NHS Sickness Absence Rates January 2019 to March 2019 and Annual Summary 2010-11 to 2018-19

In 2021/22, the number of full-time equivalent days lost to sickness absences among NHS staff in England amounted to over 25 million days. From 2009 to 2019, the yearly number of lost days to sickness absence within the NHS workforce in England ranged from 15 million to 16 million. However, from 2019 to 2022, the number of days lost increased drastically in the country.

Annual sickness absence rates of workers in the UK labour market, including number of work days lost, by country and region, sex and age group, and employment type.

This report shows monthly numbers of NHS Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) staff working in NHS Trusts and CCGs in England (excluding primary care staff). Data is available as headcount and full-time equivalents and are available every month for 30 September 2009 onwards. This data is an accurate summary of the validated data extracted from the NHS HR and Payroll system. Additional statistics on staff in NHS Trusts and CCGs and information for NHS Support Organisations and Central Bodies are published each: September (showing June statistics) December (showing September statistics) March (showing December statistics) June (showing March statistics) Quarterly NHS Staff Earnings and monthly NHS Staff Sickness Absence reports and data relating to the General Practice workforce and the Independent Healthcare Provider workforce are also available via the Related Links below. Changes to the publication, described in the November 2020 (August 2020 data) edition, have been implemented in this report for January 2021 (October 2020 data onwards). Two of these changes are related to improvements in processing and data quality routines that will feed through into the data presented. An additional resource is also published ahead of current timescales, featuring data relating to the main headline staff groups and the Nurses staff group. We welcome feedback on the methodology and tables within this publication. Please email us with your comments and suggestions, clearly stating Monthly HCHS Workforce as the subject heading, via enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk or 0300 303 5678.

In 2022, the sickness absence rate in the United Kingdom's public sector was 3.6 percent, compared with 2.3 percent in the private sector. Throughout this provided time period, the sickness absence rate in the public sector has consistently been higher than that of the private sector.

The Statement of Fitness for Work (the Med3 form or 'fit note') was introduced in April 2010 across England, Wales and Scotland. It enables healthcare professionals to give advice to their patients about the impact of their health condition on their fitness for work and is used to provide medical evidence for employers or to support a claim to health-related benefits through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). A fit note is issued after the first seven days of sickness absence (when patients can self-certify) if the healthcare professional assesses that the patient’s health affects their fitness for work. The healthcare professional can decide the patient is 'unfit for work' or 'may be fit for work subject to the following advice...' with accompanying notes on suggested adjustments or adaptations to the job role or workplace. In 2012, DWP funded a project to provide general practice's with the ability to produce computer-generated fit notes (eMed3) and this included the capability to collect the aggregated data generated. Fit notes are issued to patients by doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and pharmacists following an assessment of their fitness for work. While they can be written by hand, most fit notes provided by general practice are now computer-generated. This quarterly statistical publication is produced by NHS England in collaboration with The Work and Health Unit, jointly sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health. It presents data on electronic fit notes issued in general practices in England for a given period. This is a ‘cumulative’ data collection. Weekly data collected will continue to be added to existing data. All data for all reporting periods is updated in each quarterly publication. From April 2019 all publications will contain data from practices who have TPP as their system supplier (which was not previously available), and accounts for one third of practices in England, consequently publications from this date may not be comparable to previous publications. All GP practices are mapped using current NHS geographies and recent changes may have resulted in a small number of practices not being mapped historically. These are shown as 'Unallocated' but are included in the England total. NHS England will publish data on a quarterly basis in October, January, April and July.