FOI request (FOIR-741673127)

Council workforce sickness absence

Requested Fri 12 September 2025
Responded Fri 12 September 2025

This is a freedom of information request regarding sickness absence in your council workforce. I am looking for information for 2024-25, 2023-24, and 2022-23.

Please provide me with:

1. The total number of sickness days for each year.

2. The total number of long term sickness days for each year.

3. The average number of sickness days per full time equivalent employee for each year.

4. The total cost of sickness days for each year.

5. The total cost of long term sickness days for each year.

6. The number of employees on long term sickness at any point in each year.

7. A breakdown of sickness days by reason for each year. For example: mental ill-health, musculoskeletal system, respiratory system, and so on. I understand that your council may categorise reasons differently, please use whichever ones your HR system collects.

8. A breakdown of sickness days by department for each year, for example: communications, legal, finance, planning, adult social care, and so on. I understand that your council may be organised differently, please use whichever categories your HR system uses. Please provide me with the percentage of employees on long term sickness, the average number of sickness days per full time equivalent employee and the percentage of working days lost due to mental health sickness days.

---

Response

2024-25:

1. 2766 days

2. 1408 days

3. 8.9 days

4. Not held

5. Not held

6. 8 employees

7a. 637 days - Psychiatric/Stress

7b. 276 days - Broken Bones/Sprains

7c. 274 days - Colds/Flu/URTI

7d. 242 days - Circulatory/Heart

7e. 226 days - Carcinomas

8. Information not held. We do not currently hold this information due to limitations in our HR system.

2023-24:

1. 2077 days

2. 966 days

3. 7.02 days

4. Not held

5. Not held

6. 6 employees

7a. 469 days - Psychiatric/Stress

7b. 310 days - Back/Spinal

7c. 280 days - Operations (including recovery)

7d. 198 days - Colds/Flu/URTI

7e. 154 days - Digestive/Stomach

8. Information not held. We do not currently hold this information due to limitations in our HR system.

2022-23:

1. 2600 days

2. 1382 days

3. 9.21 days

4. Not held

5. Not held

6. 7 employees

7a. 694 days - Psychiatric/Stress

7b. 321 days - Lower Limb

7c. 277 days - Other

7d. 227 days - Confirmed COVID-19 Virus

7e. 179 days - Colds/Flu/URTI

8. Information not held. We do not currently hold this information due to limitations in our HR system.