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Publication, Part of

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, October 2021, Provisional Statistics

Official statistics

Publication Date:
3 Mar 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 Oct 2021

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NHS Sickness Absence Rates, October 2021, Provisional Statistics

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Classification of Statistics
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Summary

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, October 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 October 2021

The overall sickness absence rate for England was 5.7%. This is the higher than September 2021 (5.4%) and higher than October 2020 (4.5%).

Regional and organisational type variation

The North West region reported the highest sickness absence rate in October 2021 at 6.7%, this is slightly higher than their rate in September 2021 (6.4%). The South East of England region reported the lowest sickness absence rate in October 2021 at 5.1%, this is slightly higher than their rate in September 2021 (4.7%).

Ambulance Trusts had the highest sickness absence rate at 8.2% in October 2021, this remains relatively unchanged since September 2021 (8.1%). Clinical Commissioning Groups had the lowest sickness absence rate at 3.1%, remaining relatively unchanged since September 2021 (3.0%).

Staff group differences

Support to ambulance staff reported the highest sickness absence rate in October 2021 at 9.5%. Support to doctors, nurses & midwives reported the second highest sickness absence rate in October 2021 at 7.9%.

Staff Grade reported the lowest rate at 1.3% in October 2021.

Reason for sickness absence

Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence, accounting for over 571,200 full time equivalent days lost and 25.1% of all sickness absence in October 2021. This has fallen slightly since September 2021 (26.6%).

Last edited: 30 March 2022 2:54 pm