States of Jersey staff signed off work through stress related illness 2010 to 2014 (FOI)

​​​Request

How many States workers have been signed off work through a stress related illness in the past five years?

Please break this down by year (2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014), by Department and total number of days lost (again, by year) due to the stress related illness.

Response

The table below identifies the number of employees who took time off due to stress related sickness and the total number of days absent since 2010, broken down by year and department.

The information provided is based on certified and un-certified sickness categorised as ‘Anxiety’, ‘Stress’, ‘Depression’ and ‘Work Related Stress’.

It is important to note that during 2014 ‘managing attendance’ was a priority for managers across all States Departments which raised awareness of the accuracy and reliability of reporting employee absence data. This increased capture of data is likely to have contributed to the increase in reported days off in general but also the more accurate categorisation of reason for sickness (i.e. previously managers may have selected the ‘miscellaneous’ category rather than ‘stress’ or ‘anxiety’).