Skip to main content

Publication, Part of

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, October 2021 to December 2021, Provisional Statistics

Official statistics

Publication Date:
28 Apr 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 31 Dec 2021

Current Chapter

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, October 2021 to December 2021, Provisional Statistics

View all

Next Chapter

Classification of Statistics
Page contents

Summary

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, October 2021 to December 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 Absence rates in December 2021

The overall sickness absence rate for England was 6.2%. This is higher than November 2021 (5.6%) and higher than December 2020 (5.1%).

Regional and organisational type variation

The North West region reported the highest sickness absence rate in December 2021 at 7.3%, this is higher than their rate in November 2021 (6.6%). The South East of England region reported the lowest sickness absence rate in December 2021 at 5.5%, this is slightly higher than their rate in November 2021 (5.1%).

Ambulance Trusts had the highest sickness absence rate at 9.3% in December 2021, this is higher than their rate in November 2021 (8.1%). Commissioning Support Units had the lowest sickness absence rate at 3.3%, remaining relatively unchanged since November 2021 (3.2%).

Staff group differences

Support to ambulance staff reported the highest sickness absence rate in December 2021 at 10.9%. With Ambulance staff reporting the second highest sickness absence rate in December 2021 at 8.6%.

Staff Grade reported the lowest rate at 1.6% in December 2021.

Reason for sickness absence

Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence, accounting for over 593,200 full time equivalent days lost and 23.7% of all sickness absence in December 2021. This has decreased slightly since November 2021 (25.7%).

Last edited: 28 April 2022 9:36 am