Teachers and stress
The Scottish teaching union EIS has reported “an alarming rise in the number of cases of work-related stress illness and injury claims over the past few years”.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan blamed factors including budget cuts and a declining number of teaching and support staff which have had a significant impact on the workload demands placed on teachers and lecturers. He said those in charge of the management of the education system “simply demand more output from less resource.”
“This is compounded by the fact that many teachers return to work when they clearly should still be off sick, either from fear of being disciplined because they will hit a sickness absence management trigger or more often to ensure that pupils are not losing out,” he said.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teachers’ union, also warned of an “epidemic of stress” after a Freedom of Information request revealed that were 3,750 teachers in England on long-term stress leave in 2016-17, up 5% on the previous year. Figures compiled by the Liberal Democrats showed that one in 83 teachers is now on long-term leave of one month or more for stress and mental health issues, up from one in 95 three years ago and one in 90 last year.
In total, teachers have taken 1.3 million days off for stress and mental health reasons in the last four years, including around 312,000 in 2016-17.