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Publication, Part of

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, July 2021 to September 2021, Provisional Statistics

Official statistics

Publication Date:
3 Feb 2022
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 Sep 2021

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NHS Sickness Absence Rates, July 2021 to September 2021, Provisional Statistics

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Classification of Statistics
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Summary

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, July 2021 to September 2021, Provisional Statistics

Key Facts

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 Sickness Absence rates in September 2021

The overall sickness absence rate for England was 5.4%. This is the higher than August 2021 (5.1%) and higher than September 2020 (4.2%).

Regional and organisational type variation

The North West region reported the highest sickness absence rate in September 2021 at 6.4%, this is slightly higher than their rate in August 2021 (6.2%). The London region and the South East of England region reported the lowest sickness absence rate in September 2021 at 4.7%, this is slightly higher than their rates in August 2021 (4.5% respectively).

Ambulance Trusts had the highest sickness absence rate at 8.1% in September 2021, this remains unchanged since August 2021 (8.1%). Commissioning Support Units had the lowest sickness absence rate at 2.7%, a slight increase since August 2021 (2.4%).

Staff group differences

Support to ambulance staff reported the highest sickness absence rate in September 2021 at 9.4%. Ambulance staff and Support to doctors, nurses & midwives reported the second highest sickness absence rate in September 2021 at 7.5% each.

Foundation Doctor Year 1 reported the lowest rate at 1.4% in September 2021.

Reason for sickness absence

Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence, accounting for over 550,100 full time equivalent days lost and 26.6% of all sickness absence in September 2021. This has fallen slightly since August 2021 (27.8%).

Last edited: 3 February 2022 2:15 pm