Stress and mental health top reasons for council sickness rate
An audit of NNC staff absences has found that stress and mental health are the top reasons for officer sickness, with an average of 13.45 days lost per employee
Mental health and stress are the leading causes of sick leave for staff at North Northamptonshire Council (NNC), responsible for nearly a third of all absences last year.
An internal audit carried out by the authority found that the average staff member took 13.45 days off due to sickness in 2024/25. The authority has noted that its overall absence rate is slightly higher than average compared to local government benchmarking.
According to the report, ‘anxiety, mental health and depression’ was the most common reason given for leave at 16 per cent, with ‘stress’ following closely behind at 15 per cent. Musculoskeletal problems, which are often linked to injuries with joints, bones and muscles, were also recorded as a common reason for staff sickness, coming in at 15 per cent.
In response, NNC said it had rolled out wellbeing workshops for leaders and staff stress management procedures to support its employees.
Claire Edwards, director of finance and performance at NNC, told members at an audit and governance meeting on Monday (December 1): “I think what it is a reflection of is the incredible strain that local government is probably facing.
“I think some of the things that we’re starting to see come out now is where individuals are burnt out, which is coming into that stress, wellbeing and anxiety area.
“At the moment we don’t appear to be a massive outlier, but it’s a lot higher than what we’d want it to be in terms of that local authority national average.”
Concerns were also raised that absences were being underreported or not being recorded on the system on time, meaning that trigger points and return to work processes for those off sick were not being properly actioned.
For example, it was noted that 31 absences starting in June 2024 were not recorded that month and, of those, seven were still not recorded in July 2024.
In sample testing, for 56 per cent of council officers selected, there was no evidence that a return-to-work discussion had taken place for at least one of their absences. It was also noted that in 50 per cent of cases selected where a trigger point was met, there was a lack of evidence that the policy was fully and consistently applied.
The council confirmed that it is actively monitoring and tracking organisation sickness rates at its budget board every month.
NNC’s chief internal auditor also highlighted absence management as an area to revisit in the audit next financial year to see if improvements have been made on timely reporting and return to work completions.
The audit committee also requested that further data on the number of work days lost across the council and its associated costs, and more information on whether there are specific departments that have high levels of sickness for mental health to come forward through the corporate scrutiny committee.