Schools must tackle mental health emergency amongst teachers, says teaching union

All school leaders should receive suicide prevention training, the NASUWT teaching union has said.

A workforce survey of union members found that some teachers had been driven to the point of suicide by the stress of the job. Of the 12,000 responses, 23% reported drinking more alcohol, 12% using antidepressants, and 3% said they had self-harmed as a result of their work. More than one in ten (13%) said they had sought counselling.

More than eight in 10 (84%) said they had experienced more work-related stress in the previous 12 months and 86% believed that their job had adversely affected their mental health and 68% their physical health in the previous 12 months.

Union members vote for mandatory mental health training

As a result of hearing the survey results, delegates to the union’s annual conference on Sunday voted in favour of a suicide prevention strategy for teachers. Members also heard testimony from fellow delegates about colleagues who had taken their own lives or planned to do so, the Guardian reported.

The motion urged the union’s executive to campaign for all schools and colleges to employ staff trained in mental health first aid, and fully funded mandatory mental health training.

Row Martin, who proposed the motion, listed a number of teachers who had taken their own lives in recent years, including primary school headteacher Ruth Perry, who died by suicide after an Ofsted inspection. “We cannot afford to lose any more teachers,” she said. Delegate Kuldip Hoonjan from Leicestershire told the conference that two of her teacher friends had taken their lives.

The motion, which was passed unanimously, warned of a “rise in suicide, suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts” among teachers, and said the union was concerned the number “will only increase”.

One teacher from Fife told the conference she had had suicidal thoughts after starting at a school with challenging pupil behaviour. “I’ve been in a very dark place in these last few months, to the point where I have repeatedly thought of suicide,” she said. “I have also thought about leaving a career of 20 years.”

Karen Brocklebank, another delegate, said the “stresses of rigorous classroom inspections, government targets, unmanageable amounts of paperwork and 50-hour-plus working weeks” had caused an increase in suicide rates and serious mental health problems among school staff.

Another delegate, Claire Ward, spoke of a colleague who had confided in her that they planned to kill themselves. “I was shaking,” she said. “I couldn’t think of anything other than what had happened for days. It woke me up for weeks on and off.”

Two-pronged approach is needed

Commenting on the survey findings, Dr Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Nobody should be brought to the brink of ending their own life because of their job.

“We need a two-pronged approach to addressing the epidemic of mental ill health among the teaching profession, which both tackles the factors driving work-related stress, while also putting in place greater support systems for teachers and school leaders.

“Our survey underlined that the three biggest drivers of work-related stress are workload, pupil behaviour and poor management. We have repeatedly set out to government tangible measures which could help to improve teachers’ experiences of all three, but in a climate where the prevailing ideology has been of cuts, austerity and encouraging an autonomous command and control culture in schools, it is hardly surprising that the picture on teacher wellbeing has got worse.”

Roach added: “It is clear we also need better welfare support in our schools and colleges to help teachers’ manage their mental health and deal with what is an incredibly demanding job.”