Released 15 July 2024
Request:
1. How many NHS staff are on leave for mental health issues and/or sickness between the 12/06/23 and 12/06/24
1a) of those absentees, can you provide the 20 most prevalent reasons for sickness absences?
1b) On any given day, on average how many staff are absent from work for sickness absences?
1c) Can you provide a breakdown of what staff group had the most absences for sickness between 12/06/23 and 12/06/24
Information disclosed:
1. Information relevant to staff absences and leave is recorded on the NHS Electronic Staff Record [ESR] reporting system and this is where our data has been pulled from. Due to reporting limitations associated with this system, we can only report by month (i.e. not from 12 June) and due to the time it takes for information to be uploaded to this system, we are currently only able to report up until 30 April.
So that we may provide you with a year of data in line with your request, we have reported for the period 01 May 2023 – 30 April 2024.
During the period 01 May 2023 – 30 April 20024, a total of 14,403 members of staff had at least one day off sick. This equates to approximately 81% of total substantive staffing.
1a. Please see the table below for information relevant to the top twenty reasons for staff absence. The sickness descriptions have been taken from the NHS ESR system.
| Absence reason |
|---|
| Stress, Depression, or other Psychiatric |
| Other known causes |
| Cold, Cough, Flu & Influenza |
| Other Musculoskeletal |
| Gastro-Intestinal |
| Infectious Disease |
| Back |
| Chest / Respiratory |
| Injury / Fracture |
| Genito – Urinary / Gynaecological |
| Cancer |
| Pregnancy Related |
| Headache / Migraine / Neurological |
| Heart, Cardiac and Circulatory |
| Ear, Nose, and Throat |
| Unknown |
| Eyes |
| Skin |
| Dental |
| Endocrine / Glandular |
1b. The NHS ESR system is not capable of reporting average absence in this way. Any effort to calculate the average you are seeking would require the analysis of staff absence every day over the year period requested.
It is important to note in these circumstances that the Trust is not required under the terms of the Act to create ‘new’ information for the purpose of answering a FOI request. According to guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office, where the provision of information will require complex analysis and a high level of skill and judgement to produce, this would amount to creating information not already held. An assessment of the work involved in providing the level of detail you are seeking concluded that it meets the criteria of information ‘not held’ under this guidance.
1c. The staff group with the highest level of sickness absence over this period was Nursing, which represents 42% of the Trust’s workforce.