A crackdown on high sickness absence at Bradford Council looks set to miss its target this year, with employees still off for an average of two working weeks a year.

Sickness absence cost the Council an estimated £1.6 million from April to December last year, with the most common problems being fractures, sprains or muscular problems.

Now human resources staff are looking to draft in physiotherapists to help people avoid injuries.

Council employees took an average of 10.1 sick days in 2011-12, down from 14.29 days in 2005-6.

The authority hoped to bring this rate down further, to 9.03 working days per employee in 2012-13.

But it looks set to miss this target. A report to the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee says according to the latest data, the measure is set to rise to 10.71 days per staff member.

The Council is now looking into whether it can draft in physiotherapists to help workers prevent injuries, as well as introducing other ‘wellbeing’ initiatives. Between November last year and January this year, the Council has conducted ten ‘capability hearings’ with staff as they look into whether people should be dismissed for poor attendance. The report also reveals six people “have been retired” on the grounds of ill health.

The majority of days lost are because of long-term sickness leave. The cost to the Council of overtime or casual staff to cover long-term sickness is about £1.1 million. The cost of cover for short-term absence is £488,000.

The highest sickness absence rates have been recorded in the Department of Adult and Community Services, where days off look set to rise from 14.58 to 15.24 per employee – the equivalent of three working weeks.

The report, by the Council’s business support strategic director Mary Weastell, says: “The cost of sickness absence is twofold in terms of both human and financial factors. The human cost is the impact of absence on other colleagues in terms of covering additional workloads.

“The financial impact is clearly the cost of the absence and the fact that work does not get undertaken or it incurs additional expenditure within some departments due to the nature of the service and the need for absences to be covered to ensure that frontline services can be delivered to the citizens of Bradford.”

The committee is due to discuss the report at its next meeting, at City Hall at 5pm on Thursday.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, public sector employees took an average of 7.9 sick days in 2012, compared to 5.7 sick days per employee in the private sector.