By the numbers: Teachers take fewer sick days

A new report shows that the average time off taken by teachers due to sickness has fallen considerably since the start of the century
14th July 2017, 12:00am

Share

By the numbers: Teachers take fewer sick days

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archived/numbers-teachers-take-fewer-sick-days

Teachers have taken the lowest number of sick days since the start of the century, according to recent government figures.

Teachers in England took a total of 2,158,300 sick days last year - 20 per cent fewer than in 2000, according to the Department for Education’s School Workforce in England report, published last month. This means that an average of 4.1 days were lost to sickness for every teacher in the past school year.

When only those teachers who took sick leave are considered, the average time taken off rises to 7.5 days. But this represents a considerable reduction from 2000, when the equivalent figure was 9.9 days.

In Scotland, teachers took 343,330 days off due to sickness in 2014-15, and a total of 1,004,138 sick days between 2012-13 and 2014-15, the latest available figures show.

You need a Tes subscription to read this article

Subscribe now to read this article and get other subscriber-only content:

  • Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
  • Exclusive subscriber-only stories
  • Award-winning email newsletters

Already a subscriber? Log in

You need a subscription to read this article

Subscribe now to read this article and get other subscriber-only content, including:

  • Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
  • Exclusive subscriber-only stories
  • Award-winning email newsletters
Recent
Most read
Most shared