‘Mental health’ biggest reason for absence among younger workers at Wiltshire Council
Wiltshire Council’s Bi-annual Workforce Report shows that the 25-34 age band showed the highest incidence of mental health-related illness
Mental health is the biggest reported cause of absence among younger workers at Wiltshire Council, a new report has found.
The authority’s Bi-annual Workforce Report shows that the 25-34 age band showed the highest incidence of mental health-related illness, while the 35-44 age band lost the highest number of days to mental health-related sickness.
The report considers why increasing age appears to correlate with a reduced incidence of mental health-related absence among the council’s work force.
“With the exception of under 25s, older employees reported fewer mental health-related related sickness absence events and lost fewer working days to mental health-related related sickness collectively,” notes the report.
“There is insufficient evidence to explain why an inverse relationship between age and the likelihood of reporting or losing working days to mental health-related related sickness exists,” say the authors.
“Potential theories include the possibility that older age groups are more reluctant to disclose mental health related illnesses, or that physical illness is typically more prevalent in these groups.”
Mental health and stress-related absences remain the primary contributor to sickness at the council, accounting for a third (32.3 per cent) of all days lost in the last 12 months.
The total number of working days lost due to stress and mental health-related absences in the last 12 months (14,437 days) increased by 21.9 per cent when compared to the 12 months prior (11,845 days).
Generally, the total quantity of working days lost due to sickness in the last 12 months (43,196) has increased by 15.5 per cent when compared to the previous 12 months (37,406), say the report.
“Although sickness working days lost is higher than we would like it to be, the council is not out of line with the South West region,” say the authors.
The report found that there had been 9.5 per cent rise in days lost to sickness over last 12 months from an average of 8.99 days to 9.85 days per employee.
The highest incidence of working days lost to sickness was among staff working in adult social care, where an average of 15.5 days per full time employee were lost in a year.
Adult social care also had the highest turnover of staff at nearly 11 per cent.
At the end of September there were 5,497 members of staff at Wiltshire Council – up from 5,305 a year before.
Salary costs have risen accordingly – up from £167.9 million at year end September 2025, up 10 per cent from £152.7 million the previous year.
However, the number of agency workers has decreased from 52 in December 202 to 37 in September 2025, reducing the monthly agency staff bill from £348,367 to £215,220.
The report will be considered by the council’s Staffing Policy Committee on Wednesday (November 26).