Barnardo's Scotland asks - Who is looking after the mental health of our teachers?
In a discussion paper published 5 July 2019, Barnardo’s Scotland asks whether teachers and professionals working within education could benefit from the reflective supervision support which is available to other practitioners in specialised roles supporting children and young people’s mental health.
The paper ‘Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of education staff through professional supervision structures’ highlights gaps in the provision of professional supervision or dedicated time for reflective practice for education staff in relation to their own mental health and wellbeing. And further highlights, if teachers are struggling with their own mental health, how can they be expected to support the children who rely on them the most.
Supporting education staff to help children
Conversations in Scotland around early trauma and childhood adversity have been successful in raising awareness of the importance of strong, trusting adult relationships for children and young people. In order for this to happen we must ensure that all adults in education and caring roles are cared for and supported themselves.
We would like our paper to be a catalyst for starting a national conversation about what can be done to better support the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and staff within education.
Supervision is an essential element of clinical practice, social work and social care at all levels, with the purpose being around boundaries, safeguarding, good practice, containment and staff’s own mental health and wellbeing.
Barnardo’s Scotland currently works in over 400 schools across Scotland. A key component of our work is providing Family Support Workers, embedded in the school environment, to support children and their families, we do this work alongside and in partnership with schools.
In many areas this role also includes supporting teaching staff with individual cases as well as wider support around managing and coping with distressed children in school.
Supporting and promoting good mental health and wellbeing underpins all of this work, both in relation to children, young people and their families and education staff.
What the experts say about this report
Dr Adam Burley, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, said: “This report describes a staff group who are experiencing high levels of stress with little opportunity or place to have it recognised or cared for.
The structures in place follow the inverse care law, where at a child protection case conference for example, it is the person with the highest level of contact with the child (the teacher) that typically receives the lowest level of clinical supervision”
Barnardo’s Scotland staff, working within schools, echo this and see it as problematic in the current climate where educators are doing more now than they have ever done to support children and young people experiencing emotional distress and the external pressures on all staff are increasing.
Although there has been a lot of discussion around the role of schools in supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, the charity believes that the issue of support for teachers and education staff has not received sufficient attention in these debates.
The impetus on schools to improve their awareness of the impact of trauma and adversity on pupils’ mental health and wellbeing must also include an understanding of the impact of indirect and vicarious trauma on staff.
Rosie Campbell, Enhanced Nurture Provision teacher at Cuiken Primary in Midlothian, said: “Schools can often be a safe place for children to communicate that they are finding things difficult and sometimes these needs are shared in a powerful way and can come out in very distressed behaviours.
“Educational staff will be there to offer calm, consistent support and strategies to help the child manage and regulate these huge emotions. But through providing this ‘containment’, staff also feel a range of emotions that they too need to learn to manage and deal with effectively, in order to be resilient and emotionally ready to support the child, or children, within their care.
“If this becomes the main part of their job and is something they are doing long term then it is important that they too have support to contain all of this otherwise their own health and wellbeing can suffer, impacting on their ability to be there for those children who need them the most.
“Supervision is common in many professional settings and can help with this. While schools will have a range of informal supports in place, as well as some more structured ones, it can vary hugely from school to school.”
The charity believes professional supervision is essential in all sectors where professionals are supporting children and young people with complex needs and vulnerabilities, and this includes education. It’s calling for a national conversation about the support available for the mental health and wellbeing of teaching staff.
Martin Crewe, Director of Barnardo’s Scotland, said: “What we hear consistently, raised by our frontline staff working with schools, is the gap in provision of structural support for teaching staff around their own mental health and wellbeing. When compared with the supervision structures in other sectors, such as health and social care, this gap is stark.”
Barnardo’s Scotland notes evidence that teachers are under increasing pressure which is being reflected in levels of staff sickness and absence as well as issues with recruitment.
The Education Support Partnership Teacher Wellbeing Index, published in 2018, reported levels of stress across the UK education system. The research found that 67% of education professionals describe themselves as stressed. This figure increased to 80% when senior leaders were included in the stats. 65% of teachers said they wouldn’t feel confident in disclosing mental health problems or unmanageable stress to their employer, and 43% of educational professionals attribute work symptoms to student behaviour issues.
Martin continues: “Where we are present in schools, we are often called upon informally to provide support, containment and regulation to teaching staff because there is a lack of any more formal structures.”
There is a huge gap and one that has the potential to be damaging not only for teaching staff but for the children in their care.
Martin, said: “If educators are being asked to change and adapt their practice around supporting children who are experiencing emotional distress; mental health problems; or displaying behaviour which indicates unmet need, structural change is needed in the support provided to them as professionals.”