The police have taken a lead from Oxfordshire businesses in cutting back on days lost to sick leave.

The number of sick days taken by police officers is falling sharply. Average sick days per officer in the Southern Oxfordshire police area fell from 16 in the 12 months to November 2002 to just over nine up to November 30 last year after the force adopted sickness monitoring policies widely used by other employers, including Oxford University and Oxfordshire County Council.

However, the numbers of sick days taken by police officers working in the force's two emergency control rooms and two Police Enquiry Centres, which handle non-emergency calls, has increased sharply.

Average sick days per Northern Oxfordshire officer was just over 10 in the year to November 30. It was more than 12 in the previous year.

The number of sick days per officer in Oxford has remained stable at fewer than 10 over the last couple of years.

This compares with a rate of 6.31 for Oxfordshire County Council workers.

Thames Valley Police said close monitoring of sickness rates had been the key. Any employee absent due to illness is contacted to see what help can be offered to get them back to work as soon as possible.

The force said its private medical scheme OPTIMA (Occupational Private Treatment and Intervention for Medical Assistance), introduced in March 2000, had saved thousands of days in NHS waiting time and helped staff get back to their duties much more quickly.

The average for all Thames Valley officers is about nine sick days per year, compared with 10.5 a year ago.

Chief Constable Peter Neyroud said the force had been praised by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for reducing sickness.

But the average number of days taken off by officers in control rooms from April 1 to the end of last November was 12.6, compared with 8.7 in the same period in 2002.

Mr Neyroud said most control room and inquiry centre staff were civilians, with just a handful of police on duty.

There had been pressures on staff in the past year to improve the speed of call handling and getting used to new technology, including the police's new Airwave radio system.

Mr Neyroud said: "We have put a lot of pressure on them to achieve improvements in performance."

He said some officers working at call centres were older or had been transferred from front-line policing as they were not fully fit.