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Sickness Absence

Data source

The Scottish Standard Time System (SSTS) records absences for all staff directly employed by NHS Scotland except Scottish Ambulance Service. Absences of all types are included, for example, sickness absence, annual leave, special leave, and maternity and paternity leave. Any period of absence recorded in SSTS has a start date, end date, absence type, absence reason (if sickness absence type is used), and hours lost.

SSTS is connected to NHS Boards local payroll systems to ensure that staff are correctly paid. Data for sickness absence are then passed from Payroll to the Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS). Sickness absence data for Scottish Ambulance Service are recorded on a separate system which feeds directly to Payroll and then SWISS.

We receive an aggregated NHS Board level monthly summary from NHS National Services Scotland. This includes both the monthly sickness absence and the rolling year absence. This is sent to all NHS boards, and allows us to keep definitions in line with internal reporting.

Methods

Sickness absence includes absence types: normal sick leave, unpaid sick leave, industrial injury, accident involving a third party, and injury resulting from a crime of violence.

Every month NES receives the working hours lost, weekly contracted hours and sickness absence rate over a month and year for each NHS Board. There is a six week lag between the end of the sample period and extraction of the data from SWISS. This is to ensure any leave has been added to the systems. The sickness absence rate for the year ending 31 March is supplied mid-May and is reported in the Official Statistics publication.

The sickness absence rate is calculated by:

(WorkingHoursLost / WeeklyContractedHours * 52.179) * 100

where 52.179 is used to standardise the number of weeks in a year (including a leap year every four years).

Absences related to COVID-19 were initially included under Special Leave absence type so that it did not affect pay. These data were not passed to SWISS and are not currently available to NES. The Scottish Government reported absences due to COVID-19 on their website.

From 1 September 2022, COVID-19-related absences have been recorded as sickness absence (with covid-related illness reason). During the transition of how these data are recorded, users were allowed to update previously entered sickness absences reasons to covid-related illness. This was relevant for some boards who introduced the change in covid-related absence recording in May. The first instance of a sickness absence recorded with a covid-related illness reason is from August 2022.

What data are published?

The sickness absence rate for each NHS Board is published annually in June for the year ending 31 March.

Data quality

If someone leaves post, their sickness absence data is retained for three years after termination limiting historical sickness absence analysis.

Absence information is sourced from SSTS via SWISS. This is a dynamic operational system in which the data can change over time due to their live status and potential additional updates made by NHS Boards. Accuracy of coding is crucial to the quality and credibility of the data. The responsibility for data accuracy lies with the NHS Boards providing the data.

For Information Governance reasons, these data have not been through the same processing as the employment data derived from SWISS. Therefore, the staff included in these data might be slightly different compared with the employment data. For example, any Resident Doctors will be included in the Board as recorded in SWISS (Board of Employment).

Quality assurance and limitations

Quality assurance

Absence information is sourced from SSTS via SWISS. This is a dynamic operational system in which the data can change over time due to their live status and potential additional updates made by NHS Boards. Accuracy of coding is crucial to the quality and credibility of the data. The responsibility for data accuracy lies with the Boards providing the data. However, NES seeks to minimise data inaccuracies by following steps:

  1. Extract data at a regular frequency (four weeks after the end of the financial year) which is agreed with data providers.

  2. Once these data have been extracted, NES carry out a second phase of quality assurance. This involves: (i) checking for any errors, or missing values, in the data, (ii) comparing figures with previous extracts, and (iii) comparing with sickness absence data circulated to all NHS Boards by the national eESS / SWISS team. When required, NES clarify any large changes in data with data providers.

  3. These data are then processed to combine with previous data and reporting software PowerBI is updated so as to include the new data. The outputs are then checked to ensure the values are shown accurately and any additional data intelligence are noted.

  4. These data are part of the two-week early release quality assurance process where the outputs are made available to NHS Boards to confirm as accurate. Communication with NHS Boards over this period allows us to confirm or update any of these data ahead of release to the public.

The above quality assurance processes results in accurate information being released as part of the NHSScotland Workforce publication. Therefore it is unlikely that any significant issues with the data quality would arise after publication. 

Limitations

For Information Governance reasons, these data have not been through the same processing as the staff in post data derived from SWISS. Therefore, the staff included in these data might be slightly different compared with the staff in post data. For example, any doctors in training will be included in the Board as recorded in SWISS (Board of Employment).