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Memorandum submitted by Teacher Support Network
Executive summary
· Health and wellbeing problems are prevalent in the education workforce today, and they are having a costly impact on teacher performance and pupil attainment. These problems can be removed, in part, by reforming relevant parts of teacher training · In a November 2008 Teacher
Support Network survey, 87 per cent of teachers who responded said they had
experienced stress during the last two years. Two-thirds said they had
experienced anxiety and 42 per cent had suffered from depression in the same
period. 63 per cent said their work performance had suffered as a result. An
independent study by · A report last year by the
London School of Economics (LSE) found that the education sector is one of the
worst performing sectors for sickness absence in the · Every teacher should know how to support their health and wellbeing and that of their colleagues. Health and wellbeing training is largely absent from education BAs, PGCEs, Teach First training or Graduate Teacher Programme content., despite the fact that much of the necessary material is already available in existing guidance and workshop programmes. Existing health and wellbeing material should be integrated into Initial Teacher Training (ITT) accordingly · In addition to ITT reforms, all other teachers who are already qualified should undergo health and wellbeing training either via Continuing Professional Development (CPD), the new Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL), or the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH). Managerial training in particular would bring significant benefits, both individually and organisationally · CPD training on health and wellbeing and the HSE's Management Standards should be accredited as part of qualifying for Excellent Teacher or Advanced Skill Teacher status. The MTL and NPQH should also include advanced health and wellbeing and management standards elements · Research and workforce consultation should be the stimulus for training reforms. Good guidance should consistently feed into teacher training, and stakeholders should be given access to funding and periodic, independent workforce survey findings to facilitate work on such guidance. If this becomes a reality, teacher training will become and remain as up-to-date and useful as possible. In particular, teacher training could significantly improve teacher health and wellbeing; reducing sickness absence costs and improving standards of education and attainment
About Teacher Support Network
1. Teacher Support Network provide practical, emotional and financial
support to teachers throughout the
2. In addition to these responsive services, we also carry out a plethora of proactive work to improve the health and wellbeing of teachers. Analysis of our service usage gives us a clear indication of the problems that teachers currently face. We will then run appropriate surveys and campaigns to investigate a problem further, raise awareness and alleviate problems troubling teachers. We have also established a sister social enterprise company - Worklife Support - which runs the National Wellbeing Programme; designed to improve the wellbeing of the whole school community.
The case for better health and wellbeing training for teachers
3. Education standards and student attainment are being negatively affected by significant health and wellbeing problems in the education workforce. These problems can be removed, in part, by reforming relevant parts of teacher training.
4. Health and wellbeing problems are prevalent in the education
workforce today. In a November 2008 Teacher Support Network survey, 87 per cent
of teachers who responded said they had experienced stress during the last two
years. Two-thirds said they had experienced anxiety and 42 per cent had
suffered from depression in the same period. The London School of Economics'
(LSE) 2008 report titled 'The Value of Rude Health' concluded that 'education'
is one of the 'worst performing sectors' for sickness absence in the
5. These problems are having a worrying impact on teacher performance
and student attainment. 63 per cent of respondents to our November 2008 survey
said their work performance had suffered as a result of their stress, anxiety
or depression. A 2007 independent study of 24,100 staff in 246 primary schools
and 182 secondary schools by
6. As well as affecting teacher performance in school, health and wellbeing problems are inevitably leading to periods of leave for professionals. This is incredibly costly to the sector. Money that could be spent on improving standards is lost to short term supply cover costs. A 2008 DCSF statistical release revealed that 313,700 full or part-time maintained school teachers took sickness absence in the 2007 calendar year; approximately 57 per cent of the workforce taking a total of 2,930,300 days' leave. The LSE's 2008 report calculated that if the education sector even just brought its sickness absence rate down to the average UK level of 3.7 per cent (down 0.5 per cent), £248,562,000 could be saved.
7. Staff sickness absence also hinders student attainment directly. A 2006 study by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) titled 'The Recruitment, deployment and management of supply teachers in England' found that short term sickness was the cause of 42 per cent of supply cover in Primary schools and 54 per cent of cover in secondary schools. The same research found that the use of supply teachers tended to decrease in relation to the number of 5A*-C grades attained.
8. It seems clear that sickness absence is costly to the sector, disruptive to learning and damaging to educational achievement. Health and wellbeing problems hurt standards of education and achievement whether the teacher stays in school or goes on sick leave. Wholesale action is needed to address this problem, and teacher training can play a crucial role.
Entry into the teaching profession: Initial Teacher Training (ITT)
9. Every teacher should know how to support their health and wellbeing and that of their colleagues. Yet, health and wellbeing training is largely absent from education BAs, PGCE, Teach First training or Graduate Teacher Programme content. Last year, 8 per cent of calls from trainee teachers and 9.2 per cent from Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) to Teacher Support Network were directly about health and wellbeing. It is clear that health and wellbeing needs to be a compulsory element of all routes into teaching.
10. Other research also suggests that there is an absolute need for general health and wellbeing advice to be part of compulsory training for all. In our November 2008 survey, 31 per cent of respondents called for colleagues to be more understanding. 37 per cent said that they did not speak to anyone at work about their health and wellbeing problem because they worried that it would be seen as a 'sign of weakness'. Compulsory training can address this dangerous cultural convention in the workforce; helping to ensure that individual and organisational health and wellbeing problems are effectively addressed at the earliest opportunity.
11. The material that we would largely suggest as the basis of health and wellbeing training is already available and ready to use. For example, the DCSF's 'Common mental health problems' guidance, which we helped to write, gives crucial information on support service availability, legislative obligations (through the Disability Discrimination Act and Health and Safety at Work Act), and how to foster a supportive staff culture. A number of existing wellbeing workshop programmes could be adapted for use in teacher training courses. Other courses on reflective leaning and practice and basic health and wellbeing knowledge could also be incorporated, so teachers can spot the signs of a health and wellbeing problem and find ways to address it.
12. The TDA's Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and ITT requirements guidance should be revised to make individual and organisational health and wellbeing training mandatory. The QTS standards should be revised under 'Attributes, communicating and working with others' and 'Skills, learning environment, team working and collaboration' to include and/or give greater emphasis to staff health and wellbeing. Health and wellbeing guidance and workshops could then be integrated into the following areas of teacher training, for example:
- BAs leading to a recommendation of QTS. Level
1/2 compulsory units on 'Education Policy and Practice' ( - PGCEs. 'Professional studies programme' (Warwick
Institute of Education), 'Preparation for teaching practice' under 'School
based activities and major educational issues' ( - Teach First. Summer Institute 'professional studies'. - Graduate Teacher Programme. '1 week familiarisation course' (CILT GTP for teachers of modern languages, British Council GTP)
CPD provision, the MTL and NPQH
13. In addition to ITT reforms, all other teachers who are already qualified should undergo health and wellbeing training either via Continuing Professional Development (CPD), the new Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL), or the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).
14. Experienced teachers, particularly those in managerial roles, arguably need health and wellbeing training most urgently. Managerial training would bring significant benefits, both individually and organisationally. On an individual level, we observe that 8.5 per cent of calls from managers and 12.4 per cent from Heads and Deputies to our telephone support line were directly about health and wellbeing. On an organisational level, managers can set an example to colleagues and bring about improvements in procedure and practice. In our November 2008 survey, 44 per cent of respondents said that the mental health of themselves and their colleagues would be improved if their leadership team was more approachable. 41 per cent also favoured the idea that changes should be better communicated and that a staff health and wellbeing programme (which would need to be led by management) would be beneficial.
15. CPD equivalents of the health and wellbeing training suggested for ITT above could be extensively promoted to teachers who are already qualified. The new MTL could feature advanced versions of this training, as could the NPQH; featuring specific references to the HSE's Management Standards.
16. CPD training on health and wellbeing and the HSE's Management
Standards could be accredited as part of qualifying for Excellent Teacher or
Advanced Skill Teacher status. The MTL could neatly include health and
wellbeing and Management Standards training within the planned elements titled 'promote
a collaborative profession' and 'develop a framework of competencies'. Finally,
the NPQH could feature the same training at an even more advanced level,
starting with the course's initial development activities and going through to
the subsequent development
17. All teachers could be asked to regularly review, identify and satisfy their personal training and development needs, with encouragement and support from Governing bodies and managers.
Measuring quality of teaching, measuring quality of training: Reforming through research
18. As our above recommendations for ITT, CPD, the MTL and NPQH demonstrate, we believe that research and workforce consultation should be the stimulus for training reforms. In addition to monitoring our own service use trends, we have consulted 777 teachers and a host of national stakeholders and specialists - including the National Director for Health and Work, Dame Carol Black - before making these recommendations. Procedure should be in place to ensure that the teaching workforce is regularly and impartially consulted on their training needs and different issues, and stakeholders should be funded to conduct relevant research.
19. The DCSF and national stakeholders, including the unions, have been good at producing guidance in response to research and consultation, but this guidance is rarely then translated into training reform. For example, DCSF rightly produced guidance on cyberbullying in 2007, and a new version - produced collectively with Childnet and a range of education stakeholders - is set for release this year. This action came after Teacher Support Network and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) conducted a survey in 2007; finding that 17% of respondents had experienced cyberbullying. Whilst the demand for cyberbullying guidance is clear, teacher training programmes have not followed DCSF's suit.
20. Good guidance should consistently feed into teacher training, and stakeholders should be given access to funding and periodic, independent workforce survey findings to facilitate work on such guidance. If this becomes a reality, teacher training will become and remain as up-to-date and useful as possible. In particular, teacher training could significantly improve teacher health and wellbeing; reducing sickness absence costs and improving standards of education and attainment.
17 March 2009
Encl: 'The path to better health and wellbeing in education', February 2009, Teacher Support Network 'The value of rude health', May 2008, London School of Economics 'Staff wellbeing is key to school success', 2007, Birkbeck College 'School Workforce in England' Statistical Release, 25 September 2008, DCSF 'Cyberbullying Report 2007', Teacher Support Network & the Association of Teachers and Lecturers 'The recruitment, deployment and management of supply teachers in England', May 2006, DfEE 'Common mental health problems: Supporting school staff by taking positive action', June 2008, DCSF |