Every year, Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index gives us a reality check, and it was the same again this year. Things are getting slowly worse, with no signs of improvement.
The pressure on staff and leaders is becoming part of the “normal” way staff within schools and trusts are having to operate.
This year’s report shows that:
- Overall wellbeing for education staff is the lowest it has been since the Index began.
- Around three-quarters of staff report work-related symptoms of poor mental health.
- A significant number are at risk of clinical depression.
- Senior leaders are carrying some of the highest levels of stress and time pressure.
If you’re responsible for people and culture in a school or trust, you know all of this already.
It reflects what you already see in staff surveys, absence figures, exit interviews, recruitment struggles, corridor conversations, and the quiet “Can I have a word?”.
The Index simply puts numbers and language around what you are already living with every day.
The question is no longer, “Is there a problem?” It’s, “What can we do about this problem?”
That is why listening to staff must move beyond what they say and how they feel to understanding the root causes of those experiences and what needs to change in each school.
Welbee’s EI-powered staff surveys are built to close that gap.
Where traditional staff surveys fall short
Survey data is invaluable, but in many schools and trusts, the pattern is familiar:
- Surveys close and dashboards appear quickly, but detailed reports take time to arrive, and leaders are still left trying to work out what it all means.
- Evenings are spent trying to make sense of them across schools, phases and roles.
- It is hard to be confident about what needs to change, in which schools, and why.
- It can take days or weeks to agree on shared priorities and turn them into a plan of action.
- It is difficult to evidence those decisions clearly for boards, governors, trustees and unions.
- Staff are then not always sure what, if anything, has changed as a result.
How Welbee’s staff surveys work differently with Edu Intelligence (EI)
The moment a survey closes, Edu Intelligence (EI) works in the background analysing the results – and, most importantly, it does not do this in isolation.
It looks at staff feedback in context with each school’s wider data and key documents, such as behaviour, attainment, attendance, inclusion, inspection, improvement plans and people strategies (and more).
Instead of dashboards and a long report, leaders see
- Context that fits each school – EI is an AI platform built for education. It understands staff feedback in the context of each setting’s phase, structure, cohorts and data, showing what is unique to that school and what sits across the trust.
- Root causes and pressure points – Connections and patterns revealing what is driving issues in different schools, phases and staff groups, not just where scores are low.
- Prioritised actions – Clear, evidence-based recommendations for each school and staff group, so you know where to start and what to do next.
- Actions you can evidence – A clear line of sight between staff feedback, connected data and actions, so you can evidence decisions and actions with boards, governors, trustees and inspectors.
- Progress you can track – EI works in real time and updates as new data comes in, so you can see whether actions are having an impact, spot emerging issues earlier and show improvement over time.
- On-demand answers – The ability to ask questions in everyday language and see how the data supports or challenges your assumptions in seconds.
“We were ready to present to the board within two hours of the survey closing. That had never been possible before.” – Debbie Duggan, Operational Resource Director, Two Counties Trust
This is what it looks like when staff surveys actually lead to change.
The Teacher Wellbeing Index gives the national picture. Welbee’s staff surveys show how that picture is playing out in your schools and what to do next.
If you’d like to see how other trusts are using their surveys to respond to this year’s findings, get in touch here on LinkedIn or click here to book a quick chat.
