In the latest survey of almost 18,000 National Education Union members, conducted ahead of Annual Conference in Harrogate, we asked teachers and support staff about the pressures and causes of high working hours.
- Around half of teachers (48%) told us that workload is unmanageable, either most of the time or all of the time. Just 1% of teachers and 10% of support staff said it was manageable all the time.
- Stress levels are high, with more than a third of teachers saying they are stressed 80% or more of the time. Two-thirds of teachers say they feel this way more than 60% of the time, and almost half of support staff feel stressed more than 60% of the time.
- High on the list of interventions that would have a ‘big positive impact’ on workload pressures, in the view of teachers, are increased funding (88%), a reformed inspection system (79%), and smaller class sizes (73%).
The State of Education survey gauges the views of working teacher, support staff and school leader NEU members in England and Wales. We are releasing the findings over the course of Annual Conference.
Current Workload Levels
Workload is a significant issue for all members according to our survey, but especially so for teachers.
It is striking that overall less than a fifth of teachers (18%) felt able to describe their workload as manageable. If we focus on England state-school teachers, this figure is even smaller: 15%, itself a drop from 19% when the same category was asked the same question last year.
Almost half of teachers working in England and Wales (48%) view their workload as ‘unmanageable’, to one degree or another. A third (34%) are on the borderline of ‘only just manageable’.
The Department for Education’s most recently published study shows that full-time teachers and middle leaders in England’s state schools work an average of 52.9 hours per week. This is above the 48 hours stipulated by the UK’s Working Time Regulations and extends well beyond classroom hours.
For support staff, workload is less intense in relative terms but there is no doubt that these members feel overworked – especially if their school has cut back resources and staff due to the constraints of real-terms funding cuts. It remains the case that just half of support staff respondents (49%) find their workload manageable most or all of the time.