NEW figures reveal that more than 200 police officers missed around 3,000 days off work last year after being injured in the line of duty. Reporter Richard Ault takes a closer look at the issue

STAFFORDSHIRE Police have spent thousands of pounds on rewarding staff who only take a handful of sick days.

Over the last five years, the force spent £40,190 on £10 gift vouchers to staff with good attendance records.

A Freedom of Information request revealed that in 2004/05, a total of 839 police staff were given a £10 voucher for taking less than five days off sick.

From the financial year 2005/06 the force changed its policy, but staff continued to be rewarded for only taking up to three sick days.

The policy has now been scrapped, but in the last financial year up to April 2009, an average of £8,000 a year was being spent on the gift vouchers.

Officers were also given an extra day annual leave for not calling in sick, with a total of 2,378 extra holiday days taken over five years, which equates to an average of 476 a year.

Yvonne Duffy, HR adviser at Staffordshire Police, said: "Rewards for good attendance were introduced as one part of the overall managing attendance strategy to reduce sickness absence in the force and to reward those with excellent sickness records.

"The introduction of the policy has led to substantial reductions in sickness absence for both police officers and police staff over a number of years.

"However sickness absence has now remained constant for a couple of years and in the current financial climate it has been agreed that the good attendance policy should cease. The rewards were therefore discontinued with effect from April 1 last year."

The biggest cause of time off for officers was injuries like broken bones, pulled muscles and back complaints.

In 2008/9, 205 police officers – along with 18 police community support officers (PCSOs) and 21 civilian support staff – took 3,021 days off; with one female officer absent for 234 days.

Psychological disorders such as stress, anxiety and depression – but also including dementia, drug and alcohol problems and mental illness – were the next biggest cause.

Earlier this month, The Sentinel revealed up to 15,000 city council staff called in sick with stress and anxiety in 12 months.

Figures showed Stoke-on-Trent City Council lost 76,956 working days between November 2008 and November last year to sickness – an average of 9.51 sick days for each of the council's 8,085 workers over the year.

Based on average salaries for each departmentthe absences cost the city about £6.25 million.