Teacher wellbeing survey reveals record levels of stress

The charity, Education Support, has released its seventh Teacher Wellbeing Index, which received responses from more than 3,000 staff in school and other education settings. The vast majority of respondents work in primary or secondary schools.

Their headline findings were:

• 78% of all education staff are stressed (3% increase on 2022)
• 89% of all senior leaders (95% of headteachers) reported feeling stressed
• 36% of school teachers reported experiencing burn-out (9% increase on 2022)
• 51% of staff report difficulty sleeping including insomnia
• 71% of staff thought inspections negatively impacted their mental health
• 55% of staff said their workplace culture had a negative effect on their wellbeing, (38 per cent increase on 2020).

Similarly, the proportion of staff who feel that workplace culture has a positive impact on their wellbeing has declined from 30 per cent in 2020 to 22 per cent this year.

Education Support attributed this to a variety of factors, including the lack of capacity in wider public services, ongoing post-pandemic scarring, challenging pupil behaviour and the inadequacy of SEND provision.

Their conclusions are that teacher wellbeing has declined significantly over the past year and they recommend that schools should develop a coherent strategy to improve the wellbeing of the education workforce.

A Department for Education spokesperson is reported as saying that the department had launched the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter “to ensure that staff wellbeing policy is integrated within schools’ culture” and “earlier this year Ofsted announced a number changes to the way it inspects school, taking into account the impact school inspections can have on teachers.”