After making such great strides in reducing the incidence of long-term sickness at Bradford Council’s various departments, it is disappointing to see the figures on the slide again.

Of course, no-one can really help getting sick and those with illnesses or conditions that keep them from work for long periods of time should have our sympathies and be treated fairly and properly by their employers.

But there is no getting away from the fact that people away from council business on long-term sick accounts for around 56 per cent of all those people who are absent from Bradford Council for health reasons.

Once again the main problem seems to be in the Adult and Community Services department, where average sick days over the last six months amount to 7.88 per employee – much higher than other council departments.

It must be borne in mind that people in this department are more likely to be front-line staff dealing on a day-to-day basis with people who may be ill, and therefore the potential rate of picking up an illness or infection is going to be higher than for office-bound staff.

That said, the rates are too high and it is especially disappointing after Bradford Council was steadily lowering the long-term sickness rate over the past few years.

There has been some suggestion that Bradford Council’s sick pay policy is a little too generous and should be reviewed to, perhaps, bring it more in line with terms offered by the private sector.

Whether that does or does not have any bearing on the level of sickness, it is obvious that a greater effort must be made to stop the Council losing so much working time through sickness.