Item 4 - Employee Wellbeing Annual Update 2025 26 (Council Wide)
West Dunbartonshire Council · 11 June 2026
Back to Joint Consultative Forum — 11 June 2026 and its agenda
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by Chief Officer – People and Technology Joint Consultative Forum: 11 June 2026 ___________________________________________________________________ Subject: Employee Wellbeing Annual Update 2025/26 (Council Wide) 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide the Forum with detailed analysis on Council-wide employee wellbeing and attendance for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. 2. Recommendations 2.1 The Forum is asked to note the annual findings which are: • The decrease in Council wide sickness absence of 1380.95 full time equivalent (FTE) days lost compared to the previous year, whilst this decrease is encouraging, it should be noted that there has been an increase of 0.18 average FTE days lost per FTE employee since 2024/25. This is likely attributed to the reduction in workforce of 153 FTE. • The top 3 reasons for absence remain unchanged with minor illness attributed as the top reason for absence, followed by personal stress and acute medical conditions respectively. • The proportion of absence that is considered long term has increased to 82.4%, an increase of 16.5% compared to 2024/25 and is largely linked to the high level of absences attributed to acute medical conditions and personal stress. • Work related stress sickness absence has increased by approximately 0.25% compared to 2024/25 and ‘in work’ stress risk assessments have decreased by approximately 32% compared to the previous year. 3. Background 3.1 The Council’s continued commitment to supporting the health and wellbeing of all employees is driven by the People First Strategy which has 5 different work streams including employee wellbeing, employee engagement, workforce planning, organisational development and change and digital. The activity for the year ahead will focus on a Fit for Future review of the Supporting Employee Wellbeing process, particularly the administration of the process. Opportunities to streamline the administration of the process have already been identified and will release management capacity as well as showcase how automation can be used in corporate processes. Given the recent reduction in the Strategic HR team, improvement activities are restricted to this area of work in the coming year. Section 4.5 of this report Page 1 ITEM 4
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Official details activity undertaken and reflects the limited capacity to proactively address challenges faced by the workforce. 3.2 Council absence remains above the public sector benchmark of 13.3 days per employee (CIPD, Health and Wellbeing at Work, Sept 2025), partly reflecting structural factors such as relatively generous terms and conditions and the prevalence of public-facing roles compared to other sectors. Additionally, the report highlights that many people are living and working longer with chronic health conditions and disabilities more commonly seen among older workers. When this is considered alongside the fact that the majority of Council employees are also from the area and the healthy life expectancy is lower than some surrounding areas, it is reflective of the UK Government’s “Keep Britain Working Review” that has found that there has been a surge in the number of people with work-limiting health conditions in the last 10 years. 4. Main Issues Attendance: 2025/26 4.1 From 1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026, a total of 65,224 FTE days were lost due to sickness absence across the Council. Whilst this is a decrease of 1380.95 FTE days compared to the previous year, appendix 2 shows that this equates to an increase in absence levels by 0.18 FTE days lost by FTE employees when compared to 2024/25. This can be attributed to the decrease in the size of the workforce i.e. when there are fewer people in the workforce, the impact on statistical rates of absence is greater. The increase in sickness absence is seen across a range of reasons however the single largest increase is attributed to personal stress. There has also been a decrease in absence levels across a range of reasons, and the single biggest decrease is attributed to minor illnesses. The CIPD report, “Analysis of the Public Sector Workforce”, September 2025, highlighted that public sector workers are more likely than private sector workers to report that morale and engagement had decreased over the last 2 years. Given the close links between employee engagement, wellbeing and productivity, the persistent high levels of sickness absence will remain a challenge for the Council in the context of the ongoing financial position and the workforce challenges that it brings. 4.1.2 Employees continue to face challenges in accessing health care in a timely manner through the NHS which is impacting on employee wellbeing in terms of interventions such as operation waiting times. The supportive nature of the Supporting Employee Wellbeing policy provides multiple opportunities for employees and managers to discuss any health concerns and supports in the workplace with advice and/or support available from specialists such as Occupational Health and mental health professionals when required in addition to a range of self-help materials available through the employee assistance programme. Further information is available in Section 4.5 of this report on work undertaken to support employee wellbeing. 4.1.3 The Council’s absence profile is consistent with wider public sector trends, particularly the increasing concentration of absence in long-term cases and Page 2
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Official rising stress-related absence. These patterns are occurring within a broader context of an ageing workforce, increased prevalence of chronic health conditions, and ongoing workload pressures across public services. While overall absence levels within the Council are higher than national benchmarks, the direction of travel and underlying drivers are aligned with those seen across the UK public sector. 4.1.4 Whilst the Local Government Benchmarking Framework data for 2025/26 is not yet available, the data for 2024/25 is available; it shows that West Dunbartonshire’s placing in comparison to other local authorities has remained the same. The Council was placed 25th out of 32 local authorities. Statistics for 2025/26 won’t be known for some time however early indications are that local authorities continue to report challenges with the level of sickness absence given the difficulties faced by the organisation and the workforce. 4.1.5 Appendix 2 shows the breakdown of absence levels by Chief Officer Area with 3 areas reporting a lower level of absence in 2025/26 compared to the previous year. Notably Education (Support), Community Health and Care, and Strategy, Planning, Health and Improvement reported lower levels of average FTE days lost per FTE employee than in the previous year. All other services have reported an increase in average FTE days lost per FTE employee. 4.1.5 Appendix 1 shows the number of Wellbeing Advocates across the Council. The role of the Wellbeing Advocate share information with their teams in relation to Wellbeing activities/initiatives that are taking place across the Council. Growing this group of employees is an area of work that has been limited due to resource restrictions within Strategic HR. 4.1.6 Table 1 shows the number of Wellbeing Advocates and Mental Health First Aiders, numbers are largely static compared to last year. Whilst there is a desire to increase the number of Advocates, there is limited capacity within People and Change to grow this peer support group. As such the group predominantly acts as supports to share information within their services regarding the supports available to employees. Table 1 Service MHFA WA CCF 2 5 Child Health Care & Criminal Justice 7 2 Community, Health & Care 1 1 Education, Learning and Attainment 5 2 Housing 5 9 Mental Health, Addictions & Learning Disabilities 3 2 People and Technology 3 4 Resources 2 4 Roads & Neighbourhood 5 1 Page 3
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Official 4.2 Absence Reasons 4.2.1 Appendix 2 provides a detailed breakdown of the reasons for absence Council Wide. 4.2.2 Appendix 1 highlights that the top 3 reasons for absence remain unchanged from 2024/25 and are reported as minor illness, personal stress and acute medical conditions. CIPD’s ‘Health at Work’ report (September 2025), reports that mental health is now the leading cause of long-term absence and this is reflected in the Council’s top reasons for absence and increasing concentration of long-term absence. 4.2.3 The prevalence of employees reporting acute medical conditions continues to be indicative of the health challenges faced by the local community and therefore a large proportion of the Council workforce. This category includes long term health conditions such as cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Employees are supported through the Supporting Employee Wellbeing policy, and a range of options are explored to support people to return to work including reasonable adjustments and redeployment to more suitable roles. The Council demonstrates employment best practice in this regard and continues to offer a comprehensive support package to employees including ill health retirement provisions. 4.2.4 Given the volume of absences attributed to minor illnesses, it is encouraging that the number of days lost in this category has significantly decreased by 26.8% over the last 2 years. Absences linked to employee mental health; personal stress, work related stress and mental health conditions have all increased slightly in the last year and this is in line with wider trends highlighted in section 4.2.2. Counselling provision remains available through the employee benefits partner, Vivup and regular promotion taking place to raise awareness of supports amongst the workforce. Additionally, the employee benefits platform, Vivup contains a range of self-help resources to support mental wellbeing including but not limited to podcasts, CBT self- directed workbooks, self-assessments. Further details of the work of the Employee Wellbeing Group are provided in section 4.5 of this report. 4.3 Absence Duration 4.3.1 Appendix 1 and 2 show the duration profile of sickness absence for the Council. Long term absence accounts for approximately 82% of Council-wide absence for 2025/26, which is approximately 16% increase compared to the previous year. The increase in long-term absence aligns directly with national trends cited in CIPD ‘Health and Wellbeing at Work’ report (September 2025) showing sickness absence is increasingly driven by chronic and complex health conditions rather than episodic illness. 4.3.2 In order to ensure that long term absence cases are managed appropriately HR, management, Occupational Health and Trades Unions representatives work closely together to identify supports and adjustments that may assist the Page 4
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Official employee to return to work. This includes identifying reasonable adjustments to hours and/or duties, considering suitable alternative roles and the employees’ eligibility for ill health retirement where appropriate. 4.4 Ill Health Retirement and Capability Dismissals 4.4.1 Appendix 1 highlights that there were 36 ill health retirements and 31 capability dismissals in 2025/26. In comparison, there were 42 capability dismissals and 24 ill health retirements the previous year. The 2025/26 figures demonstrate a consistent volume of total employees leaving the Council due to ill health. This is unsurprising given most of the workforce are residents. As previously highlighted in Section 4.1.2 the increase in capability dismissals is reflective of some employees not being able to maintain their attendance at work despite support being put in place. The Supporting Employee Wellbeing Policy has several check points contained within its procedure to ensure that the employee’s circumstances are reviewed on numerous occasions to ensure that the appropriate support is in place before dismissal is considered. It is also important to note that ill health capability dismissals are a last resort. Individuals who are dismissed on the grounds of capability due to ill health can reapply for Council vacancies in the future, should their health recover to the point of being able to work. 4.4.2 With regard to ill health retirement appeals, there were 7 submitted in 2025/26; 1 was upheld, 1 withdrawn and 5 were rejected. Additionally, one Stage 2 Appeal was received and responded to by the Council within the period. 4.4 Stress Risk Assessments 4.4.1 Appendix 1 shows the number of ‘in work’ stress risk assessments (SRA’s) completed during the reporting period i.e. risk assessments that have been completed by employees who remain at work. The data shown includes employees who have completed paper-based forms and online forms. 4.4.2 The small increase in work related stress sickness absences and decrease of ‘in work’ stress risk assessments suggests that employees may not be accessing support at an early stage to resolve matters to the extent that was happening in previous years. A decrease in resolving matters informally is reflected in wider employee relations activity in both the Council and the wider workforce across the country as seen in the increases in employment tribunal claims raised through ACAS (as cited on the ACAS website). The highest numbers of employees submitting stress risk assessments remain unchanged from last year and are in Education, Learning and Attainment. Given the front-line nature of these services and the size of the workforce, the higher numbers of stress risk assessments in these services are not unexpected. Please note that further service level breakdown has not been provided due to most services having a number below that of what can be reported due to data protection considerations. Page 5
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Official 4.4.3 When the number of employees submitting ‘in work’ stress risk assessments is considered in conjunction with the number of employees reporting sickness absence attributed to work related stress, it equates to approximately 3.8% of the Council headcount for 2025/26 (excluding casual employees), a decrease of 0.6% compared to 2024/25. This highlights that work related stress is an issue that should continue to be taken seriously and whilst, the data supports the conclusion that it is not a widespread issue, the ongoing challenges faced by the workforce highlight this as an area of continued risk that requires ongoing monitoring. 4.4.4 Furthermore, it is important to consider the holistic picture and, to this end, data from sources such as exit interviews, Trickle, Trade Union colleagues and other employee communication channels continue to be considered alongside this quantitative data. 4.5 Employee Wellbeing Group 4.5.1 The Employee Wellbeing Group continues to make progress through wellbeing initiatives, employee support mechanisms and working with trade unions and local partners to identify and address areas for improvement. A range of forward thinking and progressive supports have been developed in this vein. Actions completed since the last report to this Committee in June 2025, or which are currently being progressed, include the following: • Continuation of the monthly Wellbeing Round Up highlighting support resources available internally and sign posting to external supports. • Vivup continues to be promoted with an increase of approximately 20% in the number of registered users over the course of the year giving employees a one stop shop to review their employee supports and benefits. • My Money Matters continues to be promoted with 21% increase in employees accessing shared cost AVC’s and able to access financial wellbeing resources such as information on shared cost AVC’s and a range of webinars on a range of financial wellbeing matters. • Discovery work undertaken to identify improvements in the Supporting Employee Wellbeing process resulting in Return to Work form being updated to make it easier and less time consuming for managers to complete, automated emails introduced highlighting key next steps, intranet page updated for easier navigation. 5. People Implications 5.1 Effective and robust management of absence can have a positive impact upon employees, promoting early return to good health and work. The work in this area continues to develop and evolve and is delivered through the implementation of actions developed through the group. 6. Financial and Procurement Implications Page 6
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Official 6.1 The estimated salary costs of sickness absence for 2025/26 is £9,090,601. This is calculated based on the salary costs of absent employees and takes into account changes of rates in pay linked to sickness absence entitlement i.e. employees moving from full pay to half and half pay to nil pay. This does not take into account associated costs such as cover or overtime. This is a change in calculation compared to previous years, previous estimates were based on the average salary of a Council employee multiplied by FTE days lost. 6.2 There are no procurement implications. 7. Risk Analysis 7.1 There is a continued risk that the negative impact on employee wellbeing linked to challenges faced by the Council and wider public sector, will lead to sustained increases in sickness absence. The People and Change team are continuing to improve data and streamline the administration of the associated processes to ensure that management time is appropriately directed at supporting employees. Improved data will ultimately aide policy compliance with more accurate information being readily available and areas of noncompliance being made as to identify and evidence as possible. There are further improvements planned in 2026/27 to further streamline the administrative processes given the limited resource available to support managers and employees. 7.2 Managers continue to report that with increased pressures and competing priorities, the management of sickness absence is not always able to be prioritised in the context of immediate service delivery demands. 7.3 Without maintaining and continuing to improve attendance there continues to be a risk of detrimental impact on service delivery, loss of productivity and reduced team performance. 8. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) 8.1 This report is for noting only, therefore no EIA is required. Any associated policies are subject to Equalities Impact Screening and Assessment if required. 9. Consultation 9.1 Information is shared with Trades Unions in the main through the local Joint Consultative Committees, Convenors and, for more strategic matters, through the Joint Consultative Forum. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 Effective attendance management will support the Council’s aim to make best use of both financial and human resources resulting in a positive impact upon service provision. Page 7
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Official ________________________ Victoria Rogers Chief Officer- People and Technology Date: 12 May 2026 Person to Contact: Louise Hastings, Strategic People and Change Manager People & Technology 16 Church St, Dumbarton Tel: 07792321839 Email: louise.hastings@west-dunbarton.gov.uk. Appendices: Appendix 1 Employee Wellbeing Update Summary Appendix 2 Council Wide Annual 2025/26 Absence Summary Background Papers: None Wards Affected: None Page 8