WELLBEING
Emotional debt: why pastoral load is the new workload
MARK SOLOMONS, founder of triple ERA Award-winning Welbee, an on-line evaluation and staff wellbeing improvement tool, and Edu Intelligence, the first AI tool delivering data analytics and recommended actions from combining stakeholder feedback and wider school data, discusses the emotional workload carried by staff in schools.
Schools measure student progress with forensic detail but too often rely on ‘gut feeling’ or poorly thought through measures for staff wellbeing. We need to move toward evidence-based feedback.
This should include anonymous surveys: use tools that track the specific drivers of stress rather than just general happiness. You also need to act on the data, and providers that do the analysis for you and suggest actions, as soon as surveys close, can help you move quickly to action. Otherwise too much time is spent staring at graphs and charts!
If your staff say behaviour or pastoral load is the issue, don’t give them a workshop on resilience or a wellbeing day.
W
e usually talk about workload as a matter of hours spent on out of classroom tasks. Traditionally this has been the time spent on marking, the hours lost to data entry, and the late nights hunched over lesson plans. But as we move through 2026, it is clear that the workload affecting our staff isn’t just a physical or temporal burden – it is also a deeply emotional one. The findings from the last Teacher Wellbeing Index paint a stark picture. With 77% of education staff reporting symptoms of poor mental health due to work, and over a third at risk of depression, we have to ask: what else might be happening? The answer lies in the escalating ‘pastoral load’ – a weight I call ‘emotional debt’.
In the current climate, schools have become the first and last line of defence for a society facing significant challenges. We are no longer just educators; we are unofficial social workers, mental health first-aiders, and, in too many cases, providers of basic necessities.
Recent data shows that a staggering 87% of staff provide emotional support to pupils at least monthly. More telling is that nearly 60% are providing food for hungry students, and half are using their own money to buy essential supplies. This isn’t just a task on a to-do list; it is an investment that can impact the energy of the most dedicated professionals.
This emotional debt is cumulative. Every time a staff member supports a child through trauma, manages a dysregulated classroom, or absorbs the anxieties of a struggling parent, they are drawing from a bank that we, as leaders, need to help replenish.
We often hear the term time poverty – the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it. 81% of school leaders report feeling this daily. However, the emotional load can multiply this. When a staff member is
emotionally exhausted, tasks take longer and the cognitive drag caused by secondary trauma and empathy fatigue can make the working day feel harder and longer.
If we want to improve staff retention, we must stop looking only at the clock and focus even more on the intensity of the work. We cannot efficiency-save our way out of a mental health or SEND crisis.
Most leaders now understand that to protect staff, we need to move beyond the superficial. A bowl of fruit or cakes in the staffroom or a single wellbeing day or afternoon is a kind gesture, but it doesn’t address the systemic drain of the pastoral load. We need a shift in how we better support those at the heart of our schools. In social work, supervision is mandatory. In education, where we are often dealing with identical levels of trauma, it remains optional. We must normalise reflective supervision – structured time where staff can offload the emotional weight of their pastoral cases with a trained peer or professional.
This means allocating a budget for external supervision for your DSLs and pastoral leads and in supporting teachers, which can be challenging, particularly for smaller schools. It is where the support of a MAT or group of schools can help. Training middle leaders in basic “active listening” techniques to support their teams can also have a real impact.
The ‘always-on’ culture is a primary driver of burnout. We need to give our staff the right to disconnect. This isn’t just about such things as having an email policy; it’s about a cultural agreement that work ends when you leave the building.
This also means triaging pastoral care: making sure teachers aren’t the primary point of contact for complex social issues that need to be handled by a dedicated person, team or external agencies. You cannot manage what you do not measure.
14
www.education-today.co.uk
We are at a tipping point. If we continue to ask our staff to absorb societal failings, without providing them with the necessary protection, we will lose them.
The most successful schools are those that treat staff wellbeing as a strategic priority, not a line item in an HR document. They are the schools where ‘psychological safety’ is real – where a teacher can say, “I am struggling,” and be met with support.
Key takeaways for school leaders:
• Acknowledge the load: Validating that the job is harder than it was five years ago goes a long way in building trust.
• Protect the core: Teaching and learning only happen when the teacher is regulated. A stressed teacher cannot regulate a stressed child.
• Distribute the weight: Ensure that the emotional labour is shared. Don’t let your most empathetic staff members become the dumping ground for every issue until they break.
Your staff are the engine of the school. In any high-performance car, you don’t wait for the engine to seize before checking the oil. Yet, in education, we often wait for the ‘burnout’ before we offer the support needed.
Emotional debt is real, and a challenge. But it is manageable. By shifting our focus from physical workload to emotional load, we can create better environments where staff can thrive. And when our staff thrive, our students have the best possible chance to do the same. By prioritising the human element of our profession, we can build a more sustainable future for everyone in our sector.
For further information and practical advice, visit: u
https://welbee.co.uk
March 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
