Schools are at risk of haemorrhaging staff because they’re diagnosing burnout but failing to treat it, according to health assessment specialists who warn the education sector’s approach to workforce wellbeing is “outdated”.
With the latest Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025 showing that 76% of education staff are experiencing work-related stress, Verve Healthcare is calling out the fundamental flaw in how schools handle staff health: identifying problems without providing solutions.
The index also found that more than one in three experienced a mental health issue during the past academic year, with 36% reporting symptoms consistent with burnout. The findings reinforce concerns that burnout is now embedded across the workforce.
At the same time, the latest teacher labour market report from the National Foundation for Educational Research highlights persistently low trainee recruitment in 2024/25, alongside a reliance on unqualified and non-specialist teachers.
Steven Pink, CEO of Verve Healthcare, commented:
“Schools have become brilliant at spotting burnout. They run wellbeing surveys, they tick boxes, they acknowledge the crisis. But what happens next? A sympathetic email and a leaflet about mindfulness? That’s not healthcare, that’s neglect dressed up as concern.
“Our schools cannot retain staff if the root causes of stress and burnout aren’t treated as health issues, not just HR metrics. Teachers are walking away from jobs they love because the health issues driving their stress aren’t being properly addressed.”
Verve Healthcare, which conducts over 200,000 health consultations annually and is trusted by the NHS to deliver care to more than two million people, argues this approach is not just ineffective, but harmful.
Steven Pink added:
“The health assessment industry has been stuck in a 1990s model: find problems, write a report, cash the cheque. We’re seeing schools spend money on assessments that lead nowhere. A teacher gets told they’re at risk of burnout, receives a PDF summary of their blood pressure readings, and then nothing. No pathway to treatment, no occupational health follow-up and no actual intervention.
“Basically, staff are being told they’re unwell and then left alone to deal with it. In education, where staff are already emotionally exhausted, this contributes to teachers leaving the profession, something schools are desperate to prevent.”
With schools facing a retention crisis that threatens educational outcomes for a generation of students, Verve Healthcare insists the sector can no longer afford well-meaning initiatives that don’t deliver impact.
Through its Great British Health Check campaign, the company, which specialises in employee health assessments, is advocating for a fundamental shift, where every assessment must come with a clear, actionable pathway to treatment.
Steven Pink concluded:
“Teachers don’t need another survey telling them they’re stressed. They need genuine clinical intervention that treats the health issues driving their absence and exit decisions. Until schools stop treating health assessments as a compliance exercise and start demanding real outcomes, they’ll continue to lose the staff they claim to value.”
ENDS
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