The National Health Service issued over 1 million sick notes for mental and behavioural disorders last year according to new figures from leading employment law firm, underlining the continuing impact of COVID-19 on the workplace.
The specialist employment firm said Thursday that its analysis of NHS data showed that over 77% of the mental health fit notes were for stress-related conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, with 42% of mental health notes signing employees off from work for a month or longer.
“We are now seeing PTSD being diagnosed following a much wider range of triggers such as workplace bullying, litigious divorces and after a difficult childbirth,” Sophie Vanhegan, a partner at the firm, said in a statement.
The NHS recently revealed that almost 11 million fit notes were issued in total in 2023. This is a marked increase from pre-pandemic figures, with just around 7 million fit notes issued between April 2019 and March 2020. The 2017 to 2018 figures remained below the 10 million mark, as did those between 2018 and 2019.
The firm points to several possible culprits for the recent rise, including an increased awareness of the importance of mental health and decreased stigma, a rise in the diagnosis of conditions including PTSD, and the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the uptick in diagnoses of mental health issues could be a cause for concern for employers, particularly when disorders are self-diagnosed, according to the firm.
“Many employers are shifting their cultures and workplace dynamics to encourage greater awareness and support of mental health issues in the workplace and must continue to do so to try to minimize high incidences of long-term staff absence for mental health issues and to avoid disputes with employees,” Vanhegan said.
Rishi Sunak, said he wanted to change “sick note culture.” Plans to overhaul the fit note system — introduced by the last Labour government in 2010 — will likely be scrapped under the new Labour government.
But Raoul Parekh, Partner and head of the firm’s international practice, suggested this would be a good area for the incoming government to look at if it wishes to reduce sickness absences.
The current system where employees’ own medical professionals are responsible for providing evidence of incapacity to employers is not ideal, he said.
“Doctors don’t necessarily have full information or really any information of what the employer’s workplace demands are, so they have to make a judgment in a really short period of time,” Parekh added.
If the incoming government wants to encourage employers to manage sickness absences more actively, Parekh thinks they should focus on improving access to good occupational health advice, as current services are “quite variable and not always easy to access,” he said.
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