The proportion of sickness absences recorded by Council employees, because of stress related issues, reached a record high during the last financial year.

21.8% of absences were put done to stress compared to a previous high of 19.5% seen in 2010/11

Dates	Days Lost/FTE (all)	Days Lost/FTE (stress)	% of absence days lost because of stress
01/04/2009-31/03/2010	8.98	1.74	19.38
01/04/2010-31/03/2011	10.48	2.04	19.51
01/04/2011-31/03/2012	8.56	1.22	14.25
01/04/2012-31/03/2013	8.63	1.68	19.47
1/04/1013-31/03/2014	9.15	1.99	21.79

Overall the number of sickness days per employee has also risen to 9.2%

The Council has not yet commented on the worrying trend