Swansea Council staff took 12.6 sick days on average, meeting told

Staff at Swansea Council took more than 12 days off sick in 2023-24 on average, a meeting was told.
The average figure of 12.6 days per full-time employee excluded school staff and absences caused by accidents at work and was slightly lower than the previous year. If school staff had been included the average absence would have been 10.7 days.
A large proportion of sickness absence was among employees who were off for 28 days or more and many staff took fewer than 12.6 days off.  Social services and the council’s education department had the highest levels of absence.
In comparison Bridgend Council employees took an average of 12.3 days off sick last year. The figure for Carmarthenshire Council was 11.06 days. According to the Office for National Statistics public and private sector workers in the UK took an average of 5.7 days off due to sickness and injury in 2022.
A report before Swansea’s governance and audit committee said it’s likely that the council would be mid-table compared to Wales’ other 21 local authorities in terms of sickness absence in 2023-24. That data hasn’t been published yet.
Report author Rachael Davies told the committee that sickness absence levels at the council were broadly static and that working down to 10 days of absence per employee was a “reasonable target”.
She said a new policy for managing absences was being finalised and that managers wouldn’t have to automatically refer staff who’d been off for 28 days to occupational health colleagues. The preferred approach is a case-by-case basis. Ms Davies said there was little value in automatically referring someone to occupational health who was recovering for a planned operation, for example, whereas someone with particular needs might benefit from being referred before 28 days.
Cllr Lesley Walton welcomed the more personalised approach saying staff would feel they’re being treated as individuals and this would hopefully mean they’d get back to work faster, in turn benefiting the council.
Cllr Mike White asked if staff could be deployed to another role if they were unable to return to their normal job. Ms Davies said this was the case. Julie Davies, a lay committee member, asked if figures could be provided showing the cost benefit to the council of improved sickness rates.
The committee also heard that the council had awarded a contract to a new agency worker recruitment company, ALS People. The authority currently has 133 agency workers excluding those in social care. Around a third of these 133 staff work in waste collection. The committee report said 34 agency workers were offered a permanent job in 2023-24. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​