Sick staff offered medical advice

Staff at City of York Council will ring a private company if they are sick

Council bosses in York are trying a new way of reducing staff sick leave.

When they are ill, workers on the Adult Services team at City of York Council will contact a call centre run by private company Active Health.

Nurses at the call centre will offer advice to the sick employees on how to deal with their symptoms and may make follow-up phone calls to their homes.

The scheme is being tried out for three months and may then be extended to other council departments.

York is believed to be the first local authority to try out the scheme.

The council's human resources manager Stephen Forrest said: "Studies have shown that offering people advice and support in this way means they are able to return to work more quickly."

The council is in the bottom quarter of unitary authorities with sickness levels at 12.2 days off per year per full-time member of staff.

The cost of sickness absence in the Adult Services department alone, which has three times the average sickness level, is estimated at £2.3m per year.