Probation Service: Sick Leave

(asked on 7th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many days staff in the probation service were absent as a result of (a) stress and (b) work-induced stress in 2022.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 13th November 2023

Between 01 January and 31 December 2022, 47,690 working days were lost due to stress. We are unable to make a distinction between sickness caused generally by stress. The average working days lost figure for stress related sickness was 2.7 per staff member.

We are focused on ensuring our staff have the support they need to manage workplace stress, including support for staff and managers such as Occupational Health and the Employee Assistance Programme. Staff are also able to access additional support through staff networks, staff support leads and the HMPPS network of Mental Health Allies. This is balanced with a robust approach to attendance management to ensure that staff absence is kept to a minimum.

We have exceeded our recruitment targets for the last three years. We recruited over 1,000 trainee probation officers in 2020/21, 1,500 2021/22 and a further 1,500 in 2022/23. Those staff are now starting to finish their training and take on full caseloads.

  1. Average working days lost per member of staff is calculated as number of working days lost to sickness divided by the average number of full-time equivalent staff for a year.
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