NHS Workforce: Sickness Absence
1/34. What steps he is taking to reduce sickness absence in the NHS workforce.
This Government are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our hard-working NHS staff, and we have set an ambition to reduce sickness absence to its lowest recorded level. As part of meeting that ambition, we have launched new staff standards to improve their working lives, and we will introduce staff treatment hubs to focus on the biggest causes of sickness absence.
As the Health Secretary is a numbers man, perhaps he will be interested in these figures. Research from Policy Exchange shows that sickness absence in the NHS costs £6 billion and removes 8 million clinician days from the frontline. What will the Secretary of State do to get staff back to work, to get patients treated, and to get this ridiculous level of staff absence down?
The 10-year health plan committed to our ambition to reduce sickness absence from 5.1%, which it was in July 2025, to the lowest recorded level in the NHS, at approximately 4.1%. As I set out in my earlier remarks, staff standards cover health and wellbeing, line management, flexible working, tackling violence and racism, and championing sexual safety. The staff treatment hubs that I mentioned, which will be rolled out in 2027, will focus on mental health and back conditions, which are the main reasons for absence.
We know that sickness absence and stress are often related to people’s workplaces. With £17 million now invested in Northampton general hospital for a new urgent treatment centre, and enhanced A&E opening this summer, does the Secretary of State agree that this is proof again that this Labour Government are investing in the infrastructure that our staff need to keep them safe and keep us safe too?
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. He is absolutely right to point to the record investment that this Labour Government are putting in, not just for the day-to-day running of the health service, but the critical capital investment, after the capital budget was starved for so many years under the Conservative party.