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Publication, Part of

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, July 2021, Provisional Statistics

Official statistics

Publication Date:
25 Nov 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 Jul 2021

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NHS Sickness Absence Rates, July 2021, Provisional Statistics

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Classification of Statistics
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Summary

NHS Sickness Absence Rates, July 2021, Provisional Statistics

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 July 2021

The overall sickness absence rate for England was 5.1%. This is higher than June 2021 (4.6%) and higher than July 2020 (3.9%).

Regional and organisational type variation

The North West region reported the highest sickness absence rate in July 2021 at 6.1%, this is slightly higher than their rate in June 2021 (5.7%). The London region reported the lowest sickness absence rate in July 2021 at 4.3%, this is slightly higher than their rate in June 2021 (3.9%).

Ambulance Trusts had the highest sickness absence rate at 7.6% in July 2021, this is higher than June 2021 (6.9%). Commissioning Support Units had the lowest sickness absence rate at 2.5%, remaining relatively unchanged since June 2021 (2.3%).

Staff group differences

Support to ambulance staff reported the highest sickness absence rate in July 2021 at 8.9%. Ambulance staff, Support to doctors, nurses & midwives and Hotel, property & estates staff reported the second highest sickness absence rate in July 2021 at 7.1% each.

Hospital Practitioner/Clinical Assistant reported the lowest rate at 1.1% in July 2021.

Reason for sickness absence

Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses is consistently the most reported reason for sickness absence, accounting for over 556,000 full time equivalent days lost and 27.8% of all sickness absence in July 2021. This is slightly lower than June 2021 (28.4%).

Key Facts

Last edited: 24 November 2021 9:57 am