The local authority, which was recently recognised with a prestigious Beacon Award, has seen the average number of sick days cut in half over the last six years.

In the last 12 months the council's staff took an average of just under eight days off sick.

This compared with around 16 days per year per employee in 2001/02.
This improvement equates to a saving of around £100,000 for the authority in employee time lost.

Coun Alan Cullens, executive member for resources in Chorley, said: "Sickness absence is something we have tackled head on over the past couple of years, with dramatic results.

"Helping people to stay in work, making sure they enjoy their work and have the flexibility to enjoy a healthy work-life balance has been at the heart of our absence management.

"And I'm delighted to say not only have our sickness figures reduced, but our performance for customers has improved at the same time and we were nominated by staff as one of the Top 10 Councils to Work For in an independent survey carried out by The Times newspaper."

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