Concern as number one cause for staff sickness at Wrexham Council is mental health related illness

Concerns have been raised over figures which show the number one cause for staff sickness at Wrexham Council is mental health related illness.

In total council employees took 48,918 sick days during 2017/18 at a cost of £4.1m and stress, anxiety and depression were the most common reasons for absence, accounting for 28.4 per cent of days off.

Council officers admitted the figures were alarming and represent an annual rise of eight per cent in mental health related sick days.

It has led to the leader of the council calling for greater compassion to be shown to the authority’s employees.

Speaking at a meeting of the customers, performance, resources and governance scrutiny committee on this week, Cllr Mark Pritchard said that he uncertainty surrounding job security for public sector workers was adding to the pressure.

He said: “I’m surprised it isn’t a lot higher than this because in the last 10 years, when you look at austerity we as a council have had to cut £52m.

“We’re continually cutting and reshaping, staff are worried and rightly so.

“What I get regularly from people is ‘Am I going to have a job tomorrow, next week and in the future?’

“I understand what people say that managers do have to manage it, but we’re in exceptional circumstances here across Wales.

“The bluntness of it is that staff are leaving because they feel they don’t have a future.

“We have to be compassionate to our staff and we have to work with them and that’s important for me as well.

“I hope it does settle down in the future and I hope there’s common ground on settlements and the budget.”

The authority said it supports staff with mental health conditions through a number of initiatives, including counselling services, as well as training courses provided by the Mind charity. More than 40 employees and trade union stewards were trained on mental health first aid by Mind in early 2017.

In July, the council revamped its occupational health service and introduced a new employee assistance programme, which enables staff to access counselling support seven days a week.

Cllr Geoff Lowe also expressed his own fears about mental health related illnesses and asked for more information on how the issue is being addressed. He said: “Looking at these figures, pointing to stress, depression and anxiety, it seems to be a national disease in Britain affecting all ages.

“As an authority of this size and with the expertise we allegedly have, surely we could reduce this level of absenteeism.”

In response, Wrexham Council officer, Sue Robins, said: “It is difficult and it is alarming to see our figures so high. It may be down to personal circumstances if they have a bereavement or family illness.

“It is more common these days than it used to be in the past. We encourage our staff to be open about it and we do encourage them to talk.”

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme).