Bradford Council has slashed some sickness levels by 95 per cent, as it was revealed that 470,929 days have been lost to absence since 2008.

Figures released to the Telegraph & Argus under the Freedom of Information Act showed that staff called in sick 40,473 times from 2008/09 to 2010/11, an average of 10.32 days per employee for the last year.

In 2008/09, 169,429 days were lost compared to 157,853 in 2009/10 and 143,647 in 2010/11.

The most problematic area for the Council was adult and community services where the average sick days per employee in 2008/09 was 20.05 and 17.95 days in 2009/10.

Those figures have now dropped because a Human Resources Intervention team was brought in to manage absence.

Matt Burghardt, Bradford Council’s assistant director for human resources, said: “The robust measures we have taken in recent years have clearly had a positive effect on reducing sickness absence rates, but cutting it still further remains a key priority for the Council.

“We made a series of changes aimed at lowering the number of days taken as sick leave, including how we conduct return-to-work interviews and maintaining closer contact with staff on long-term sickness.

“We will continue to reinforce these important measures.”

The main reasons for sickness were depression and anxiety with 30,458 days lost to the conditions in 2009/10.

But the Council has managed to slash the numbers of staff off for six months or more from 227 in 2008/09 to only ten in 2010/11 – a 95 per cent drop.

Those off for three months or more has dropped from 707 in 2008/09 to 130 in 2010/11 which is an 81 per cent drop.

The figures include staff in schools.

For the full story, see Tuesday's Telegraph & Argus.