Sickness absence in the NHS, percentage of staff absent by reason and staff group

Next update expected:January 2026

Updates

• 12th February 2026:

  This update includes the latest quarterly data and revisions to the previous quarter’s data. All revisions are marked with the [r] note code.

• 29th October 2025: Dataset first published.

Main information

• Designation: Official statistics
• Data provider: Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW)
• Data source: NHS electronic staff record
• Time period covered: January 2025 to December 2025

Overview

• Summary of dataset and variables:

  Sickness absence rates of directly employed NHS Wales staff by reason.

• Data collection or calculation:

  Data is extracted from the NHS Electronic Staff Record. Sickness absence rates by month, quarter and year are calculated by dividing the total number of sickness absence days by the total number of available days for each organisation and each staff group.

• Statistical quality:

  For information on statistical quality please see the linked publication.

  Data initially published on 29 October, for reference date 30 June 2025 was revised on 18 November 2025 following the discovery of a processing error that resulted in NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership figures being reported as Velindre. All other organisations and the Wales-level data were unaffected.

• Rounding applied:

  Percentages have been rounded to one decimal place.

• Related reports:
  • Sickness absence in the NHS: quality report
  • NHS workforce: staff directly employed by NHS Wales

Published by

• Organisation: Welsh Government
• Contact email: stats.healthinfo@gov.wales