of the department.

Its conclusions come at a time when staff cuts recommended in the Gershon report are about to be implemented.

By 2008 the department is expected to lose the equivalent of 30,000 full-time staff.

The DWP has missed all its targets for reducing sickness rates.

The department has the potential to achieve substantially better performance by doing more to ensure good management policies and practices are stuck to, the report concludes.

NAO chief Sir John Bourn said: "Achieving better staff attendance at the Department for Work and Pensions, the largest government department, would be an important step towards improving central government efficiency.

"The department's absence rate is high and has not yet been reduced by the introduction of a new policy.

"There are no easy solutions, particularly at a time when the department is undergoing a heavy programme of change, but the department needs to do more to ensure that the good attendance management procedures it has introduced are adopted by all staff and managers across the organisation."

Recommendations include:

• Reinforcing the culture of attendance in the organisation, underlining the department's commitment to reducing absence and improving workplace health.
  
  
• Better communication of its attendance policies to ensure it gives clear, consistent messages to all staff which take account of findings.
  
  
• More effective use of management information to identify and tackle attendance problems.
  
  
• Improved support for managers in fulfilling the role expected of them, with better training and monitoring, and clearer roles and responsibilities, especially for long-term absence.