School leaders should be given suicide prevention training amid warnings of a “mental health emergency” among teachers, a union conference has heard – the BBC reports.
Teachers passed a motion at the NASUWT union’s annual conference in Harrogate yesterday (March 31), warning of a “rise in suicide, suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts within the teaching profession”.
The motion called on NASUWT’s executive to campaign for staff in all schools and colleges to be trained in mental health first aid, as well as fully-funded, mandatory mental health training.
Delegates voted for the union to campaign for suicide prevention training for all school leaders, and implement suicide prevention training for caseworkers and union representatives.
Row Martin, proposer of the motion, listed a number of teachers who had taken their lives in recent years, including school leader Ruth Perry, who took her own life in January 2023 after an Ofsted report downgraded her school.
At the conference, Martin said: “This is a hard motion to speak about, but we have to speak about. It is a very sensitive, real issue of our profession.”
“We cannot afford to lose any more teachers,” Ms Martin added.
The motion, which warned the pressures of the job are “leading to a mental health emergency” and that teachers’ health “is reaching a crisis point”, was unanimously carried.
NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach warned “too many teachers are having their health destroyed” while others leave the profession to “save their sanity”.
“Nobody should be brought to the brink of ending their own life because of their job,” he said.
The motion came as NASUWT revealed a voluntary survey of 11,754 members in the UK found 86 per of teachers who responded believed their job adversely affected their mental health in the last 12 months.
The Department for Education (DfE) offered a £1,200 grant for state schools in England to train a mental health leader, with applications closing on March 31, the BBC reports.