Two documents have been released in April, which is ‘Stress Awareness Month’ about mental health support in schools for students and staff. The DFE published its ‘Working Lives of Teachers’ and the NEU released the results of a survey of more than 17,000 teachers and teaching assistants. Unfortunately, both show a fairly bleak picture of the current sector.
The 179 pages of ‘Working Lives of Teachers’ highlight ongoing mental health issues in education. Workload continues to be a prominent feature, with the average leader working over 56 hours per week and the average teacher over 48 hours. Four in ten leaders work more than 60 hours per week.
Two thirds of teachers report that most of their time is spent on tasks other than teaching, with this rising to 77% for secondary teachers. Three quarters of teachers say administrative tasks took up “too much of their time” with half of all teachers stating that “data recording, inputting and analysis, behaviour and incident follow up, individual lesson planning, and marking took up ‘too much’ of their time.” 68% of school leaders reported that Government policy changes took up too much of their time.
72% of leaders and teachers disagreed that their workload amount was acceptable, though did acknowledge that changes made to workload, in particular marking, had a positive impact. Overall, school teachers and leaders reported lower levels of wellbeing than expressed within the general population and notably lower scores for wellbeing were seen in “primary teachers and leaders (compared with secondary teachers and leaders) and those in schools with serious weakness or in special measures according to Ofsted inspections data.”
The survey conducted by the NEU – ‘State of Education: mental health” – found a disappointing impact from DFE investment in mental health areas such as the Senior Mental Health Lead grants and previous funding for Secondary Schools to train mental health first aiders. Large barriers to supporting student mental health were identified, including workload (80% of teachers reported this as a barrier), lack of access to external specialists like Educational Psychologists and CAMHS (71% of teachers identified this) and insufficient numbers of staff (70%).
Despite Government funding for Senior Mental Health Leaders, 50% of teachers and 48% of TAs said that they did not have access to someone in this role in their school.
Fortunately, the Government has announced that grants for Senior Mental Health Leaders training, assured through the DFE, will continue for courses that start before March 2024. Find out how to access your grants through this link.
TT Education is proud that it has been recognised as one of these assured providers for Senior Mental Health Leader training, and we received high praise from a 2022 DFE deep dive into our courses. TT Education has two levels of training: our ‘Introduction to Senior Mental Health Leadership’ for those new to leadership or to mental health leadership; and our more advanced ‘Developing Strong Senior Mental Health Leaders’ course, for experienced leaders who want to expand and enrich their understanding of mental health.
We also offer a National Network for Senior Mental Health Leaders, which gives access to many benefits to support your whole-school approach to mental health, including signposting, half-termly network meetings, updates, bespoke short courses on mental health areas, policy support, and much more. What’s more, a year’s subscription to the network can also be paid for using the DFE Mental Health grant, so training and ongoing support can both be accessed with no cost to your school.