THE NUMBER of Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) Council staff who can’t attend work due to mental health reasons is a “cause for concern” with one councillor suggesting the use of mental health first aiders.
At a council overview and scrutiny committee on Monday, March 24, councillors discussed the workforce health data which showed that during 2024 there were 147,905 working days lost due to sickness absence.
The highest percentage of sickness absence was in community and children’s services (7%) with 5.5 % being long-term absences (more than 28 days).
Mental health (not bereavement related) was the biggest reason for absence at 30.5% across the council with community and children’s services showing the highest levels at 33.7%.
Councillor Scott Emanuel said: “The level of staff citing mental health as a reason why they can’t attend work is a cause for concern.
“But I think it’s really important we recognise that some of our staff work in departments, children’s services or housing or anything, where they can see some really distressing stuff and it is going to take a toll on their mental health.”
He said he sees the council is doing lots to support them and hopes they can do everything they can.
He said he had trained as a mental health first aider through the charity Mind and found they were really effective because not everybody who is struggling wants to go and tell their manager.
He said mental health first aiders are there to signpost or just listen saying: “I think potentially mental health first aiders could be a good initiative for Rhondda Cynon Taf if you’d be prepared to explore it.”
Councillor Ros Davis said she had also done that training and she thinks it’s really excellent and something she would support.
She said: “We do know that mental health is a problem across the UK and has been more of a problem since Covid.
“However I think that we as an authority need to make sure that we are not impacting adversely on people’s mental health and so I do think we could do with more data to look at where those issues lie and is there any pattern to it, is there any correlation to it?
“Is there any correlation between home working and poor mental health?”
In a response to a question from Councillor Julie Edwards the director of human resources Richard Evans said they’ve got a number of processes in place to support staff including digital and face-to-face support.
He said they can provide regular counselling to people if they feel they need it and regular mental health and wellbeing support.
But Mr Evans said a lot of it comes down to volume with the numbers staying constant.
He said a lot of the issues are around outside influences such as the cost of living and personal issues.
Mr Evans said they’ve put a lot of investment into mental health support but they could do a deeper dive to get more information for councillors.
Responding to a question from Councillor Gareth Hughes he said they are looking at different ways to promote mental health services to frontline staff who haven’t got digital access on a day-to-day basis.
He also said managers should make people aware of the services available.
