Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Latest News

NHS defends sickness record

by Personnel Today 2 Dec 2003
by Personnel Today 2 Dec 2003

The HR chief of the NHS has defended the health service’s sickness absence
record, claiming that trusts face special difficulties, and are on course to
meet their long-term targets.

Addressing a National Audit Office conference last week, Andrew Foster said
the health service is still well ahead of the fire service and local government
with a sickness absence rate of 4.6 per cent, and trusts are nearly halfway
towards achieving a 2 per cent reduction by 2008.

"In the past four years there has been a small improvement – only 0.2
per cent – but it underlines that we have some difficult factors of long-term
stress and manual handling injuries," he said.

Foster admitted stress was an "absolutely massive problem" in the
NHS, with rates 50 per cent higher than the average – especially among women
managers balancing work and family life. But he pointed out that last year nine
in 10 trusts passed the NHS’s work-life balance standards, Improving Working
Lives (IWL) – which covers a range of work patterns including flexible hours,
annualised hours, self-rostering, offering better childcare, and protecting
staff from harassment.

The NHS is to produce revised guidance on stress in February 2004. It will
take into account advice from the latest National Audit Office report,
published last month, and recommendations from the parliamentary Public
Accounts Committee.

Foster stressed the IWL test is not just a "tick-box" exercise. An
independent external accreditation team met random workers to ask if their
organisation had made the various anti-stress measures available.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The Department of Health is expected to produce the first draft of its
first-ever occupational health and safety strategy this week. This will outline
managers’ accountabilities and responsibilities, and will be monitored through
the IWL standard.

By Katherine Burke

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Religious discrimination outlawed from today
next post
Insurers warn against inappropriate behaviour at Xmas

You may also like

Sick pay reforms ‘deliver £2bn of benefits’ –...

16 Jul 2025

Ethnicity and disability pay gaps: Ready to report?...

16 Jul 2025

Trans row nurse cleared of misconduct as tribunal...

16 Jul 2025

Hugh’s Law calls for paid leave for parents...

16 Jul 2025

Inflation increases by more than expected

16 Jul 2025

Beware the unintended consequences of the NDA ban

16 Jul 2025

Number of police working second jobs doubles

15 Jul 2025

Mansion House speech: will employers’ pension contributions rise?

15 Jul 2025

University staff to strike over hybrid working curbs

15 Jul 2025

Employees voting with feet as return-to-office pressure increases...

15 Jul 2025

  • Empower and engage for the future: A revolution in talent development (webinar) WEBINAR | As organisations strive...Read more
  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+