Police Officer sickness - 905/18

Date Responded 16 October 2018

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Can I please have the amount of officers in your force that have taken time off work for mental health/anxiety/stress related issues.

I would like the total number of days of all absences.

Can I please have a yearly breakdown over the last 10 years, since January 1, 2008, up until Wednesday 12 September, 2018

For example, it may look like:

2008: 34 officers, 300 days in total.

2009: 40 officers, 345 days in total.

2010: 31 officers, 280 days in total.

In Response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Human Resources Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

Absence Categories Included:

Anxiety

Depression

Other mental health (Inc. bipolar, schizophrenia, hypomania)

Post-Traumatic Stress

Stress

Data for 2018 up to and including 12th Sep 2018.

Year	Officers	Days
2008	138	6872
2009	117	5246
2010	127	4904
2011	163	6794
2012	175	7724
2013	154	4902
2014	200	6380
2015	223	6966
2016	209	7863
2017	203	7385
2018	167	5521

Northumbria Police recognises the importance of supporting positive mental health/well-being across its workforce. Over the last few years a framework has been developed which is aimed at destigmatising mental health/wellbeing amongst all police officers and staff. This has the aim of encouraging disclosure and reporting of issues, leading to early identification and proactive interventions. Other initiatives to support individuals include; the training of ‘Blue Light Champions’ across the organisation, ‘Trauma Risk Management Practitioners’ within a wider post incident management procedures; and the upskilling of line managers/supervisors to identify and support mental wellbeing.

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.