Mental health has long been a significant factor contributing to workplace absences. Findings from Education Mutual’s School Business Leader Wellbeing Index 2025 shed new light on the extent of the issue
Education Mutual provides a proven, innovative way to manage staff absence protection for schools and trusts. As the UK’s largest member-owned provider of staff absence protection recommended for schools by the Department for Education through the CPC framework, our ethical approach provides a non-profit making alternative to traditional staff absence insurance.
We’re dedicated to providing schools and academies with the guidance, resources and protection they need to excel. All our member schools benefit from access to our comprehensive health, mental health, occupational health and pupil wellbeing services, all included in the membership at no additional cost.
A Stark Impact
Mental health has long been a cause of absence in the workplace, but new research (via Education Mutual’s School Business Leader Wellbeing Index 2025) highlights just how much of an issue it has become, affecting not only the employer, but the employee and their families alike. Within schools, the impact is especially stark. In an environment where consistent attendance is necessary for maintaining continuity for students, teachers and support staff often feel the need to continue working whilst mentally unwell. As well as having an impact on their mental wellbeing, this often means that they are not able to offer the same quality of education they would when well, impacting students.
Education Mutual remains committed to deepening the understanding of the mental health and wellbeing needs of school business leaders (SBLs) across state and trust primary, secondary and special schools in England and Wales. The results from our School Business Leader Wellbeing Index 2025 continues to show that excessive workloads are still the most impactful on mental health with 64% of respondents citing this as a key struggle. The research finds that a lack of work-life balance has negatively impacted sleep and their home and family life. Although there has been a reduction in those reporting heavy workloads, the varied nature of their role, such as HR tasks and a lack of funding for non-teaching staff remain an issue.
Seeking Support
The 2025 edition of the SBL Wellbeing Index also found that school business leaders prefer to seek support outside of work due to the stigma that seeking support is a sign of weakness. Others said that they lacked the time or mental capacity to reach out for support or had difficulty in identifying who to approach. There has, however, been progress in the way employees feel they are supported, rising from 21% in 2023 to 31% in 2025. The most utilised resource is a confidential employee assistance program helpline, though overall usage of such services remains low. To address this, signposting struggling staff to mental health support should be a straight-forward, non-judgemental process.
An Education Mutual membership can help to reduce the impact poor mental health has on staff working within the education sector, playing a significant role in breaking down the stigma so that the knock-on effects for students are not as devastating. We believe that a long-term approach to sustaining positive mental health is central when providing our non-profit making alternative to traditional staff absence insurance. A key part of our trusted friend to the sector approach to staff absence protection is that we provide all our member schools with access to a wide range of health and wellbeing services which are all included at no additional cost. This includes face-to-face counselling and menopause counselling, mental health first aid training opportunities, financial wellbeing coaching and 24/7 GP access to help reduce and prevent absences.
This is a sponsored article, brought to you by Education Mutual
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