Teachers in one county took over 1,700 days off due to stress last year

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Teachers in one Welsh county took over 1,700 days off sick last year due to stress-related illnesses, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.

The FOI request was submitted to Denbighshire County Council, asking how many days sick were taken by teachers, including senior staff, due to mental health reasons in the school year of 2023-24.

In its question, the FOI gave examples of mental health reasons, such as stress, depression, and anxiety.

Denbighshire said the number of sick days categorised under “Stress, Depression, Anxiety, and Mental Health Fatigue” was 1,726.8 (full-time equivalent 15,802.47).

Although the council’s education department has not seen cuts in the forthcoming budget, last year Denbighshire cut school budgets by 3%.

According to the council’s website, Denbighshire has 58 schools across the county, including both primary and secondary schools.

The figure equates to 29.7 days off a year per school directly relating to stress-related illness, without considering other more physical-type ailments.

‘Not a surprise’

Cllr Huw Hilditch-Roberts said: “On reflection, these figures are probably not a surprise. The amount of pressure that staff and teachers are under in school currently – having seen different needs coming through after COVID, with young children especially – (means) a lot of children are having to adjust.”

He added: “So this is something which I would look to Welsh Government to look at this and look to support schools.”

Last week Denbighshire’s head of finance Liz Thomas said at a cabinet meeting that schools were facing “a perfect storm”, pointing towards the financial situation affecting schools.

“We all recognise the challenges that schools are facing,” she said.

“I think headteachers would refer to it as a perfect storm. You’ve got learners who are still feeling the impact of the pandemic in terms of their speech and language, in terms of the attendance. It is a real issue.”

Lack of funding

Ms Thomas had blamed a lack of funding for the pressures faced by headteachers; however, Denbighshire later amended their budget to include an additional £500,000 earmarked for its reserves to instead be invested back into schools to help with issues such as learners’ wellbeing, attendance issues, behaviour problems, and poverty.

Denbighshire County Council and Welsh Government were contacted for comment.