School staff wellbeing

Staff with good mental health and wellbeing are likely to be more productive, confident, resilient and engaged. They also take less unplanned leave and stay in their roles longer.

Mentally healthy workplaces

A mentally healthy and safe workplace is one that:

• promotes employee mental health and wellbeing
• protects mental health by reducing work-related risk factors, and
• actively prevents and addresses mental injury and illness.

Mentally healthy workplaces contribute to the mental health of their staff. They also create healthier environments for students and their families.

The Safe and Well in Education Strategy (2019–2024)

Our Safe and Well in Education Strategy (PDF, 2.31MB) provided a systematic and sustainable approach to enhancing health, safety and wellbeing across all department workplaces, including schools.

It was a holistic approach to staff health, safety and wellbeing. It aimed to improve how we:

• promote positive wellbeing in our learning and working environments
• prevent against known and expected risks to health, safety and wellbeing
• respond swiftly and effectively to manage potential issues as they emerge
• support our employees to recover from injury and illness and return to work.

Evaluation findings

An external evaluator reviewed the impact of our strategy, a 5-year plan to improve health, safety and wellbeing for staff.

It found evidence we’ve made positive progress by:

• strengthening our safety culture, and improving management of new risks
• delivering on critical systems and supports
• enabling more school staff to engage with services and access support
• improving return to work performance for staff.

Progress on priority areas

There is evidence of progress across the strategy’s 5 priority areas.

1. Build a stronger focus on mental health and wellbeing

Our initiatives increased awareness and engagement with mental health and wellbeing support services for school staff and leaders.

2. Create a shared culture of responsibility and support

The Safe and Well in Education Framework and training programs helped simplify processes and fostered a culture of accountability and shared responsibility.

3. Simplify the management of health and safety compliance

We’ve streamlined OHS processes, reduced administrative burden, improved compliance and reporting across schools.

4. Provide more expert advice and hands on support

We’ve delivered expert advice and hands on support, with varied levels of engagement.

5. Increase capacity and capability to prevent and respond to emerging risks

Employee Wellbeing Response Team and the Protective Intervention Training are helping to prevent emerging risks and reduce negative impacts on mental health.

Key learnings

• Phased rollouts are a preferred model. This allows staff time to adapt and put new systems into practice.
• Initiatives that built on or expanded existing services were more likely to achieve wider uptake.
• Training and resources supported solid implementation of initiatives.
• Well-received initiatives reduced workload or provided targeted support to staff.

These learnings shape our new initiatives to support staff health, safety, and wellbeing. This includes the rollout of our Statewide OHS Services for schools and Employee Mental Health Reform programs.