Increase in stress and mental health issues among council’s staff

A SOUTH Wales council has seen a “concerning trend” in the number of school and social care staff taking time off work for mental health reasons.

A council report revealed the number of work absences due to stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues increased significantly among school and social services workers from 2019-20.

Bridgend councillor Nicole Burnett, cabinet member for social services and early help, said: “Our stress and sickness levels are indicative of the lack of pay and conditions that our care workers deserve.

“They are working on the frontline with all these stresses, anxieties and the pressures of the world on them and they are getting paid no more than they would get if they were working in a supermarket, and that has to change. We have to support them as much as we can.”

A report by Kelly Watson, Bridgend council’s chief officer for legal, HR and regulatory services, revealed “a concerning trend” of increased stress-related absences among schools and social care staff.

The report compared the number of working days lost due to stress and mental health issues from October 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020 and the same period in 2020-21. The number of absences increased by 45% among school staff and 24% in social services and wellbeing.

Lindsay Harvey, corporate director of education and family support, said October to December is “always” a “challenging” time.

“Whether it’s to do with the fact that it falls over the winter months could be something,” said Mr Harvey.

“We have seen a significant increase and when we look at this from last year. It’s been a very difficult year and it’s difficult to put that into words. It was a particularly difficult time when we had learners being in school, out of school and staff providing on-site provision and education both physically and online.”

Charles Smith, cabinet member for education and regeneration, said the pandemic created “plenty of potential for stress and anxiety at the workplace”.

“I’m very concerned about the effects on younger people, teens and people in their 20s in particular. I think they are getting a very raw deal anyway, with the problems in education, higher education and on the high street, where employment opportunities for that age group, who are not as well-qualified as others, have now disappeared.”

The council currently offers emotional and wellbeing support to staff via Care First, inlcuding telephone and online counselling. Face-to-face sessions have been limited due to the pandemic.

In response to the pandemic, extra counselling was made available to staff, according to Ms Watson’s report. This was prioritised for managers of essential frontline services and then extended to headteachers and some frontline staff.

Since it was set up in April 2020, 17 employees have accessed this service.

“There have been some positive outcomes,” the report reads, “where employees have either remained in work or returned to work following this support.

“Consideration is being given to how this or similar emotional support can be provided for employees.”

The council has also earmarked a reserve of £115,000 towards projects and resources for staff wellbeing in 2020-21.

Councillor Jon-Paul Blundell, who represents Cefn Glas, said: “We need to look at how we need to support schools to manage workloads so that in the future sickness and absence and anxiety, depression and stress, those numbers do come down as well as can be.

“It’s not just teaching staff who will be having problems at schools, it’s support staff, cleaners, teaching assistants, it’s everyone, and I feel we mustn’t forget that because they’ve been at the front of this as well. I think they get lost sometimes in the conversation.”

“It worries me terribly, the stress and the strains that our frontline workers are going through during this time but I have to say that it’s not just this year,” said Cllr Burnett.

She added: “Our frontline workers are always subject to this level of stress really, probably not so intensively, but they are on the frontline.

“They are dealing with families in distress, they are dealing with people at the worst stages of their lives, they have trauma and adverse experiences as part of their daily experience, not to mention that our workforce is predominantly female so they have other caring roles.”

In other council departments, the number of working days lost due to stress and mental health issues decreased in the same time periods. There were 29% fewer absences in the chief executive’s department, 30% fewer in communities and 9% fewer in education and family support directorates.

Ms Watson’s report states: “Stressrelated absences can be complex as there are often a range of issues involved.

“There are of course significant numbers of frontline workers in these areas who will have been working in frontline roles throughout the course of pandemic.

“It is important that as soon as an employee has a stress-related absence, that efforts are made to establish the cause and ensure employees are provided with support as early as possible. If it is work-related then efforts are made to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.”

The report also refered to an article by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in January 2021 which revealed mental health related absence is the most common cause of long-term sickness absence in UK workplaces.