The top recorded reasons for sick leave
Our Access Education ‘Big Sick Leave Report’ has shown that, from 2019 to 2022, the total number of sick days taken in the education industry was 16,747, with a 31.7% increase in sick days - from 3,640 days in 2019 to 4,794 in 2022.
Naturally, we would assume the increase in sick days would largely be due to COVID-19, however, our data showed that ‘mental health or related’ reasons emerged as the leading reason, with 3,566 absences accounting for 21.2% of total sick days.
Following this, ‘infection or related’ ranked second, making up 1,751 sick days (10.4%), while ‘COVID or related’ reasons came third, representing 9% of total sick days (1,523). Finally, ‘backache or related’ reasons were the fourth most common reason, accounting for 4.7% of sick days in total (798).
Reason not given
Our data also highlighted that ‘reason not given’, ‘other’, and ‘not listed’ collectively represented 4.5% of all reported sick days, amounting to 764 days. Notably, this has seen a dramatic increase of 2,325% from 2019 to 2022.
This could be because people don’t feel comfortable sharing the actual reason they don’t want to attend work that day, whether that be due to mental health, being embarrassed by the reason, or simply feeling they don’t have to disclose the information.
Although younger generations are becoming more open about their well-being and mental health, two-thirds of people in the UK are still finding themselves putting on a ‘brave face’ to avoid the conversation and 46% of educators are still finding themselves feeling unsupported by their workplace.
Within the education sector specifically, staff are still being faced with challenges following changes made from the pandemic including new ways of teaching and running a school. Although developments in school environments have been made from then to where we are now, these challenges may have created additional pressures for teachers, impacting their well-being.
The rise of mental health-related absences
Understanding the different terms and symptoms of mental health struggles is also vital, with some being more well-known or misdiagnosed than others.
Anxiety, burnout and exhaustion are terms we have come to learn about more recently, however, signs such as change of appetite, mood swings, and forgetfulness could go unnoticed.
From our report, we found that from 2019 to 2022, stress (personal or work-related) and depression were the top two mental health reasons given for taking a sick day. However, anxiety among educators also had an increase of 230% between 2020 and 2021. Further research revealed that anxiety was largely felt by senior leaders and headteachers at this time, with 67% reporting a high level of anxiety.
While the ongoing impact of the pandemic may have worsened these issues, wider factors such as increased workloads, adapting to different needs of students, and pressure to meet new targets, have all likely contributed to educators feeling overwhelmed and unsupported.
To better identify and rectify staff’s well-being and workloads, schools must take a proactive approach. Recently, the government announced its commitment to offer well-being training in all state-funded schools and colleges by March 2025. This includes training a dedicated mental health lead, introducing workload toolkits, and encouraging the use of school management software.
By introducing these elements, teachers will have the knowledge and understanding of mental health challenges. This will help them identify signs of burnout, anxiety, stress and many more problems in both their colleagues and students and help create a more supportive working environment.
Honesty is the best policy
Ensuring confidentiality and encouraging honesty are two of the key elements which can help staff feel comfortable enough to share the exact reasons they require time off.
Accurately reporting why staff are taking sick leave, through systems such as school HR software, is key to understanding what assistance they may require. While a physical ailment may feel easier to report, highlighting any well-being issues is just as important and validated.
By leveraging insights from reports such as our ‘Big Sick Leave Report’, schools can reflect on their absence logs, pinpoint exactly what services and aid they may need to introduce and if they need to personalise this support.
It may also help schools identify the root causes of stress and anxiety among staff, enabling them to evaluate current processes and refine systems to better support staff workloads and wellbeing.
Emma Slater, Head of Product at The Access Group, adds:
“The rising rates of sickness absence within the education sector demonstrate just how crucial it is that schools can effectively identify emerging patterns in absenteeism. The alarming increase in absences related to mental health reasons, as well as reasons not given, points to a landscape where educators are dealing with more pressure and stress than ever before.
“As we see more teachers exiting the sector, understanding these underlying causes is essential for bridging gaps and fostering environments that promote mental and physical wellbeing. Using easily accessible data and reporting to recognise common habits, especially in the education sector, can be extremely effective in making the workplace a positive place.
“By using our PeopleHR platform, our ‘Big Sick Leave Report’ has been able to pinpoint the main areas in which teachers are requesting time off, and schools can do the same with tools such as HR and payment software for schools and school management software.
“We highly recommend that education institutes look into implementing solutions like this so they can not only safeguard the wellbeing of their pupils but also protect and enhance the health and wellbeing of their staff.”
Matthew Holman, Mental Health Trainer and Founder of Simpila Wellbeing, said:
“Education has undoubtedly become a more pressured work environment for staff over recent years from the need to comply closely with the rules of Ofsted and the governance of schools as it focuses more on performance-based metrics - with results, attendance, overall performance now driving budgets.
“The teaching provisions and expectations have been stretched as staff feel unable to provide an environment where all young people can thrive. With staff leaving education, the system relies on those who remain. While schools already recognise the support and pastoral care required to help students, it is important to remember that there has to be mechanism and support in place for the staff.
“Our environment and peers are a key consideration as to why we still feel unable to be truly open about how we are feeling. Employees still fear the consequences of being honest and open about their personal challenges, from feeling they may be perceived as weak or unable to do their job (with the fear of this leading to disciplinary or dismissal procedures).
“Awareness training and support for all is imperative in understanding each personal individual journey. Implementing Mental Health First Aiders can also provide a layer or level of support in the workplace, along with regular communication and conversations of key mental health topics of focus.”
Methodology
Access PeopleHR looked at the sickness leave data taken from businesses using the People HR platform, in the education sector. It took data for the full years of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to understand the correlation between each year.
