Education Workforce Wellbeing

Good staff well-being is essential for cultivating a mentally healthy school, for retaining and motivating staff and for promoting pupil well-being and attainment. Issues that affect teacher well-being can have a significant knock-on effect for learner well-being. Emotionally and mentally health teachers are better able to develop strong teacher- learner relationships.

The School as an employer has a duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees as far as reasonably practicable.  It is also required to have in place measures to mitigate as far as practicable, factors that could harm employees’ physical and mental wellbeing, which includes work-related stress.  This duty extends only to those factors which are work-related and within the School’s control.

Well-being is all about our holistic health, including the physical and emotional. When we have good levels of wellbeing, we feel that life is in balance and that we can generally cope well. We feel motivated and engaged, we’re resilient and able to deal effectively with daily troubles, as well as ’bounce back’ from life’s challenges.

As school staff juggle a multitude of different tasks and demands. It is important that everyone is given the right emotional and practical support so that they can in turn, support their pupils.

All school senior leadership teams need to be aware of particular areas of stress that impact on staff well-being, and should ensure that evidence-based interventions are promoted, with staff supported in a timely and appropriate fashion when needed.

The National Evaluation and Improvement Resource self-evaluation resource for schools enables senior leadership teams to review teacher well-being and identify common stressors such as high workload or excessive burdens of out-of-classroom activities. The resulting priorities and actions will form part of the school improvement planning process and help inform policies and plans related to addressing the workload and well-being of the education workforce. The Welsh Government’s national mission reinforces a commitment to reduce unnecessary workload and bureaucracy by providing greater clarity of what is and is not required in the classroom.

In addition to having a positive impact on colleagues and children, staff well-being can improve performance and job satisfaction, which can lead to reduced staff turnover. It can also help to reduce absence (both short and long term), increase -productivity and promote staff engagement.

The Education Workforce Wellbeing Charter and the Merthyr Tydfil Local Authority Schools Human Resource and Wellbeing Network provides guidance and resources to support individuals and schools with their emotional and mental wellbeing.

The Welsh Government Guidance, Framework on embedding a whole-school approach to emotional and mental well-being includes staff wellbeing as a focus area.

Education Workplace Wellbeing Charter

Framework on embedding a whole-school approach to emotional and mental well-being