The wellbeing of teachers across the United Kingdom has reached its lowest point in recent memory, with a deluge of new data and personal accounts painting a stark picture of a profession under siege. According to the latest Teacher Wellbeing Index published by the charity Education Support, more than three-quarters of education staff are now experiencing symptoms of poor mental health directly linked to their work. The findings, gathered from a survey of over 3,000 teachers, school leaders, and support staff conducted in June and July 2025, have prompted union leaders and education advocates to warn of a “system in crisis.”
Education Support’s annual report, as cited by Schools Week and the BBC, found that the average wellbeing score for education staff sits at just 43.42 on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWS). This is a significant drop from the national average for England, which stands at 51.40, and even lower than the score reported by education staff in 2019 (44.70). The charity’s findings are echoed in all corners of the UK, with scores of 51 in England and Northern Ireland, 49 in Wales, and 48 in Scotland for the general population—making the gap between educators and everyone else uncomfortably wide.
What’s driving this decline? The numbers are sobering: 76% of education staff reported feeling stressed, and 77% experienced symptoms of poor mental health due to their jobs. Even more alarming, 36% of respondents are at risk of probable clinical depression, as measured by their WEMWS results. These figures are not just statistics—they represent real people, many of whom are being pushed to the brink.
School and college leaders are feeling the pressure most acutely, with 86% reporting high levels of stress. Many are showing signs of burnout and exhaustion, according to Education Support’s data. The feeling of ‘time poverty’—having too many tasks and not enough hours—affects 81% of leaders and 60% of teachers for at least three-quarters of their work time. It’s no wonder then that 29% of teachers and 26% of senior leaders have seriously considered leaving their jobs due to mental health pressures. The primary culprit? For two-thirds of those contemplating an exit, workload volume is the main reason.
Workplace culture is also taking its toll. More than half of teachers (51%) say their school’s culture negatively affects their wellbeing, compared to 45% of senior leaders. Nearly half (44%) of teachers feel unsupported in matters of mental health, while 35% of leaders share this sentiment. The result is a workforce that feels under-resourced and underappreciated, at a time when the demands on them have never been higher.
The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ripple through classrooms. Seventy percent of staff now regularly help pupils manage their emotional responses—a 31% increase since before the pandemic. At the same time, 30% of staff provide food for pupils weekly, and 24% supply other key necessities. Of those who find themselves stepping into these roles, nearly half (49%) say it negatively impacts their own mental health.
It’s not just the numbers that tell the story. Former head teacher Hilary Mitchell, who left the profession over Easter 2025 after 32 years, shared her experience with the BBC: “It got to the point where that’s all there was. I was so exhausted when I got home. I couldn’t sleep. It was making me very irritable, because of the constant demands and never feeling like you’re doing a good enough job.” She described her decision to leave as “extremely sad,” adding, “I really enjoyed my job, and it was the best school in the world. But it was more and more demands, more pressure, but less resources and funding.”
Despite these challenges, some schools are trying to turn the tide. At Springwest Academy in west London, principal Simon Hart has introduced a “culture of kindness” to foster staff wellbeing. The school operates shorter Fridays, closing at 13:40, and offers online parents’ evenings to reduce after-hours commitments. Staff are encouraged to connect over regular coffee and cake breaks, and the leadership team, rather than teachers, handles behavior enforcement. According to Hart, “In education, a lot of teachers leave because of behaviour—it’s not managed. Taking detentions and other behaviour issues out of the teachers’ hands means they can just get on and teach.” He believes these changes have positively impacted both staff retention and student attainment.
Yet, such initiatives are the exception rather than the rule. The broader system, say union leaders, is buckling under the weight of escalating demands. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), told Schools Week: “It is in nobody’s interests for a task so seismically important as nurturing and educating our children and young people to be delivered by a workforce whose health and wellbeing is suffering such enormous damage.” He warned that unless recruitment targets are met with “sustained action to invest in schools,” efforts to attract new teachers will be “akin to filling a bath without a plug as new and experienced teachers continue to leave.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), echoed those concerns: “Teacher wellbeing must be a workforce priority. Union representatives should be involved in monitoring workload and wellbeing, and schools need adequate funding and staffing. It’s time to redefine teacher support, ensure proper funding, and protect teachers from stress and burnout.” The Association of School and College Leaders added that the “many positives” of teaching are “increasingly being undermined by a tsunami of stress and pressure.”
Education Support, the charity behind the Wellbeing Index, has called on the government to develop a dedicated teacher and staff retention strategy. Their recommendations include targeted interventions to reduce stress and work intensity for school leaders, a national focus on suicide awareness, and meaningful changes to workplace culture. “We urgently need a national retention strategy that puts staff wellbeing at its core,” said chief executive Sinéad McBrearty to the BBC. “Without this, more teachers will leave the profession, and more children and young people’s education will suffer.”
The government, for its part, insists it is taking action. A spokesperson for the Department for Education told the BBC that the government is “restoring teaching as the highly valued profession it should be,” highlighting that last year saw one of the lowest rates of teachers leaving the profession since 2010. The Department also pointed to its manifesto pledge to recruit 6,500 new teachers, with details expected by December 2025, and said it is “taking action to tackle poor pupil behaviour, high workload and poor wellbeing” among staff.
However, a recent analysis by the National Foundation of Educational Research (NFER) found that unfilled vacancies are at a record high and recruitment into teacher training remains “persistently low.” Teaching unions argue that the government’s efforts so far have not stemmed the exodus, and that without real movement to shed the burdens teachers carry, the crisis will only deepen.
As the year draws to a close, the message from teachers, unions, and charities is clear: the wellbeing crisis in schools is not just a problem for educators, but a threat to the future of children’s education. Without bold, immediate action, the UK risks losing not just its teachers, but the heart of its education system.
