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Publication, Part of

NHS Sickness Absence Rates NHS Sickness Absence Rates January to March 2021, and Annual Summary 2009 to 2021, Provisional Statistics

Official statistics

Publication Date:
29 Jul 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 31 Mar 2021

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NHS Sickness Absence Rates NHS Sickness Absence Rates January to March 2021, and Annual Summary 2009 to 2021, Provisional Statistics

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Summary

NHS Sickness Absence Rates NHS Sickness Absence Rates January to March 2021, and Annual Summary 2009 to 2021, Provisional Statistics

Highlights

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 March 2021

The overall sickness absence rate for England was 4.0%. This is lower than February 2021 (4.6%) and lower than March 2020 (5.4%).

Regional and organisational type variation

The North West region reported the highest sickness absence rate in March 2021 at 4.8%, this is lower than their rate in February 2021 (5.4%). The London region reported the lowest sickness absence rate in March 2021 at 3.4%, this is lower than their rate in February 2021 (4.2%).

Ambulance Trusts had the highest sickness absence rate at 5.9% in March 2021, this is lower than February 2021 (6.9%). Clinical Commissioning Groups had the lowest sickness absence rate at 2.1%, remaining relatively unchanged since February 2021 (2.2%).

Staff group differences

Support to ambulance staff reported the highest sickness absence rate in March 2021 at 6.9% with Support to doctors, nurses & midwives and Hotel, Property & Estates staff reporting the second highest rate at 5.5% respectively.

Staff Grade reported the lowest rate at 0.5% in March 2021.

Reason for sickness absence

Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence, accounting for over 452,745 full time equivalent days lost and 28.8% of all sickness absence in March 2021. This is higher than 26.7% in February 2021.

COVID-19 related sickness absence

169,783 full time equivalent days (from a total of 1,570,514 FTE days lost) were lost due to COVID-19 related sickness absence in March 2021, equating to 10.8% of all absences recorded, compared to 18.1% in February 2021.

During the March 2020 to March 2021 period, overall sickness absence rates peaked nationally at 6.2% in April 2020. However, the equivalent rate for COVID-19 reported absences was 1.9%. This is 0.4% in March 2021 with an overall sickness absence rate of 4.0%.

 

(Please see COVID-19 related absence file in the Resources section below for further information on COVID-19 reported absence).

Key Facts

Last edited: 28 July 2021 11:12 am