By Education Support

Education Support has published its ninth annual Teacher Wellbeing Index and a comprehensive overview of the current mental health and wellbeing of education professionals across the UK. 

The report serves as a clear call to action to both the sector and Government, highlighting the pressures facing the workforce and the urgent steps needed to address them. The report not only shines a spotlight on the challenges, but also offers recommendations for meaningful, evidence-based change.

So, what does this year’s report tell us?

1. School and college leaders remain at highest risk
The Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025 paints a familiar yet increasingly urgent picture. School and college leaders continue to bear the greatest weight of stress across the education workforce. Findings suggest a daily reality defined by intense, high-speed working, tight deadlines, and the constant sense that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. 

According to the Index:

• 86% of senior leaders feel stressed, with many reporting signs of burnout and exhaustion  
• 81% report the feeling they have too many things to do without enough time to do them in their job (time poverty)
• 62% say they work at very high speed, and 71% they work to tight deadlines, for three-quarters or more of the time 

The findings show that pressure on leaders and education staff is not simply about workload, but about the pace and emotional labour embedded within it.

2. Additional responsibilities placed on schools and colleges having serious consequences  
This emotional toll becomes even more visible when considering the steadily widening expectations placed on schools and colleges. As ASCL highlighted in A roadmap for a sustainable education system, schools and colleges are increasingly required to provide support that extends far beyond teaching. Yet this expansion has come without the recognition, funding or the capacity needed. This expectation has grown alongside a deepening retention crisis.

The Wellbeing Index sheds light on just how far these responsibilities have stretched. Leaders and education staff are now routinely stepping in to meet pupils’ and families’ unmet needs. 

In 2024–2025:

• 87% provided emotional support to pupils at least monthly
• 57% provided food, and 49% bought supplies for school or college with their own money, at least monthly.

While these acts of care demonstrate extraordinary commitment, they are not without consequence: 

• 49% of staff who provide such help say it negatively affects their mental health and wellbeing - including 51% of senior leaders. 

The report is clear that better resourced public services are essential so that senior leaders and education staff are not left filling gaps in social, emotional and practical support. With these pressures inevitably feeding into the retention crisis.

3.Retention crisis unfolding in our schools and colleges 
The Index shows that:

• 29% of staff have not only considered leaving their jobs due to mental health and wellbeing pressures but have actively sought to change or leave their role. 

The figures are strikingly similar across groups, with 26% of senior leaders and 29% of schoolteachers taking steps to exit. When asked why, 66% of those considering leaving cited workload volume, a figure even higher among senior leaders (76%). 

In 2023, Education Support’s Commission on Teacher Retention made three recommendations to employers around workload and flexible working. Since then, further conversations with school, college, and trust leaders have deepened understanding of what truly supports retention. 

Education Support’s recent paper, Revisiting the teacher retention crisis: recommendations for change, broadens these suggestions, encouraging trusts and schools to reassess how their cultures sustain staff wellbeing, alongside an urgent call for Government action. 

4.Charity urgently calling on Government to take action 
Education Support’s findings reinforce what many in the sector already know: pressures are intensifying, and without meaningful change, the wellbeing and retention of those who keep schools and colleges running will remain at risk.

The charity urges Government to treat these findings as a wake-up call and implement a national retention strategy, with staff wellbeing at its core. Without this, they warn more teachers will leave the profession, and more children and young people will feel the impact. Prioritising the wellbeing of teachers and education staff is essential to safeguarding the future of our children and young people.

You can see the full recommendations to UK education departments on page 73 of The Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025. 

Free, emotional support helpline 
Remember, school and college leaders can call the Education Support helpline: 08000 562 561. The number is free, open 24/7 and offers immediate support. You do not have to be in crisis to speak to a qualified counsellor.