Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to tackle increasing levels of stress and of mental health issues experienced by primary and secondary school teachers and head teachers.

In January 2019, the Department launched the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy. This includes commitments to simplify the accountability system, limit the amount of change that schools have to deliver and provide support to tackle challenging pupil behaviour. The Department is also introducing an Early Career Framework for teachers, which includes mentor training, so that newly qualified teachers receive the support they need. The strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy.

The strategy marks the beginning of a conversation with head teachers about how they can be supported to reduce unnecessary planning, marking and data requirements; supports teachers to deal with disruptive behaviour; and establishes a culture that values continued professional development and flexible working at all career stages.

The Department continues to work with unions, teachers and Ofsted to challenge and remove unnecessary workload and a joint letter from my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and other key national organisations was sent to school leaders in November confirming their support to help reduce workload in schools. The Department has accepted all the recommendations of the Making Data Work report and published a workload reduction toolkit as part of an ongoing programme to tackle excessive workload in schools. The report and government response can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-workload-advisory-group-report-and-government-response.