Leicestershire Police hails low sickness rates for its officers and staff

The figures show that officers are at work 97.1 per cent of the time losing 2.9 per cent of all working hours to sickness.

This in an improvement on last year, reducing from 3.6 per cent, and getting the force recognised as the second best performing in the country.

For police staff the figures show that they are at work 96.5 per cent of the time, putting Leicestershire Police in seventh place in the top 10 best performing forces.

The force’s director of human resources Alison Naylor said: “We’re relating this success to a change in culture promoting health and wellbeing across the force. During times of reduced funding and organisational change we may expect to see rises in anxiety which could mean extra days lost through sickness. These positively low results show the support services we’re offering are working well and we are supporting our workforce even during times of big changes in services.”