Concern over council staff off over mental health

A meeting at Southampton Civic Centre revealed more than half of the sick days taken by council staff were due to mental health reasons

Concerns have been raised over the number of Southampton City Council staff who are off sick for mental health reasons.

In the past 12 months, there were more than 27,500 sick days taken, figures from the local authority showed.

More than half of these, around 14,000, had been logged as psychological absence, including anxiety, depression and stress, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Members of the council’s governance committee questioned head of HR Chris Bishop about the situation.

Labour councillor for Bevois ward Mike Denness said: “We’re a long way now post-Covid.

“There is a lot more flexible working in places now but we’re still clocking up 27,500 sick days a year, which is a frightening amount, particularly when you take on board the number of long-term sick and short-term sick.

“Most of them are related to stress, psychological, mental health-related issues.”

The Conservative councillor for Harefield ward, Rob Harwood, asked what was being done to support staff.

Mr Bishop said there was now a specific officer leading on wellbeing at a corporate level, who was splitting their time between this area and overseeing diversity and inclusion.

Mr Denness said: "We are clearly not doing enough because we have still got that many people going sick."

Referencing the council’s current financial plight and uncertainty around jobs, Mr Bishop said it was "not helping" and that "people are obviously anxious" about what their "job might be".

Mr Harwood suggested the chairman of the overview and scrutiny management committee consider setting up an inquiry on the subject of psychological absence.

He said he had no reason to doubt the situation at the council was not reflected across Southampton, adding that this must be a major inhibitor for the city’s growth and residents’ wellbeing.