'Sicknote Scotland' costs 1bn a year

'Sicknote Scotland' costs £1bn a year

Public sector workers in Scotland are taking more than five million sick days a year, costing the economy an estimated £1.1bn in lost wages and output.

An investigation by Scotland on Sunday has revealed that public sector staff north of the Border now take an average of 12 days a year off sick, three and a half days more than the UK average for all workers, and well above the Scottish private sector average of 7.1 days.

And the problem is increasing, with sick days in both local councils and the Scottish NHS rising by about 100,000 a year.
NHS24 emerged from our investigation as the worst public body for sick days at 18 a year for each employee.

Public sector unions deny their members operate amid a "sick note culture" and insist the problem of days off is largely the result of working in stressful occupations.

But critics of the sector blame the sickness crisis on a combination of poor leadership and some workers viewing their employers as a "soft touch".

As part of the Scotland on Sunday findings, they discovered that:

• The NHS in Scotland lost 13.6 days per employee in 2006/07, compared with 12.5 days the previous year. The worst performer was NHS Lanarkshire, which lost 14.5 days a year.

• Local authorities lost 12.3 days per employee last year compared with 11.8 the previous year. Shetland was the worst at 14.4 days.

• The NHS is now losing 1,774,179 days each year to sickness. Local authorities, including teachers, amount to 3.01 million, and police forces account for another 247,035.

• Long-term absence is a significant problem with one in 20 civil servants off for more than six weeks. In Strathclyde Police, 400 police officers and civilians out of 10,200 are off for at least six months.

• Sick days among Scottish police officers are relatively low at 10.5 a year but still higher than the UK average for all workers of 8.4 days.

Economics experts Mackay Consultants used our data to calculate the cost of public sector sick days, estimating the direct loss in wages, National Insurance and pension payments at £550m a year.

They calculated the total lost economic output was £1.1bn annually, and that if the public sector could reduce absenteeism to its own target of around nine days a year, it could save the economy £300m annually.

Documents obtained from Central Scotland Police show they have consulted lawyers about forcing GPs to be faster in giving officers on long-term sick leave the go-ahead to return to less demanding office jobs with the force.

A memo claims that because it can take more than three months to get approval from a doctor it is "almost impossible" to arrange for officers to come back to a desk job.

The memo states: "GPs often continue to sign off sick those officers and staff considered fit for restricted duties by our Force Medical Officer."

Minutes of a meeting of Scottish NHS human resources executives held last June show how they discussed various schemes and approaches to reducing sickness levels.

The minutes concede: "Members felt the higher absence rates in the public sector compared with the private sector may be due to the 'softer' approach taken in the public sector."

Business leaders have called on ministers to target local councils for crackdowns on absenteeism. Economic consultant Tony Mackay, said: "The Scottish economy has underperformed the UK economy for most of the last 10 years and one of the main reasons for that has been relatively low productivity in the public sector.

"I think we should accept a relatively high number of lost days in the NHS because of the nature of the work, but I think the biggest problem is in the local authorities."

Andy Willox, policy co-ordinator for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, said: "These statistics suggest high levels of absenteeism are endemic throughout large parts of the Scottish public sector."

David Watt, executive director of the Institute of Directors Scotland, said: "As someone who has worked in both private and public sectors, I believe the higher rates of absenteeism in the public sector shows they need better organisation and better standards of leadership."

However Pat Watters, the president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, said: "It is far too simplistic to look at the raw statistics. Councils are well aware of the effect of absenteeism on the services they provide and consequently treat it very seriously."

A spokeswoman for NHS 24 said its policy of employing staff with disabilities was a factor in its high absenteeism rate. George Crooks, the organisation's interim chief executive, added that their "robust action plan" was already bringing down the number of days lost.

NHS Lanarkshire's employee director Hugh Sweeney said: "We are aware of our current sickness level and have recently introduced a series of initiatives to enhance the systems of support we already have in place."

A spokeswoman for Shetland Islands Council said that the high rate of time off was down to the fact that the authority ran services which were contracted out elsewhere, such as care for the elderly and roads maintenance. She said: "If an office worker has a cold they can come in and soldier on. You can't do that