Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve teachers’ job satisfaction.

We are taking action in a number of areas that teachers inform us are the key to reducing workplace stress, including eliminating unnecessary workload. We are working extensively with unions, teachers and Ofsted to challenge practices that create unnecessary workload, and we will continue to look for ways to support the profession on this important issue.

Following the Stevenson/Farmer Review, which highlighted the importance of public sector employers supporting employee wellbeing, we are currently considering the evidence and what more we can usefully do to support teachers’ wellbeing. We are promoting a whole school approach to mental health, including pupils and staff. In the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper we set out plans to incentivise schools to put in place designated senior mental health leads, trained to set up and oversee whole school approaches.