And the strategy is paying off, with the number of working days for the last recorded quarter – from July to September 2008 – down to 1.72 days per employee from 1.81 last year.

The latest figure is within the authority's target of 2.12 days lost per full-time employee per quarter as it aims to reach a target of 8.51 days lost for the year.

Coun Tom Burns, the authority's cabinet member for organisational development, said: "We have a policy of encouragement to come to work rather than averting people to come to work by the well-being services we are offering."

Coun Burns revealed workers with back problems have been seeing private specialists to speed up their recovery while the authority is rolling out a policy where occupational health workers phone up those off sick on the first day they are off.

Coun Geoff Driver, the Conservative group leader at County Hall, said: "It's encouraging that at long last they are tackling this.
"However, they clearly still have a long way to go and what we really need to see are the figures through the winter which will show what they've really got to do to root out the problem."

Carol Lukey, Lancashire County Council's Unison representative, said: "These are policies that seem to be working which were first piloted in the county's commercial group.

"It did seem to work and they are now rolling it out to the rest of the authority. They are referring workers to occupational health, not their managers. That's a positive step and people seem to like that."

The trade unionist added Unison has been concerned about some workers returning to work too soon but had never heard of employees being offered private medical treatment at the authority before.

The worst performers for the July to September quarter fell within the adult and community services group where 3.33 days per full-time employee were lost. The best attendees worked in schools where 1.16 days per employee were lost.

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