THE Conservative in charge of adult social care across Worcestershire has defended sickness rates among staff - saying workers are often advised to stay off work if they are ill.

Councillor Sheila Blagg, who is a member of the county council's Tory cabinet, says the high rate of absences is partly down to staff being told to stay away rather than infect the elderly by struggling in.

As your Worcester News revealed yesterday, the average adult social care worker took 9.8 days off on average in 2013/14 - essentially a fortnight.

A new report revealed how many of them cited stress, depression and anxiety, with the department having to deal with Worcestershire's most vulnerable and frail people.

Despite the high figure, it has fallen in recent years and stood at 16 days in 2009/10.

Cllr Blagg said: "We are sensitive to the service users that our adult social care staff work with and it should be noted that when working with vulnerable adults, particularly the elderly, staff are advised not to return to work for at least three days to ensure infection control procedures are adhered to."

She also said the reduction in recent years was "a culmination of a number of factors", and that work was ongoing with managers to address it further.

"It is not possible to say any one factor had greater or lesser impact on the reduction," she said.

"We continue to support staff to work with their managers to access occupational health support services when these are felt appropriate.

"This year GP's have reported a significantly higher consultation rate for influenza than last year - there may be an impact on our sickness rates this quarter but overall the trend in the last few years is that we continue to see a reduction."

The authority employs 1,621 staff in the adult care function, making it by far the biggest department at the county council.

In 2013/14 9,283 working shifts were 'lost' due to the absences, with the rest of the staff picking up extra workloads to deal with the 6,000 elderly and vulnerable people who need services every year.

Councillor Tom Wells, a Liberal Democrat who chairs a watchdog-style panel which probes adult care services, is keeping a watching brief on the data.