FOI Request - Sickness Absence Among Teachers
Request 101003983963
NASUWT members have expressed concerns about increased levels of sickness absence
among teachers, which are often identified as stress-related.
In this context, we are keen to establish what the absence picture looks like at individual
Councils and what they are doing to support teachers.
Therefore, we would be grateful if you could provide NASUWT with the following information:
a) Levels of teacher absence in relation to other Council workers;
b) Evidence of any preventative health and wellbeing support available to teachers and
how this is communicated;
c) Any data you possess on the work satisfaction of teachers.
Response 18-05-2026
a) For the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, the overall absence rate across Moray Council was 5.94%. Of this total absence rate:
• 2.17% related to school based staff (teachers and support staff combined).
• Within this figure, 1.27% related specifically to teachers.
b) Moray Council provide an Employees Assistance Programme (EAP) service for all staff which is regularly promoted via our Interchange, Connect Magazine, HR Bulletin and HT Bulletin. This service provides self-help information and tools as well as offering a free confidential counselling service. In addition, the service has a dedicated page on our Staff Interchange site which links to their website.
Regular Comms are delivered to support staff and raise awareness and articles published on our Interchange including Stress Awareness, Blue Monday, Menopause etc.
We also have a number of supportive employee policies which support Health and Wellbeing including provisions for attending preventative medical appointments, menopause policy and health at work policy.
The council has also developed a Support Services Guide which outlines a number of resources and helplines for staff reference and which is available on our Interchange Page.
In addition, Moray Council has approved and is delivering an Improving Attendance Project, initially focused within schools, in response to sustained increases in absence levels. The project adopts a supportive and preventative approach aligned with the Council’s Health and Work Policy. It provides additional Human Resources capacity to support early intervention, timely engagement with staff, appropriate referrals to Occupational Health, consideration of reasonable adjustments and structured return to work planning, alongside strengthening management confidence through targeted training and guidance.
As part of this broader approach, the Council is also piloting the Thrive with Dr Bal programme, a structured six week, evidence based wellbeing intervention designed to support employees experiencing burnout or stress related absence, as well as those at risk of burnout. The programme uses a validated assessment to match participants to the most appropriate recovery or resilience pathway and reports anonymised, aggregated outcomes to the Council. Together, these measures aim to take an early intervention approach to promote staff wellbeing, support sustainable attendance at work and reduce the impact of absence on the school as a whole.
c) Moray Council conduct a Employee Survey every 2 years which gathers data from across the workforce on a number of themes including job satisfaction.