Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what factors they attribute to any persistently high levels of sickness absence within the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving National Health Service staff’s health and wellbeing is a priority, recognising the link between workforce wellbeing, attendance, and high-quality patient care.
NHS England is supporting organisations to strengthen their culture, improve working conditions, and expand access to high quality occupational health and wellbeing services.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will roll out Staff Treatment hubs to ensure all staff have access to high quality occupational health support, including for mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two main causes of sickness absence in the NHS.
To further support this ambition, we are working with the Social Partnership Forum to introduce a new set of staff standards for modern employment.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce levels of sickness absence among NHS staff.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving National Health Service staff’s health and wellbeing is a priority, recognising the link between workforce wellbeing, attendance, and high-quality patient care.
NHS England is supporting organisations to strengthen their culture, improve working conditions, and expand access to high quality occupational health and wellbeing services.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will roll out Staff Treatment hubs to ensure all staff have access to high quality occupational health support, including for mental health and musculoskeletal conditions, the two main causes of sickness absence in the NHS.
To further support this ambition, we are working with the Social Partnership Forum to introduce a new set of staff standards for modern employment.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the accuracy, consistency, and transparency of sickness absence reporting within the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England, previously NHS Digital, has been producing and publishing monthly data on sickness absence rates in the National Health Service in the form of official statistics, since September 2009. These data are sourced from the NHS’ payroll and human resources system, the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). As with all official statistics we are always looking for ways to improve both the utility and presentation of these statistics.
NHS England makes every effort to cleanse and improve the utility of the data it downloads from ESR. However, as with all data reported from ESR, the quality of the data NHS England subsequently publishes ultimately lies with the organisations that populate it. The latest publication of sickness absence data for England can be found on the NHS.UK website.
In preparation for the development of the Future NHS Workforce Solution (Future Solution), the successor to the ESR, the human resources system for the NHS, a project is underway to review and consider enhancements to the way in which sickness absence is coded, to explore the feasibility of streamlining and standardising the way in which sickness absence is managed and recorded in ESR and the Future Solution. This project will take place aligned to the Future Solution development timescales with the intention of concluding during quarter three of next financial year.
The sickness absence reporting from ESR has always been used to offer a strategic view of absence in the workforce and is not intended to be used to identify short term trends or be used for operational reasons at a trust level. For example, it could not be used to identify trends in absence as they were happening during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional data on showing daily sickness absence numbers is published as part of the Urgent and Emergency Care Daily Situation Reports, which are available on the NHS.UK website
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what interventions they are undertaking to address mental health-related sickness absence among NHS staff.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Looking after the mental health of National Health Service staff is a priority for the Government.
Employers across the NHS have their own arrangements in place in line with their duty of care for supporting their staff. Nationally, NHS England has a wide-ranging package of mental health and wellbeing support for all staff including, access to counselling services, a self-check wellbeing tool and free access to a range of wellbeing apps. Staff can also access the National Staff Mental Health Treatment Service, provided by Practitioner Health, for more complex mental health support, including trauma and addiction.
The 10-Year Health Plan committed to roll out Staff Treatment Hubs. These hubs will provide a high-quality occupational health service for all NHS staff and include support for mental health issues.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of the National NHS Muslim Network’s New Muslim guidance in August to "help new Muslims navigate through the early stages of their journey", whether it is their policy to produce similar documents for all faiths.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This document is owned by the NHS Muslim Network, which is one of several staff networks which have formed within the National Health Service. Other staff networks include the Jewish Staff Network and the Care Experienced Staff Network.
Staff networks make materials for their members with no input from NHS England or the Department, and the networks determine policies useful for their network members.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the legal relationship between NHS England and the NHS Muslim Network; and how much the NHS spent or committed to spend in supporting the work of the NHS Muslim Network in (1) 2023–24, and (2) 2024–25.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Muslim Network supports Muslim colleagues, allies, and friends, by providing a forum for Muslim staff to share their experiences and to raise issues faced by this staff group. There is no legal relationship between NHS England and the NHS Muslim Network, and this is the same for NHS England and all staff networks in the National Health Service.
Staff networks are not allocated budgets but can apply for funding to support activities which improve staff experience or patient outcomes. In 2023/24, NHS England spent £2,655 supporting the NHS Muslim Network activities. So far in 2024/25, NHS England has not spent or committed any funding to support the NHS Muslim Network activities.