SICKNESS at Oxford City Council is costing the authority an estimated £750,000 a year and it admits it will fail to hit its target for combatting staff absences yet again.

Between April and September, Town Hall staff took an average of 4.74 days off due to illness, slightly higher than the same period last year and the highest of any Oxfordshire council.

City officers predict it means they will miss their 10 sick days per year target – which is above the public sector average of 8.3 days – as illness increases over the winter months.

The rate in the private sector is 5.8 days, according to the CBI.

The city council – which has not hit its absence target for at least five years – has rolled out a long list of initiatives in a bid to shake off its title as the sickman of the county’s local authorities, including analysing staff “happiness rates” in each department, but no pattern emerged.

About 15 attendance “tzars” were appointed last year and a drop from 12.56 to 10.71 days was recorded in 2009/10. But progress has stagnated and senior HR officers admit measures can lose momentum after a number of months.

The worst performing departments were City Works, which deals with jobs such as street cleaning and waste collection, and the customer service centre.

Simon Howick, the council’s head of people and equalities, told the council’s value and performance scrutiny meeting: “This is the half-year report and we are similar to last year. We were aiming for 10 days last year and we didn’t make that.”

Asked if staff working arrangements might affect absence rates, particularly for those with childcare or other family commitments, Mr Howick said it was unlikely.

He said most council staff got 32 days annual leave and up to 12 days a year through its flexitime system, with bank holidays on top.

Mr Howick said he did not think the council would be able to drive sickness rates much below 10 days per person, given the manual nature of some jobs.

He said management training would be re-run in a bid to kick-start improvements again.

Liberal Democrat leader Stephen Brown estimated the cost of sickness to the council at £750,000 a year.

He added: “The consequence of this is not just cost.

“It’s the ability of the council to provide a service.”

Council leader Bob Price said huge progress had been made in tackling short-term sickness, with long-term sick leave now accounting for 59 per cent of the total.

Green councillor Dick Wolff said: “Perhaps 10 days is what we can expect with manual jobs, but I still think that is shocking.”