About the Staff Survey

The simplest way to understand what teachers and school staff need to support their mental health is to ask them. However, too many education institutions do not regularly survey staff to establish their levels of wellbeing.

We recommend schools and colleges should be carrying out annual wellbeing surveys in order to better understand: 

• how teachers and school and college staff are feeling
• what is driving good and poor mental health (including asking staff how they feel about work practices, culture, engagement and management) 

• how supported teachers and school and college staff feel 

• whether staff feel equipped to support children and young people with their mental health 

• any additional support they need for their mental health and wellbeing. 

It is important to point out that an annual survey has limitations – only capturing a brief snapshot of the entire year. Introducing regular surveys, and consistently creating opportunities for two-way dialogue, can significantly increase the ability of a school or college to establish levels of wellbeing. 

Most schools and colleges have a Senior Mental Health Lead who is responsible for taking a whole-school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. Supporting staff wellbeing is key to this approach so in most cases the responsibility of a staff survey will fall to them. 

The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. Staff will receive a link to the online survey, which they can complete on PC, tablet or smartphone.  

This confidential staff survey helps to measure and monitor progress and enables schools and colleges to focus on the tangible and practical actions they can take to support a whole-school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. 

The questions are grouped into three sections which ask about staff wellbeing:

Section one

This section is about staff wellbeing and perception of stress.  

The questions ask about how the member of staff has been feeling recently. It uses two established questionnaires that have an evidence base that shows them to be valid (i.e. they measure what they intend to measure, avoiding bias) and reliable (they give same result each time if each characteristic is the same, avoiding inconsistency). Using an established questionnaire means you can benchmark your responses against existing research, allowing you to contextualise what you are seeing in your setting. 

Section two

This section focuses on your school or college’s attitude to staff wellbeing and the culture within the setting. These questions have been used within research projects to explore the effect that work and the work environment have on staff wellbeing as well as how staff access support. 

Section three

This section asks questions about staff knowledge of children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing issues and their confidence to provide support to the pupils and families they work with. These questions are taken from surveys and questionnaires that have been used in large scale studies and have been chosen to provide information to schools and colleges that they are able to respond to through training and support. 

What's included in the cost

The Wellbeing Measurement for Schools staff survey costs £300 (+ VAT) for primary schools and £400 (+ VAT) for secondary schools and all-through schools. This includes:

• a Wellbeing Measurement for Schools online staff survey link unique to your school
• advice and guidance around sharing the survey link with colleagues and facilitating the survey
• your Wellbeing Measurement for Schools staff survey report
• an invitation to attend an online webinar to help you understand and use your staff survey report.

If you have any quetions prior to registering, please get in touch at measuringwellbeing@annafreud.org 

Register for Staff Survey

Using the Staff Survey

About the Staff Report