Social services departments could come under greater pressure to cut sickness absence rates if a proposed performance indicator to measure efficiency savings is given the go ahead.

Sickness absence rates is one of 20 draft indicators proposed to help councils meet the 2.5 per cent efficiency savings target set in the government's July spending review.

Recent surveys by the Employers' Organisation showed that sickness rates in social services departments were 16.1 days an employee a year in 2002, compared with a council-wide average of 10.7 days.

Departments have tried initiatives to bring sickness levels down, ranging from refusing to pay for the first three days sick leave to making staff talk to a nurse when phoning in sick.

Tony Hunter, Association of Director of Social Services president and social services director at Liverpool Council, said: "We all recognise that for front-line staff work can be very pressured and lonely and, for some of our workforce, lifting and handling can be a cause.

"But equally there is no doubt that sickness levels in social services are too high. The challenge for us is working out what levels of sickness are able to be tackled and what is inherent to the job."