Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust sees over 8k staff take absences for mental health issues

Amidst growing pressures on the NHS as well as government funding cuts, hundreds of NHS staff have had to take absences due to mental health problems.

Over 8,000 staff at a Greater Manchester NHS Trust have had to take at least one day off work due to a mental health issue in the past three years, a new investigation has revealed.

Figures obtained by Legal Expert found that Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust has seen 8,071 staff members take absence due to mental health reasons since 2021, with figures rising in the past year.

Earlier this year, it was announced that government funding ended for a national network of mental health and wellbeing hubs that were established in 2020-21 to support NHS frontline workers during the pandemic. 

These hubs served as a vital lifeline for a workforce in crisis, and closures across the support network have led to the number of staff absences due to mental health reasons rising year on year.

Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust delivers healthcare excellence to over one million people across Salford, Oldham, Rochdale and Bury, as well as providing more specialist services to patients from Greater Manchester and beyond.

In 2021/22, the number of staff at the trust who took a day off for mental health reasons stood at 2,659.

A year later, this number decreased to 2,490, which is the lowest number of staff absent over the three-year period.

The past year has seen another drop in staff absences due to mental health issues, standing at 2,922.