Responding to the 2025 Teacher Wellbeing Index published by Education Support, which reveals a profession in the grip of a wellbeing crisis, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“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.

“When leaders, teachers and support staff are taking on ever more tasks, working intolerably long hours, and feeling burned out, as this report points out, this inevitably impacts the learning and support they deliver for pupils.

“The government’s ambitions to boost recruitment are welcome. But without sustained action to invest in schools, their staff, and support for families, including in the community, it risks being akin to filling a bath without a plug as new and experienced teachers continue to leave - perpetuating a vicious cycle in which those staff remaining are left with even more to do.

“From action to tackle intolerable workload and the harm caused by inspections, to encouraging flexible working and restoring the value of pay, real movement is needed to shed some of the huge burdens our dedicated teachers and leaders carry, show they are valued, and restore teaching as truly rewarding career.”