Teacher sickness absences remain significantly above pre-pandemic levels in England, according to data from School Workforce in England.
Two-thirds of teachers took sickness absence in the 2022/23 academic year, compared to just over half in 2018/19, a rise of more than 10%.
Even more than two-thirds of teachers in London took sickness absence, making the capital the most affected area in the country.
Prior to the pandemic, there was only a faint fluctuation in data, which emphasises the effect COVID-19 has had on education.
“The main contributors are long hours and a high workload. I often worked 60-hour weeks when I was teaching,” said Hannah Ilett, a qualified teacher of 10 years.
“Teachers are always thinking about their classes and the workload is so much that it’s difficult not to take work home in the evenings or over the weekend.
“It’s stressful and working overtime is expected, rather than rewarded. Being in the classroom is highly rewarding, but the admin, planning and marking is too much.”
Moreover, Ilett highlighted that these statistics were unsurprising given the workload that was placed on teachers following lockdown.
She added: “There was very little advice given to help the children revise their social skills after a protracted period of isolation, instead we were expected to catch the children up academically.
“This led to children who struggled to display good behaviour for learning, thereby making it less likely that they would catch up academically.”
Ilett’s words are backed up by the Teacher Wellbeing Index 2024, which revealed several alarming statistics.
Their data shows that 78% of education staff are stressed, while 77% of all staff experienced physical, psychological or behavioural symptoms due to their work.
This is supported by data from the NASUWT (the Teacher’s Union) Wellbeing at Work Survey 2024, which reported that 86% of teachers said that their job had adversely impacted their mental health.
A recent report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that 90% of teachers considering leaving the profession cited high workload as a factor.
Additionally, the report noted that pupil behaviour has become one of the fastest-growing contributors to workload since the pandemic.
In 2023, teachers staged the biggest strike day in a decade as 100,000 joined the walkout, with Jeremy Corbyn joining the march in Westminster.
While the strikes were held in protest of teacher pay, it is clear that workload, stress and well-being were at the core of the action.
Although all four teachers’ unions struck a deal with the government for a 6.5% pay rise, other issues have not gone away.
The spotlight of the strikes centered on teachers, but school leaders are often overlooked, despite the stresses of their profession.
Significantly, 84% of senior leaders said they were stressed, while 77% said they had experienced physical, psychological or behavioural symptoms due to their work, according to the Teacher Wellbeing Index 2024.
Emma Greer, a headteacher at Pelham School in South Wimbledon, highlighted the financial stresses of her role that have been caused by high levels of teacher sickness absence.
She said: “Essentially, you end up paying double for a teacher if they’re off sick, so from a finance perspective, it becomes quite stressful.”
While speaking to Greer, it became apparent that the financial budget schools receive is unsustainable and almost impossible to plan for.
“You’re running a business in a way, it’s just ridiculous,” she added.
“I’m doing financial planning for next year with indicative budget figures which haven’t been confirmed, so the whole process is very frustrating.
“It’s unmanageable. The whole of the budget, really, that comes from the government for staffing. It’s not enough.”
Although Greer recognised there is some support from the unions and local authority, she believes more needs to be done to support senior leaders in times of crisis.
“They can only do so much, but actually in times of crisis, it can be really challenging,” she continued.
“As a new headteacher, there have been situations I’ve dealt with where I felt it was really hard to access support, and particularly some sort of regular support.”
Greer referenced the current support systems in place at other public services and how education should follow their lead.
She added: ”I think the support system in education should be similar to the prison service or the NHS.
“There should be compulsory supervision for school leaders, because actually, we’re dealing with really challenging and quite traumatic situations, particularly in terms of safeguarding.
“We’ve dealt with some horrific things over the years, and if you were dealing with those as a clinical psychologist or an educational psychologist or somebody working in the prison service, you would have to have supervision.”
Enfield borough ranked as the most affected area within London, with three-quarters of teachers taking absence due to sickness.
The North London borough also topped the list the previous year, with 78% of teachers taking sickness absence, suggesting there is a deeper issue within the area.
Meanwhile, the latest data on London borough-level poverty revealed that Enfield has a higher poverty rate than the London average and England as a whole, according to Trust for London.
The NFER found that the impacts of teacher shortages tend to be more acute in schools with a higher proportion of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
By contrast, Richmond, which is one of the most affluent areas in the capital, had around 10% less teacher sickness in the academic year, ranking it as one of the least affected London boroughs.
It was recently revealed that the government is on track to miss its commitment to recruit 6,500 new teachers, as per NFER.
At the end of last year, teacher shortages hit a record high, while the NFER disclosed that teacher vacancies in England are at their highest rate since records began.
Furthermore, their report found that there is an increased reliance on unqualified and non-specialist teachers, which suggests teacher shortages are growing.
Daniel Kabede, the general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said schools will face increasing financial pressure until they receive the funding they so desperately need.
He added: “The government made noises on the campaign trail that they would commit to tackling recruitment and retention. The NFER points to the current trajectory being inadequate to the task.
“The core drivers of teachers leaving the profession are unchanged: workload, funding, excessive accountability measures, and below-inflation pay.”
The union also warned they will be carrying out an indicative ballot of its members to gauge willingness to strike due to the government’s completely unfunded recommendation of a 2.8% pay award for 2025/26.
While the outlook was not exactly rosy prior to the pandemic, the situation is now bleak and all eyes will be on Labour to address what is a growing problem in education.
The Department of Education was reached out to for comment.
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