Headteachers should receive specific training in mental health issues to raise awareness of the problems that can be created by poor leadership, a teaching union has said.
Delegates attending the NASUWT annual conference in Birmingham during the Easter break voted in favour of a motion calling for employers to be given training to better understand the consequences of the decisions and actions they take in schools.
The conference heard that there were 139 known suicides among teachers between 2011 and 2015 and that a “pandemic” of mental health problems has swept the profession.
According to research figures released by NASUWT, three in 10 teachers admitted using medication to get through their working day, while more than seven out of 10 said that they had experienced anxiety.
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