Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce sickness absence levels in the ambulance service.

NHS England publish staff sickness absence rates by organisation type. The latest data for February 2023 shows that ambulance trusts had a sickness absence rate of 7.0%. This is lower than the 7.6% rate in January 2023 and lower than the rate in February 2022 where the sickness absence rate was 8.5%.

NHS England is working closely with ambulance trusts to ensure there is an effective health and wellbeing offer that has a focus on prevention. This has included working in collaboration with ambulance trusts and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives to develop rehabilitation pathways for staff who have been on long term sickness and to improve the mental health and wellbeing support available to staff. During 2022/23, a sector wide Attendance Management group chaired by West Midlands Ambulance Service and London Ambulance Service and facilitated by NHS England worked to review best practice on attendance to standardise approaches across the sector.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan requires integrated care systems to develop and implement plans to invest in occupational health and wellbeing services. These should align with the NHS England strategy to grow occupational health and wellbeing, published earlier this year, which sets out a roadmap for the National Health Service and partner organisations to work together to develop and invest in occupational health and wellbeing services for NHS staff over the next five years.