A local authority in Wales has been urged to improve its sickness absence levels after recording what has been described as a “shocking” absence rate of almost 17 days per full-time-equivalent employee.
Sickness absence at Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council had risen sharply since the pandemic, from 11.67 days per full-time-equivalent employee in 2020/21 to 16.74 in 2021/22, head of organisational development Andrea Prosser reportedly told councillors.
According to reports, staff have been told not to “beat themselves up” about the high levels of absence, even though one councillor described the figures as “shocking”.
While absence related to Covid-19 played a part in the rise, even when removing absences because of the virus, the figures rose from 9.98 to 14.2, well above the council’s target of 10 days per full-time-equivalent employee.
One councillor, Ross Leadbeater, was reported by the BBC as saying: “I find the report quite shocking. It’s bad enough that we’re at the bottom of the league table but worse than that that we’ve not reached our own target for five years. Something drastic needs to be done to change this.”
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However, another, George Humphreys, highlighted the toll that Covid-19 had taken as being a key factor behind the increase. “Even though it doesn’t look good on our council, don’t beat yourselves up too much, unfortunately Covid hit us very hard,” he reportedly told staff.
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The council’s chief officer for resources, Rhian Hayden, also highlighted the high levels of health problems within the local community, where most of the council’s employees are drawn from.
“It is possible that our statistics are reflecting the general health issues of the local authority area,” the BBC reported.
