Few staff using wellbeing hubs despite rise in sick days

Only 53,500 staff have used a flagship NHS staff wellbeing initiative in its first year of operation, HSJ can reveal, while separate analysis finds mental health sick days have soared in the last five years. 

Figures obtained via Freedom of Information requests reveal the NHS’s staff mental health and wellbeing hubs, set up in February 2021 in response to covid pressures, received 53,549 contacts from NHS and social care staff between then and January 2022.

It is the first time such data has been published and it comes as HSJ’s analysis of separate figures shows mental health sick days taken across acute and specialist NHS trusts have risen sharply in the past five years (see box below). 

The total number accessing the hubs, which is inclusive of social care staff, equates to less than 4 per cent of the NHS workforce as of January 2022. 

Sean Duggan, mental health chief executive at NHS Confederation, said: “Given what we know about the pandemic and the toll it has paid on NHS staff, I would have expected bigger numbers.

“We need to encourage more people to come forward. To me, this number says we certainly need to sustain the hubs with funding for years to come.”

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Source: HSJ, 3 May 2022