Reducing the occupational sickness absence rate for an NHS Trust

IES advised Mersey Care on how it might reduce its absence levels in its high security unit.

Mersey Care NHS Trust wished to review its occupational sickness rate to examine the causes of absence and potential ways of reducing it. IES was asked to assist.

IES helped the Trust understand its absence issues through:

• interviews with key managers, HR staff, the Occupational Health manager and staff side representatives
• considering Trust policies, procedures on absence and related matters
• examining workforce statistics on absence, employee engagement, etc

Drawing on work done elsewhere in the health system and previous IES research, we wrote a report that offered a summary of findings and a set of suggestions for improvement of the absence situation. We also presented the results of our work to the Trust’s Executive Committee and HR community.

Project details

Client	Mersey Care NHS Trust
Year	2013
IES contact	Peter Reilly