Sick Leave, Early Retirement & Application Numbers - Teaching Staff

Summary

The request sought year-on-year data on teaching staff sick leave, early retirement, and recruitment applications for the Isle of Man Department of Education. The authority provided detailed statistics for sick leave days by reason, staff leavers by category, and recruitment figures, though some specific data points were withheld or aggregated.

Key Facts

• Sick leave data covers the academic years 2011-12 to 2017-18, with stress, anxiety, and depression being a leading cause of absence.
• The percentage of days lost to sickness ranged from 2.9% in 2011-12 to a peak of 3.5% in 2016-17.
• Total teacher leavers decreased from 72 in 2011-12 to 32 in 2017-18, with resignation being the most common reason.
• Recruitment data is only available from 2014 to 2018, showing a peak of 764 applicants in 2015.
• The response notes that sickness days are calculated based on full-time equivalent (FTE) staff.

Data Disclosed

• 2011-12 to 2017-18
• 776 days lost to stress in 2011-12
• 3.5% days lost in 2016-17
• 741 total full time equivalents in 2017-18
• 144,466 days available in 2017-18
• 363 total leavers across the period
• 193 resignations total
• 88 retirements total
• 708 total jobs advertised (2014-2018)
• 3008 total applicants (2014-2018)
• 195 days per year standard
• 2018-10-04
• 2018-11-14

Original Request

Please provide year on year data on the following - for as many years as is currently held up to 20 years. Full time and part time contracted teaching staff, including head teachers, deputies, department heads, etc. Sick Leave - Days per year and the reasons given e.g. physical impairment, illness, stress (whatever data is held please). Please also provide the total number of staff and total days that should have been worked in each year - to allow a rate to be calculated. For example - say there were 100 staff, each one expected to complete 195 days a year, 180 days of sick leave, taken by 30 staff, 30 days of which were due to illness (flu, D&V, etc), 50 days due to stress, etc. Year on year this will allow plotting of trends. Thank you. Early Retirement or Leaving the Profession - Number of staff per year and total number of staff in that year who have left their contracts early (to allow a percentage to be calculated), and the reasons given - e.g. early retirement due to ill health (specified if available), and or no reason given if so. The number of positions advertised each year, and the number of applicants for each one - year on year. Thank you!

Data Tables (6)

Full Response Text

Appendix 1 Teacher Sickness Absences 2011-12 to 2017-18 Days lost has been calculated based upon the staff members full time equivalent. A teacher working 3 days per week (0.60 FTE) absent for 1 week is reflected as 3 days absent. Academic Year (full time equivalent days lost)

2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 Stress, anxiety, depression

776 640 649 741 544 512 785 Operations, hospitalisation 804 678 754 538 564 520 432 Flu, cold symptoms 470 495 446 544 517 549 616 Musculoskeletal 236 304 239 475 237 655 466 Infection/Virus 258 247 433 335 323 396 433 Chest, respiratory 299 234 264 178 226 312 211 Stomach, digestive problems 302 362 299 214 151 113 113 Pregnancy related 133 227 262 82 202 49 116 Cancer 4 130 130 325 132 362 224 Diarrhoea & Vomiting

25 225 227 399 327 Migraines, headaches 104 102 153 118 261 116 131 Neurological

403 314 216 57 Heart, Chest, Blood Pressure 17 208 147 27 232 28 70 Gynaecological / Andrological 58 16 96 112 47 127 59 Accident 2 15
3 10 3 17 Glandular

13 2 7 32 7 Dental

1 13 14 17 13 Other / Diagnosis Unclear / Unknown 968 742 953 629 550 634 358 Grand Total

4,431 4,401 4,863 4,964 4,559 5,039 4,435 Total Full Time Equivalents 1 774 764 774 763 756 748 741
Days Available 2

150,930

148,980

151,012

148,693

147,467

145,788

144,466
% of Days Lost

2.9% 3.0% 3.2% 3.3% 3.1% 3.5% 3.1% 1 Based upon October snap shot 2 Days available calculated as total full time equivalents x 195 days

Appendix 2 Teacher Leavers Information 2011-12 to 2017-18 Leaving Reason 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 Grand Total Deceased 1 4 2 7 Dismissal - Attendance, Compulsory Redundancy, Conduct & Health 9 5 4 4 22 Other - reason unknown, end of LTA including those less than 2 years & transfer to other Gov body 12 8 7 5 10 6 5 53 Resignation - Career break, Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme, Personal Choice & Voluntary Redundancy Scheme 26 25 23 33 33 34 19 193 Retirement - Age & Ill Health 25 14 14 13 5 9 8 88 Grand Total 72 53 48 55 50 53 32 363 Number of People in Post 01 September 963 928 943 939 944 970 970 Number of People in Post 31 August 957 921 937 948 947 963 973 Year (01 September - 31 August)

Appendix 3 Recruitment information 2014 – 2018

Total Jobs Advertised Total applicants 2014 141 421 2015 173 764 2016 153 686 2017 143 746 2018 98 391 Totals 708 3008

Corporate Services Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Hamilton House Peel Road, Douglas IM1 5EZ Telephone: (01624) 685808 Website: www.gov.im/dec Email: dec@foi.gov.im

Our ref: 610370 14 November 2018

Dear

We write further to your request which was received on 4 October 2018 and which states:

"Please provide year on year data on the following - for as many years as is currently held up to 20 years. Full time and part time contracted teaching staff, including head teachers, deputies, department heads, etc.

Sick Leave - Days per year and the reasons given e.g. physical impairment, illness, stress (whatever data is held please). Please also provide the total number of staff and total days that should have been worked in each year - to allow a rate to be calculated. For example - say there were 100 staff, each one expected to complete 195 days a year, 180 days of sick leave, taken by 30 staff, 30 days of which were due to illness (flu, D&V, etc.), 50 days due to stress, etc. Year on year this will allow plotting of trends. Thank you.

Early Retirement or Leaving the Profession - Number of staff per year and total number of staff in that year who have left their contracts early (to allow a percentage to be calculated), and the reasons given - e.g. early retirement due to ill health (specified if available), and or no reason given if so.

The number of positions advertised each year, and the number of applicants for each one - year on year.

Thank you!"

Our response to your request is as follows:

The original due date for our response to this Freedom of Information (FoI) request was Wednesday 31st October and the intended response was going to apply a practical refusal reason under section 11 (3) of the FoI Act. As it was our understanding that the requested information was not held or easily accessible by the Department.

However following further enquiries it appeared that some or all of the information may have been available to us through a number of different sources, who hold information on behalf of the Department. At this point it was agreed to extend the

processing period of the FoI request until Friday 16th November, in order to try and source the information requested.

The FoI Act applies in relation to information created on or after 11th October 2011. Therefore we are unable to provide information up to 20 years old, as per your request.

Absence information

The number of days and reasons for absence for teaching staff for each academic year is attached in appendix 1. Also included is the number of full time equivalent employees and the number of school days each year.

Leavers information

The number of teaching staff who left their role and the reasons given for each academic year is attached in appendix 2. Also included is the number of employees in post at the beginning and the end of each of the academic years.

Recruitment information

The number of jobs advertised and the number of applicants for each year is attached in appendix 3.

The information provided is from 2014 because prior to this recruitment information was stored in a different format and to provide the information requested would require substantial interrogation of an old system and creating a record. Therefore a practical refusal reason applies under section 11 (3) (b) of the FoI Act:

Complying with the request for information would require the public authority to do one or more of the matters mentioned in section 8 (3) (things a public authority is not required to do by the Act).

Section 8 (3) of the Act states nothing in this Act requires a public authority to –
(a) Create or derive information from information that it holds; (b) Undertake research into, or analysis of, information that it holds; or (c) Undertake substantial compilation or collation of information that it holds.

Please quote the reference number 610370 in any future communications.

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I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Coordinator