Skip to main content

Publication, Part of

NHS Sickness Absence Rates - April 2021 to June 2021, Provisional Statistics

Official statistics

Publication Date:
28 Oct 2021
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
NHS Trusts, Hospital Trusts, Ambulance Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, Regions, Clinical Commissioning Groups
Date Range:
30 Apr 2009 to 30 Jun 2021

Current Chapter

NHS Sickness Absence Rates - April 2021 to June 2021, Provisional Statistics

View all

Next Chapter

Classification of Statistics
Page contents

Summary

NHS Sickness Absence Rates - April 2021 to June 2021, Provisional Statistics

Tables 1-4 (Monthly Sickness Absence Rates by NHS England region, Staff Group, Organisation Type and Organisation) from the quarterly Sickness Absence reports are published on a monthly basis on the same day as the Monthly workforce publication. This is to enable the data in these publications to be available on a more frequent and timely basis.

NHS Absence rates in June 2021

The overall sickness absence rate for England was 4.6%. This is slightly higher than May 2021 (4.3%) and higher than June 2020 (4.0%).

Regional and organisational type variation

The North West region reported the highest sickness absence rate in June 2021 at 5.7%, this is slightly higher than their rate in May 2021 (5.3%). The London region reported the lowest sickness absence rate in June 2021 at 3.9%, this is slightly higher than their rate in May 2021 (3.7%).

Ambulance Trusts had the highest sickness absence rate at 6.9% in June 2021, this is slightly higher than May 2021 (6.5%). Clinical Commissioning Groups and Commissioning Support Units had the lowest sickness absence rate at 2.3% each, remaining relatively unchanged since May 2021 (2.3% and 2.2% respectively).

Staff group differences

Support to ambulance staff reported the highest sickness absence rate in June 2021 at 8.1%. Hotel, property & estates staff reported the second highest sickness absence rate in June 2021 at 6.6%.

Consultants and Foundation Doctor Year 2 reported the lowest rate at 1.2% each in June 2021.

Reason for sickness absence

Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence, accounting for over 502,000 full time equivalent days lost and 28.4% of all sickness absence in June 2021. This remains relatively unchanged since May 2021 (28.8%).

Key Facts

Last edited: 27 October 2021 9:47 am