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Results*
(a) Sickness
4. Table 1, sections A to E, shows the results of this survey of sickness for these five
groups of staff. The section for nursing staff is limited to females because the number of
male nurses employed was too small for a meaningful analysis; for similar reasons figures
for Fire Brigade and Ambulance staff have been limited to males. The table shows the
number of staff employed by age and sex at mid-year 1964 related to the occurrence of
long-term sickness in the years 1961 to 1963. The sickness figures should strictly have
been related to a mid-1962 employed population but by the time it was decided to make
this survey the opportunity had passed. The extraction of the employed population figures
for two years earlier would have been both time consuming and liable to inaccuracy.
Hence the 1964 figures have been used and to this extent this survey is not a strict comparsion
of‘ like with like '. However, in a service the size of the London County Council,
provided there has been no major change in staffing policy, this deficiency is not likely to
invalidate any broad conclusions drawn from the figures. The table goes on to show the
number of spells of sickness in these three years, the number of persons concerned with
these (a person can be referred more than once during these three years—the maximum
encountered was five spells although the most frequent number of multiple referrals in
the three years was two); the percentage of persons sick in these three years, the total
duration of sickness with the average per spell, the disposal of these sickness cases and
finally the percentage dying or invalided from the Council's service.
It must be remembered that throughout this analysis it is long-term sickness that is
under discussion—something involving, with minor exceptions, at least two or more months
absence from duty. It is not a quantitative measure of total sickness in the Council's service.
5. Dealing with each section of table 1 in turn, section A for the A.P.T. and C. grades
shows that as between males and females there was a higher incidence of long-term sickness
(column 5) in females up to age 55 years, thereafter the male figure was much higher, which
is in line with national mortality experience—mortality at these ages in males is twice that
of females. The number dying or invalided (P.U. = permanently unfit) in the three years
reaches a figure of 14.6 per cent. for males and 17.8 per cent. for females (column 14) at
ages 55—64 years, a wastage rate of some five per cent. a year. Figures for age 65 years
and over may be the least reliable, because the staff employed at this age may have been
subjected to the greatest change between the census of 1964 and the middle year of the
survey—1962.
6. Section B for teaching staff employed shows about three and a half times as many
female as male teachers under 25 years of age, nearly twice as many females at ages 25—34
years, near equality between the sexes at ages 35—54 years with a ratio of 3:2 in female/male
teachers beyond that age. Doubtless this is a consequence of current events in the recruitment
of teachers. Column 5 shows a higher percentage of long-term sickness in females
than males at all ages. (A separate analysis of all sickness in teachers showed a similar
pattern up to age 45 years.) Compared with A.P.T. & C. staff (their nearest equivalent in
this survey) teachers had a lower incidence of long-term sickness and a much lower wastage
rate owing to death or retirement, permanently unfit; under one per cent. a year compared
with the five per cent. for A.P.T. & C. grades at ages 55-64 years.
7. Section C for nurses shows percentage sick figures nearer to female A.P.T. & C.
grades than to female teachers: similarly for the percentage died and permanently unfit.
8. Firemen (including fire officers), section D, show high rates of sickness, especially
under 55 years, but a lower average duration of sickness compared with other male
employees—all under two months. In practice, firemen are referred to the examining
medical officer before the expiration of two months sick leave and this accounts for some of
* See tables on pages 167 to 169.
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