What level of absence would affect an NHS job offer?

[JobHunter123]

Does anyone know what level of sickness would cause the NHS to withdraw a job offer please? This is for a non-clinical role.

They ask for an absence record for the last 2 years.

There's no one answer.
6 months for 1 off serious illness/accident would presumably be fine.
6 months worth off odd days for random minor illnesses presumably wouldn't.

In the last 12 months I have only had 3 days off (1 occasion), so I wasn’t worried about it as I didn’t know that the NHS ask for 2 years sickness record.

However, if you look at the last 24 months I have had 17 days of absence (5 occasions). I just had a bad run of luck a couple of years ago and caught Covid (not officially recorded anywhere that it was covid), then a sick bug etc.

I can't say for sure, but I highly doubt that would a problem. 4 instances in y1 would be high, but only 1 instance in y2 brings it down. Average of 2.5 illnesses a year would usually be within the threshold.

The actual days absent is a bit high, but no. Of instances counts for more than length of time.

Thanks @jumpingjohnny .

My reference was submitted last week and I haven’t heard anything yet so hoping all is ok.

I was NHS HR for about 5 years and only once declined someone on sickness absence. They had had over 150 days in each year.

17 over 2 years is nothing.

I was NHS HR for about 5 years and only once declined someone on sickness absence. They had had over 150 days in each year.

17 over 2 years is nothing.

Lots of organisations use the Bradford Factor to score sickness- think it gives a 3 staged rating.

Yours seems low to me, so try not to worry! Good luck

That gives a Bradford factor of 425.
After 20 years of recruiting for the NHS I’ve got only got permission to withdraw a post on sickness grounds once but they had a Bradford Factor of over 2000!

HR will understand that Covid played havoc with some people’s sickness.

Recently was going public sector to public sector.

I did not have a withdrawal due to sickness (I spent 3 weeks plus in hospital last year) so you can imagine not good, even with a discrepancy (turns out my employer counts weekends and bank holidays to bump up this number).

Occupational health who the new public sector employer got involved were like very much hats off to you. I did not expect this.

This wouldn’t bother me and I’ve been an NHS hiring manager for 15 years. I do always look for the sickness reason. Long periods of absence for stress would prompt a conversation with the candidate, but I’ve never turned them down. I’m currently off sick, and have been for 3 months, as my daughter is incredibly poorly. It’s making me very anxious about the long term impact. But I know if someone came to me and said “it was a time when my child was seriously ill”, I wouldn’t ask any further questions or judge them. Please stop worrying.