State school staff have lower levels of wellbeing than the wider adult population according to a government report published today, a finding one teachers’ union has said is an indication of the “profound crisis” facing the profession.
The Department for Education (DfE) ’Working lives of teachers and leaders survey’ - which took place during the teacher strikes last year - demonstrates the need for a workforce plan, added Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT.
Meanwhile, NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said the report indicated staff workload and wellbeing issues have “spiralled out of control”, and that the government’s promise to reset of the relationship with the profession “cannot come soon enough”.
The report is based on responses from more than 10,000 school staff and 442 people who had left the profession. A summary of the findings was published in March this year, but now the full details have been revealed for the first time.
The DfE also published two other reports today, one looking at supply teaching and the other teaching assistants. You can read the key points from all three below.
1. School staff have lower wellbeing than rest of population
The ‘Working lives of teachers and leaders survey’ found that for the second year running, “teachers and leaders working in English state schools reported lower average wellbeing scores than the equivalent wellbeing scores for the adult population in England”.
The earlier summary had revealed that both teachers and leaders felt that their job took a toll on their wellbeing, with 63 per cent saying that work negatively impacted their mental health (compared with 56 per cent in 2022).
The government has previously been urged to develop a “clear and explicit strategy” to protect the mental health of the school workforce, amid an increase in the number of staff seeking support because they were at risk of suicide.
In the full report, a breakdown of workload concerns was provided: three-quarters (74 per cent) of teachers and seven in ten leaders (70 per cent) said they did not have an acceptable workload.
A workload reduction “task force” was set up under the previous government, tasked with looking at how to reduce teachers’ working hours by five hours per week, but it is not yet clear if this work will be continued under Labour.
2. Secondary teachers and leaders consider quitting over workload
The summary report published in February revealed that more than a third of teachers and school leaders in state schools said they were considering quitting the sector over the next year for reasons other than retirement - with the majority pointing to high workload as a factor behind their urge to leave.
But a further breakdown published today shows that teachers are more likely than leaders to consider leaving, amid a spiralling recruitment and retention crisis.
More than a third (37 per cent) of teachers said they were considering leaving, compared with just over three on ten (31 per cent) of leaders.
And teachers and leaders in secondary schools were more likely to have been considering leaving (39 per cent) compared with those working in primary schools (33 per cent).
3. Teachers from minority groups more likely to face bullying and harassment
The proportion of teachers and leaders reporting in the ‘Working lives of teachers and leaders survey’ that they had personally experienced either bullying, harassment or discrimination in the past 12 months increased to a fifth, up from 16 per cent in 2022.
Teachers and leaders were more likely to report those experiences if they did not identify as heterosexual or were from an ethnic minority, the survey showed.
A quarter (25 per cent) of those from an ethnic minority group reported an experience of discrimination in the last 12 months, compared with 9 per cent of white teachers.
And a fifth (19 per cent) of teachers who did not identify as heterosexual reported bullying and harassment compared to 14 per cent of their heterosexual peers.
Meanwhile, some 15 per cent of female staff reported bullying or harassment compared with 13 per cent of male teachers.
4. Rise in use of pay flexibilities
Nearly six-in-ten headteachers (59 per cent) said they were using flexibilities in the pay system to support recruitment and retention in 2023, up from 55 per cent in 2022.
And almost half (48 per cent) of headteachers reported offering higher salaries on entry to the school to support recruitment, up from 38 per cent in 2022.
A Tes investigation earlier this year identified hundreds of academies paying teacher salaries and benefits over and above the nationally set deal, as part of a bid to boost recruitment.
5. Demand for supply teachers increases
A separate research report also published by the DfE today revealed that the use of supply teachers, particularly in secondary schools, has increased since the pandemic, largely due to an increase in teacher absences and recruitment difficulties.
A Tes investigation earlier this year revealed the “sickening” extent of rises in supply costs facing trusts and schools across the country.
The newly published report was based on a nationally representative survey of schools in England including almost 1,500 supply teachers and qualitative research with 60 supply teachers, 22 leaders, and seven supply teacher providers, all conducted in 2023.
The research found that supply teachers who are specialists in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are in “short supply” and “schools can often expect to pay a premium” to recruit them.
Leaders reported that the growing reliance on supply was having a significant impact on school budgets.
And the research also found that special schools often have difficulty finding suitably qualified and experienced special educational needs supply teachers “to ensure the consistency and quality of care needed in these schools”.
6. Changing role of TAs driven by changing pupil characteristics
And a third report published by the DfE today that surveyed more than 2,700 teaching assistants (TAs) and more than 1,200 school leaders between May and June last year has found that their “roles and responsibilities...have increased significantly in recent years”.
The increased role for TAs and teachers was being largely driven by a rise in the number of pupils with SEND in mainstream settings, as well as the increased social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs of pupils since the pandemic, according to the report.
However, leaders said that budget pressures “increasingly restrict the number of TAs that schools can appoint”, with a third of primary schools looking to reduce the number “despite their significance in the classroom”.
