Mental Health of Nurses - FOI Response Register

In providing this response please note that “nurses” includes Nurses and Midwives.

1. The number of instances of nurse absence due to stress, anxiety, depression or other psychiatric illness, broken down by the last six financial years (2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/2022, 2022/23

Clarification: By number of instances of absence I mean the overall number of absences recorded (which may include multiple absences taken by the same nurse several times).

2. The number of nurses by headcount who took an absence due to stress anxiety, depression, or other psychiatric illness, broken down by the last six financial years (2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/2022, 2022/23).

Clarification: This request differs from request 1 because I am asking for the number of nurses who officially took an absence NOT the number of instances of absence which may count the same nurse multiple times. For example, 200 nurses may have taken an absence but there may be 472 recorded instances of absence.

Please note that where an employee has more than one post and has had an absence in both posts they are counted as 1 in the figures below.

3. The number of working hours lost due to nurse mental health absences, broken down by the last six financial years (2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/2022, 2022/23)

Clarification: Nurse refers to all bands of nurse.