Guidance

Education staff wellbeing charter

An explanation of the education staff wellbeing charter and the benefits of using it.

Applies to England

Overview

The education staff wellbeing charter is a declaration of support for, and a set of commitments, to the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in education.

The charter is for education staff in England. This includes temporary and support staff. All state-funded schools and colleges are invited to sign up to the charter as a shared commitment to protect, promote and enhance the wellbeing of their staff.

Sign-up is voluntary and there is no deadline.

The charter was co-created by:

  • members of the education sector, including:
    • unions (NEU, ASCL, NASUWT, NAHT, Voice Community, Unison)
    • Association of Colleges
    • Local Government Association
    • Mind
    • Education Support
    • Tapton School
    • Learning in Harmony Trust
    • Charles Dickens Primary School
    • Kensington Primary School
    • Meadow High School
    • Reaseheath College
  • the Department for Education (DfE)
  • Ofsted

About the charter

The charter:

  • was created by the education sector to highlight staff wellbeing in the education sector
  • is a tool for schools and colleges to create and publicly commit to their own wellbeing strategies
  • is a declaration to protect, promote and enhance the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in state education
  • includes commitments on education staff wellbeing by DfE and Ofsted
  • sets out principles of shared understanding on the meaning and importance of wellbeing and everyone’s roles and responsibilities
  • sends a message to everyone working in schools and colleges that their wellbeing and mental health matters
  • aims to improve wellbeing in schools and colleges by encouraging debate and accountability

Use the charter to:

  • show staff that you take their wellbeing seriously
  • open a conversation with staff about their wellbeing and mental health
  • create a staff wellbeing strategy
  • create a wellbeing-focused culture

Download the education staff wellbeing charter (PDF, 1.77 MB, 13 pages).

Why you should use the charter

Signing up to the charter is a public commitment to actively promote mental health and wellbeing through policy and practice. It is a way to show current and prospective staff that your school or college is dedicated to improving and protecting their wellbeing.

Protecting the wellbeing and mental health of staff is:

  • essential for improving morale and productivity
  • critical to recruiting and retaining good staff
  • a legal duty: employers are required by law to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees
  • taken account of as part of Ofsted inspections

Signing up to the charter

Signing up to the charter is voluntary. All state-funded schools and colleges, including maintained nursery schools, school-based nurseries, special schools and pupil referral units are invited to sign up to the charter as a shared commitment to protect, promote and enhance the wellbeing of their staff.

All other education institutions, such as universities, independent schools and early years providers, are free to make use of the principles and organisational commitments, but they cannot sign up. The charter was co-created by an expert group with schools and colleges in mind, but the principles and organisational commitments will apply to most education settings.

Deciding to sign up

The decision to sign up should be made by your school or college senior leadership team.

If you are a local authority or trust, you can sign up for schools, colleges or academies on their behalf, but you should consult with the senior leadership team of each setting.

How to sign up

To sign up, you’ll need:

If you have any queries or no longer wish for your organisation to be a signatory to the charter, email wellbeing.charter@education.gov.uk .

There is no expectation for your school or college to sign up to the charter now. You should sign up when it is right for your organisation and when you will get the most benefit from it.

How your information will be used

Read the privacy notice for education staff wellbeing charter (PDF, 154 KB, 2 pages).

Monitoring and evaluation

DfE will:

  • conduct user research on the impact of the charter in organisations that sign up
  • add questions on the impact of the charter to departmental surveys with schools and colleges
  • evaluate progress periodically

Read the department’s progress report on our commitments in the education staff wellbeing charter.

Wellbeing resources

Measuring wellbeing

The charter encourages the measuring of staff wellbeing so you can monitor and respond to any changes. Some resources to help this include:

The Measures of National Well-being Dashboard monitors and reports on wellbeing of the UK.

Supporting staff wellbeing and mental health

Some resources to help support your staff’s mental wellbeing include:

Find out how your school or college can apply for a grant for senior mental health lead training.

Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff

The Improve workload and wellbeing for school staff service can help you promote staff wellbeing and support workload reduction in your school with free resources that:

  • are produced by school leaders, for school leaders
  • support what you’re already doing
  • can be adapted to work in your school

Reducing workload in schools

A collection of guidance and resources to help you reduce school workload is available.

Flexible working in schools

Guidance on flexible working in schools is available. There’s also a collection of flexible working resources for teachers and leaders.

Behaviour in schools

The guidance on behaviour in schools guidance will help you to develop your behaviour policy.

Other resources

Other resources you may find useful include:

Published 10 May 2021
Last updated 15 January 2024 + show all updates
  1. Added a link in the 'Monitoring and evaluation' section to DfE’s progress update on its commitments in the education staff wellbeing charter.

  2. Added a link to the form to sign up to the education staff wellbeing charter. Updated the privacy notice for the education staff wellbeing charter and the list of wellbeing resources.

  3. We have updated the 'Privacy notice for Education Staff Wellbeing Charter' and added information on how organisations can remove themselves as signatories to the charter.

  4. Guidance updated to reflect addition of information on how to sign up to Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, additional wellbeing and mental health resources and minor amendments to the 'Education staff wellbeing charter' document.

  5. First published.