Supporting Staff Wellbeing Toolkit

Wellbeing

The Education Staff Wellbeing Charter recognises wellbeing as: A sense of ‘how we are doing’ that includes, but is not limited to, our physical and mental health, and the quality of our social relationships.

Wellbeing can therefore be described as: A state of total health that is not merely the absence of disease or illness.

The Education Staff Wellbeing Charter

The Education Staff Wellbeing Charter - November 2021 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Introduction

The pressures and challenges experienced by staff working within education and children and young peoples workforce are increasingly well noted. Experiences of wellbeing affect everyone and isn’t just for the few or the majority.

However, there is strong evidence that can guide us to things we can do to help ourselves, each other, or our communities to feel emotionally, mentally and physically as healthy, happy and well as we can.

Personal wellbeing can be affected by external situations such as, the environment, relationships, traumas or other factors that either support or block us from positive experiences of health and wellbeing.

These factors will be different for everyone, there is no right or wrong way to look after your wellbeing and a variety of options for support may be needed. What works well for one person, may not be suitable for another.

If you are experiencing mental or physical health issues then you are strongly advised to seek medical advice as well as follow your staff sickness policy.

Aim

To promote staff wellbeing, Public Health have pulled together this toolkit, providing evidence based and well-practiced resources to support staff working in schools and the children and young peoples workforce.

For education settings, we recommend using this toolkit as part of developing your whole school approach using the Somerset Health & Wellbeing Framework - Audit Tool with specific reference to the principle of Staff Health and Wellbeing

We suggest settings start with completing a staff wellbeing questionnaire. We have included an example template to help get you started- Staff wellbeing survey template (educationsupport.org.uk)

This wellbeing measurement toolkit for schools from the Anna Freud Centre also contains staff wellbeing survey - wellbeing-measurement-for-schools-staff-survey-2023.pdf

Completing a staff wellbeing questionnaire, or other tool, will help you hear views, comments, feedback from staff and measure impact as you implement resources or activities for change.