This year has seen several strikes in the public sector, including the first by a teaching union in more than 20 years. The media has dramatically labelled this as the ‘summer of discontent’, evoking the spirit of the winter of 1978-79 which heralded the end of the Callaghan government.
Just like other public sector workers, teachers’ unhappiness cannot be attributed to a single factor. At Teacher Support Network we speak to thousands of teachers every year. As a result, we know that the credit crunch is affecting many of those who work in the classroom. Nevertheless, requests for money advice made up just 25 per cent of calls last quarter while calls regarding working conditions, health and wellbeing made up almost 30 per cent.
All too often, teachers’ dedication to their pupils ensures they routinely sacrifice both their physical and mental health for the good of their schools. Within education there exists a culture where stress, anxiety and depression are seen as unavoidable consequences of the profession; a sense that teachers must simply put up with the physical and emotional symptoms of their vocation. Recent research by the University of London’s Birkbeck College has shown that, beyond the importance in itself of teachers’ health and happiness, their positive wellbeing has a clear, beneficial effect on the quality of education in schools.
For these reasons, our charity welcomed the publication in March of Dame Carol Black’s Working for a Healthier Tomorrow. We believe Dame Carol’s report contained key proposals to help address the crucial issue of sickness absence and the responsibility of the government to focus its policies on the health of the working population.
Some of the report’s recommendations seem to be working their way into policy, most notably by influencing James Purnell’s recent policy announcements. But we believe that the implementation of proposals found elsewhere in the report could have a hugely positive impact on the health of the UK’s workforce and productivity. Our experiences demonstrate that there is no greater need for this than in our schools.
The government has been keen to emphasise the importance of financial prudence over popular, public sector pay rises. With the global economy in a fragile state, No 11 argues that it would be irresponsible and counterproductive to use public money to award more generous increases to such a large section of the population. But anyone prone to concur with the need for frugality must also recognise the immense cost of poor health among the workforce. Dame Carol states that the annual economic cost of sickness absence is estimated to be over £100bn.
By giving attention to remedying the health of the UK’s workforce, by refreshing our attitudes towards physical and mental illness in the workplace as well as by looking at our system of cure, prevention and care, the government could convincingly demonstrate its renewed commitment to education – and other areas of public service. By prioritising workers’ health, Labour could act prudently, progressively and find a timely new source of popularity.