Officers sick leave

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/23/0795

Version Date: 03/07/2023

The HR Resourcing Department have provided the following information.

1. How many officers took sick leave for depression, anxiety, stress or post-traumatic stress between April 2022 and March 2023. By this, I mean where any of the terms 'depression', 'anxiety' or 'stress' or 'post-traumatic stress' appear in the description of the officer's illness.

Please see below table detailing the number of Dorset Officer who were off sick during each quarter of 22/23 due to Mental Health reasons, including for the reasons requested:

	Dorset Officer Sickness Occurrences 22/23
Mental Health Absence Reasons	Q1 22/23	Q2 22/23	Q3 22/23	Q4 22/23
Anxiety	12	18	17	15
Depression	10	6	7	13
Other mental disorders (inc. bipolar, schizophrenia, hypomania)	1	1	3	2
Other stress	30	41	47	45
Post-Traumatic Stress	1	5	7	5
Grand Total	54	71	81	80

 

The sickness figures were taken from snapshots as at the last day of the relevant quarter (i.e., 30th June 2022, 30th September 2022, etc.) as they were recorded on the system at those times. Any individuals who were on ELB or External Secondment at the time of the snapshot were excluded.

Please be advised that some sickness periods span more than one quarter and as such have been reported as one sickness per timeframe (e.g., if an Officer was off sick from 30th June – 1st July 2022, they will show as one occurrence for Q1 22/23 and one occurrence for Q2 22/23 despite being the same sickness period).