Adult social care staff in York are being asked to phone a nurse when they report in sick in a pilot scheme designed to cut high sickness levels, writes Craig Kenny.

Adult services was singled out for the three-month trial by York Council because staff take an average of 28 days sick leave a year, compared to 12.2 in the rest of the council. The council estimates that sickness in the department costs them £2.3m a year.

The scheme has been tried in the public sector in Scandanavia and the US, where it is alleged to have cut sickness rates by 30 per cent, but this is the first trial in a public sector body in the UK.

Human resources manager Stephen Forrest insisted: “We are not doing it to catch malingerers. All the research shows that the sooner you get medical advice to someone, the sooner they get better.”

He accepted, however, that having to report sickness to a nurse might deter malingering.

Forrest added that the nurses would not pass on any medical details to managers unless the employee consented, and the employee was under no obligation to share medical information with the nurse.

But others were more sceptical. British Association of Social Workers director Ian Johnston said sickness levels were high in social work not because people were malingerers but because of some very difficult and stressful working environments.

“We need to tackle the root causes of sickness rather than enforce gimmicks from other places. And one key issue in the workplace is the relationship between staff and line managers.”

He added, however, that reporting to a nurse was preferable to the “misguided notion of offering rewards to staff who are not sick, which implies that you can control when you are”.