NI council hires sickness tsar to tackle high absence levels

Mid and East Antrim made move after report showed average of 17 days a year being lost to sickness

A Northern Ireland council has hired a sickness tsar to tackle high absence levels.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has made the appointment after a report found that from April 1 2024 until March 31 2025, the council lost 17 days per full-time employee due to sickness against a target of 15.

It is understood the official was appointed in June on a six month contract and will, according to local councillor Alan Barr, “review patterns and review reasons” for sickness levels “and try and bring them below average levels”.

The Ulster Unionist representative told the Nolan Show there is “no evidence” of people taking ‘sickies’ when they are not ill, but he added that if people are “swinging the lead so to speak, it’s bad practice, it’s dishonourable”.

A report presented to the council’s Corporate Resources, Policy and Governance Committee recently said that following a review into sickness absence, an officer was appointed in June “to focus on compliance with sickness absence policy, to monitor current absences, for oversight of every absence and more regular reporting of sickness absence to the senior management team”.

The report said that “delays in accessing initial NHS consultant appointments, diagnostic treatments and other surgical interventions and treatments has continued to contribute towards higher levels of absence during 2024/25”.

Thirty-two per cent of absences were due to stress/depression/fatigue for 72 employees, the report states. Seventy-three per cent of these absences was related to personal issues such as bereavement or family illness. Seventeen per cent was work-related.

Back and neck problems accounted for the second highest reason for absence, 14 per cent, affecting 26 staff members; musculo-skeletal, nine per cent, was the third highest, with 44 absentees.

Absences due to infections such as colds and flu occurred the most often. Other categories included chest and respiratory, 47 absentees and heart and blood pressure, 17.

Overall, there were 10,349 days lost with 395 absentees during the 12-month period. In February 2024, the council had 642 employees – of these, 526 were full-time and 116, part-time – 184 were agency staff and 19 had fixed-term contracts. Sixty per cent of staff had no absence during 2024/25 compared to 64 per cent during the previous 12 months.

The committee report noted 85 per cent of staff absence is long-term. This is an absence which is 20 working days or more. There were 124 long-term absences during 2024/25. Thirty-two staff members have been absent for 100 days or more due to health conditions such as cancer.

Of the 32 long-term absentees, 14 have resigned, retired or taken ill-health retirement or have had dismissal on “capability grounds” or voluntary severance. Thirteen staff members have returned to work with four on continued absence.

The committee report also indicated that previously, absence levels in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council have been “amongst the highest across all councils”.

It noted, however, after an attendance policy was introduced in April 2019, absence began to fall but it has increased during the last two financial years.

The report stated: “Council will continue to explore best practice in supporting staff to maintain good attendance levels and equip line managers to fulfil their obligations in managing attendance.”

Latest figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, published last September, show that the ‘headline absence figure’ for 2023/2024 in the Northern Ireland Civil Service was 13.8 days (average days lost per staff year), an increase from 12.3 days in the previous year.

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