Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the number of NHS employees (a) who work while being sick enough to stay at home and (b) the potential effect of that practice on the NHS.

The Department uses the NHS Staff Survey to assess how many National Health Service employees work while being sick enough to stay at home. The 2017 NHS Staff Survey results shows a small increase, from 56% (2016) to 57% (2017) in the number of staff reporting that they attended work in the last three months despite feeling unwell because they felt pressure from their manager, colleagues or themselves.

Information on the potential effect of staff working whilst being sick enough to stay at home is not collected.

Recognising that staff ill-health and related absence is linked to an increased risk of unsafe care, worse experiences of care for patients and poorer outcomes, the Department continues to commission NHS Employers to help NHS trusts improve staff health and wellbeing through a structured programme of advice, guidance and best practice. They have a dedicated section on presenteeism and what to do as a manager to solve the problem of presenteeism in their toolkit. The toolkit is available at the following link:

http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/retain-and-improve/staff-experience/health-work-and-wellbeing/action-on-absence/everything-you-need-to-know-about-sickness-absence