A majority of teachers say they are stressed at work most of the time and find themselves unable to switch off when at home, with many working evenings and weekends, according to findings from the National Education Union (NEU).
A majority of teachers say their work has negatively affected their mental health and that work-related stress is getting worse year-on-year – with 8 in 10 reporting trouble sleeping due to work, according to findings from the NASUWT.
The country’s two largest teaching unions both held their annual conferences during the Easter break when issues of teacher wellbeing, workload and mental health dominated.
Both the NEU and NASUWT published findings from large-scale surveys of their members showing just how endemic workload and work/life balance challenges have become.
Motions at both events addressed issues of wellbeing and, amid the on-going teacher recruitment and retention crisis, we heard calls for the government to go further to protect staff, including by making adoption of the Department for Education’s Staff Wellbeing Charter mandatory.
Student behaviour meanwhile also made headlines, with a damning NASUWT research study revealing that 1 in 5 teachers have been hit/punched by students in the last year, while 1 in 4 experience verbal abuse several times a week.
The survey findings
The NEU’s wellbeing research involved 14,000 of its teacher members working in state schools in England and was published ahead of its annual gathering in Harrogate. The results showed:
- Teachers feel stressed at work a majority of the time: 62% say that stress affects them more than 60% of the time.
- This higher level of stress is more common among females (65% compared to 54%).
- Younger teachers feel the pressure most of all: 65% of those aged in their 20s or 30s reported feeling stressed at work more than 60% of the time.
- Most teachers (75%) said they frequently find themselves unable to switch-off from work at home.
- Teachers are still working evenings (62%), weekends (55%), and many frequently cancel plans with family and friends in order to work (36%).
The NASUWT’s annual Big Question research involved 10,500 teachers and was published ahead of its annual conference in Liverpool. The results showed:
- 82% of teachers think that work has negatively affected their mental health and 80% have experienced more work-related stress than in the previous year.
- 42% of teachers have seen a doctor due to work impacting their physical or mental health.
- 79% of teachers have lost sleep due to work, 69% have experienced headaches or migraines, and 23% have experienced high blood pressure.
- 23% of teachers have drunk alcohol due to work and 13% have used anti-depressants.
And the NASUWT’s Behaviour in Schools survey – which was carried out in January and also published ahead of the conference – involved 5,800 teachers and found that in the last year:
- 20% have been hit or punched by students; 38% have been shoved or barged.
- 25% have experiencing pupil violence at least once a term.
- 95% have experienced rudeness from pupils, with 25% suffering verbal abuse at least several times a week.
- 62% of teachers experienced stress as a result of pupil aggression.
- 70% of teachers do not believe they have the resources, support and knowledge to meet the behaviour needs of all their pupils.
Conference motions
In Liverpool, NASUWT delegates approved a motion calling for all teachers to have access to an Employee Assistance Programme, alongside allocated time during the working day for “meaningful wellbeing activities”.
Out-going general secretary Dr Partrick Roach also called for the adoption of the DfE Staff Wellbeing Charter to be mandatory in schools. The motion called, too, for increased PPA time and further workload reduction measures in schools.
A second motion focused on student behaviour, noting “increasing reports from teachers and leaders of extreme pupil indiscipline, including incidents involving knives and other weapons”.
It called on the NASUWT to lobby the government for a strengthening of the existing guidance on behaviour management to ensure “no exclusion” policies are not legitimised across the education sector.
The NASUWT is also to campaign for “mandatory time for teachers to access nationally agreed CPD that is focused on behaviour management practice and strategies”.
Dr Roach said: “Teachers today face a litany of challenges around their workload and working conditions, including pupil behaviour. There is a legal duty on employers to take proactive steps to ensure the health, safety and welfare of staff. We need to see employers demonstrating that they are taking seriously these issues.
“Teachers have been left plugging gaps that were once filled by absent colleagues or external services. They are expected to play the role of social worker, security guard, counsellor, food bank, educational psychologist, or even parent. Pressure to be everything a pupil needs is a significant contributor to poor teacher wellbeing.
“The government’s Staff Wellbeing Charter has been widely promoted to all schools. We now need to see exhortation become an expectation, where a national deadline is set for every school to adopt the Staff Wellbeing Charter in full.”
Across in Harrogate, a motion at the NEU raised concerns that increasing numbers of teachers are forced to take time off because of work-related stress.
It stated: “Workplace stressors include workload, working patterns, demands, lack of control, poor communications, lack of transparency, employer and employee relations, bullying, isolation, and the working environment.” It also cited Ofsted inspection.
The motion intructed the NEU to campaign to raise awareness of the legal duty of employers to prevent stress and to include the management of stress as part of health and safety risk assessments.
It also intructed the NEU to carrying out on-going research, including surveys into workload, working patterns, working environments, and work-related stress.
Daniel Kebede, NEU general secretary, said: “There are many factors behind this stress. Excessive workload is one of them. Ofsted should also accept responsibility for their role in creating work-related stress. As the Gilbert Review highlighted there is ‘a climate of fear and frustration around inspection’ and ‘weakening trust in Ofsted’.
“The underfunding of education that we have experienced since 2010 is another factor. NEU members are working in under-resourced and sometimes crumbling buildings.”