21 May 2004
Prison Service staff regularly suffer from stress, anxiety and depression during the course of their work, leading to sickness absence rates higher than the national average, according to the National Audit Office.
Its study, published on May 19, also confirmed a rise in assaults on prison officers by inmates.
Sickness absence across the service has risen since 1999 but 'much of the overall increase may be down to under-reporting in earlier years', the report says.
However, it adds: 'Other reasons for the increase include a rise in the days lost because of depression, stress and anxiety among staff and as a result of accidents and assaults by prisoners.'
The number of reported assaults on staff leading to sick leave increased from 397 in 1999/2000 to 693 in 2002/03.
The Prison Officers Association recently told Public Finance that this rise could partly be attributed to 'worsening security conditions in newly privatised prisons where staff numbers had been reduced to cut costs'. In all, Prison Service staff took an average of 14.7 days off sick during 2002/03, compared with a target of nine days and the official 1997/98 level of 12.6 days. The new figures equate to 668,337 working days lost, which represents a full year's work for 3,000 staff at a cost of £80m.
However, auditors believe that poor record-keeping meant that the real 1997/98 level could have been as high as 15.9 days and that the rate is now falling due to 'rigorous' new procedures. Early indications are that the absence rate for 2003/04 is around 13.3 days per worker.
NAO chief Sir John Bourn urged the service to do more to reduce absenteeism to free scarce resources 'which could be used, for instance, to improve regimes for reducing re-offending rates or deal with the increased numbers of prisoners being held in custody'.
PFmay2004
