Rising sickness levels among council staff are leaving public services at risk, according to union bosses.

Unison says so many staff at Brighton and Hove Council are reporting sick because of the acute pressures which are being put on them.

It claims the numbers of staff in some departments is now so low they cannot provide a full service to the taxpaying public. Alex Knutsen, Brighton and Hove Unison branch secretary, said there were only three duty social workers taking new referrals for the whole of Brighton and Hove. Last year there were 15.

He said: "This kind of awful situation is occurring with increasing frequency and is leading to the point where staff are unable to guarantee they will be able to maintain an adequate service for the people of the town. In this case, where the social workers deal primarily with children at risk of abuse, it is nothing short of a scandal."

The Argus reported earlier this week how absences are costing £4 million a year.

A working party has been set up to investigate.

The team said they were making efforts to find the underlying causes and to see if sickness levels could be reduced.

However, Mr Knutsen said there was an implication that many staff were in some way malingering.

He said: "Sickness levels are rising because local government staff are being asked to do too much with too little resources. It is also a fact that long-term sickness has dramatically increased in the last few years and the union now deals with personal injury cases on an almost daily basis."

Unison says after more than 20 years of continued cuts, things are falling apart.

A council spokesman said: "We are very aware that frontline social work can be a stressful job and staffing levels are under review. The figure of 15 staff quoted refers to the period up to last year when we ran five separate duty teams.

"We reorganised these into a single team, based at Royal York Buildings. This enabled us to run the service more efficiently."