Flintshire Council lost over 33,000 days to sickness last year
During the same period schools within the local authority lost 23,304.95 days to sickness – again with stress the most common reason.
Both figures were worse than 2023/24. Despite this however Flintshire's absence rate last year was one of the five lowest in Wales.
Partially as a result of sickness absence, the authority also reported spending £6.09 million on agency staff – resulting in an agency budget overspend of £4.39m.
Sharon Carney, Senior Manager, People and Organisational Development, told Flintshire's Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee that part of the reason absence rates have increased is the challenges employees face accessing mental health support.
'Delays in treatments and appointments ultimately mean that some of our employees are poorly longer than they would be,' she said. 'In some cases the lack of treatment worsens their condition.
'For mental health access to treatment is not often easily reachable in the early stages and that has a negative impact. We try and supplement that with our own offer in terms of training, mindfulness, occupational health and our Employee Assistance Programme but that's not enough in some cases.'
The report also highlighted that Flintshire continues to outperform neighbouring authorities in terms of staff retention – although pressure from the private sector remained a risk.
Last year the council saw 718 full time staff leave, with just over 57% of those – 414 – telling their exit interview they were moving on to another employer or were leaving voluntarily.
'The work is increasing, resources are reducing and we are not as competitive as some of our private sector employers anymore,' added Ms Carney.
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