The number of workers needing medical tests and treatments has increased by 30 percent over the past year, while mental health-related absence remains at what was described by the authority’s head of human resources as “a high level”. Deborah Barrow was speaking at a cabinet meeting where it was revealed previous progress made on reducing absence had been entirely reversed - putting the organisation back to where it was more than 12 months ago. Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to our daily newsletter Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to Lancaster Guardian, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you.
Between January and April this year, there were 12.85 days sickness absence for every one of the more 10,000 full-time equivalent employees of the county council. The figure merited a ‘requires improvement’ rating in the authority’s latest corporate performance report - because it is higher than County Hall’s target level of 11.
25 days. During the second half of last year, Ms. Barrow said there had also been “a spike in respiratory illness” amongst staff.
While no further details were given about the nature of that illness, the timeframe coincided with a sustained Covid wave, according to the limited testing data that is now available for the virus. Meanwhile, cabinet members were also told that there had been a 20 percent jump in cancer diagnoses amongst county council employees. Advertisement Advertisement Deborah Barrow said th.
