Sickness Absence Through a Strategic Lens: What's It Really Costing Your School?

When a member of staff calls in sick, the immediate cost can seem relatively straightforward: arranging cover, adjusting timetables and managing short-term disruption.

But the true cost of sickness absence is often far greater.

For schools and trusts, absence can create a ripple effect across budgets, leadership capacity, workforce wellbeing, recruitment and retention, and ultimately pupil outcomes. Viewed through a strategic lens at trust level and sickness absence is more than an HR issue. It is a risk to the whole organisation.

Recent data from the Department for Education shows that more than 322,000 teachers took sickness absence during the 2024/25 academic year, resulting in over 2.6 million working days lost across schools in England.

The question for school leaders goes beyond how to manage absence, but whether they fully understand what it is costing their organisation.

The hidden cost: leadership time

One of the most overlooked impacts of sickness absence is the time it consumes from senior leaders.

Each absence can trigger a chain of activity:

• Cover arrangements
• Welfare conversations
• Return-to-work meetings
• Occupational health referrals
• Attendance monitoring
• Formal capability or absence procedures

While these activities are necessary, they divert valuable leadership attention away from school improvement priorities.

For MATs, the challenge is often multiplied across multiple settings, making consistency and effective oversight increasingly difficult.

When absence becomes a symptom of wider workforce pressures

Perhaps the most significant strategic risk is that absence can indicate deeper organisational challenges.

Research from Education Support's latest Teacher Wellbeing Index found that:

• 76% of education staff report experiencing stress
• 77% experience symptoms of poor mental health due to work
• 36% are at risk of probable clinical depression
• 86% of senior leaders report feeling stressed

The report describes teacher wellbeing as being at "crisis point", highlighting the close relationship between wellbeing, retention and organisational performance.

In other words, sickness absence is often not the problem itself. It is the visible outcome of issues such as workload pressures, burnout, organisational culture, employee relations challenges or insufficient wellbeing support.

What does good absence management look like?

While organisations cannot eliminate sickness absence entirely, they can reduce its impact by taking a proactive and strategic approach. This includes:

Strong attendance monitoring - using accurate data to identify absence trends before they become embedded.

Early intervention - addressing concerns promptly through supportive conversations and wellbeing-focused interventions.

Manager capability - ensuring leaders are confident in conducting return-to-work meetings, managing attendance concerns and recognising warning signs.

Occupational health support - providing access to specialist advice where underlying health conditions may be affecting attendance.

Focus on wellbeing - building a culture that supports employee wellbeing and addresses workplace factors contributing to absence.