Education system reform will only succeed if the workforce is well

I really want to complain about the pace of change in education, policy, the World… but I’m aware that’s become something of a cliché in policy speak. The problem is, it’s also completely real. And there are serious implications for schools, the people working in them and the children and young people learning in them.  

I spend a lot of time with school leaders, running sessions on wellbeing and burnout prevention. Increasingly, those sessions are sandwiched between fast-paced, information-dense briefings on major system changes like the Schools White Paper, the new Ofsted framework, SEND reform. 

They are always high-quality, but they are information dense. It’s hard to imagine that 50 minutes, no matter how well delivered, is enough time to meaningfully process changes of this scale. 

This is not a period defined by one reform. Alongside the white paper, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act and the Milburn Review both set out further expectations on schools, reflecting a growing national urgency about the life chances of young people. 

Schools are being asked to respond to all of this while also absorbing changes to Ofsted, SEND and inclusion, curriculum, attendance and system structures, all at the same time.  

I’ve no doubt many are up for the challenge and want to see system change – a lot of it makes good sense – but there is a reality that must be addressed no matter how well intended the changes.  

The education system is already under pressure 

Education staff are not starting from a position of surplus capacity or energy. 

Our Teacher Wellbeing Index shows: 

• 81% of senior leaders (63% of all staff) say they experience time poverty for three-quarters of the time or more  

• 76% of staff report symptoms of stress 

• 77% experience poor mental health symptoms 

At the same time, nearly half report harmful workplace culture that negatively affects their mental health and wellbeing. 

This is the baseline. These reforms are landing at a time when many leaders and staff are already stretched. Time to think, reflect, connect and build healthy organisational cultures is not in abundance.  

And this lack materially affects educator’s ability to do their jobs as effectively or consistently as children and young people deserve.  

The need for change goes beyond the school system 

The recent Milburn Review is right to highlight the scale of the challenge facing this generation of children and young people and to name the challenge as a failed system. Outcomes are shaped by an entire system under strain, not just what happens in schools. 

Schools do not operate in isolation. They sit within a wider system of services, many of which are stretched, fragmented or under-resourced. 

It is therefore welcome to see growing recognition that schools cannot be expected to solve everything. I am often left wondering if we pin too much expectation on school reform, when the system around them is struggling too.  

We’ve long highlighted, in our own research, that schools are often expected to bridge gaps left elsewhere in the system, while also being held accountable for outcomes that depend on much wider conditions. 

That is not a sustainable position for any workforce. 

Reforming the school system depends on a workforce that’s well  

The reforms ask schools to do more, and to do it differently. 

Inclusion strategies must be developed and delivered. Adaptive teaching embedded. Multi-agency working strengthened. Monitoring and accountability evolved. 

Each change is reasonable in isolation. Together, they expand the demands on staff time, attention and emotional energy. 

In conversations with school leaders, this is increasingly described as cognitive overload - holding multiple complex priorities in mind at once while managing constant operational demands. Many talk about struggling to switch off, with the sense that responsibility does not end when the school day does. 

In practice, this is not just additional work. It is additional responsibility, often in areas where the wider system is not fully functioning. 

This creates a clear risk. 

When the gap between what the system asks and what the workforce can sustainably deliver widens, something gives. Energy drops, focus narrows, staff leave jobs, or stay but burn out. 

This is the point when wellbeing is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It becomes an organisational and system risk. 

Leadership is the pressure point 

This dynamic is most acute for school leaders. 

They are expected to process and implement these reforms, maintain standards, support staff, manage resources, and respond to increasingly complex pupil needs all at once, with a budget that means ever less in real terms.  

Headteachers are already working at pace, and care deeply about getting all of these things right, but many are exhausted. 

Our evidence shows leaders experience some of the highest levels of stress and time pressure in the workforce. Under these conditions, priorities understandably shift. 

What gets deprioritised is often the work that sustains a healthy organisation: culture, staff wellbeing, and the relational aspects of leadership. 

That shift is understandable, but it is also consequential because organisational culture is a primary driver of staff wellbeing, retention and performance. 

Retention isn’t just a numbers game 

Too often, the conversation around retention focuses on headcount. How many teachers remain in post? 

But the more important question is: what condition are they in when they stay? Are they energised or exhausted? Do they feel able to sustain a career in education? Can they consistently do their best work for pupils? 

Retention must become about sustaining well, supported and effective educators over time. 

A workforce that is stretched too thin cannot deliver high-quality teaching consistently. Nor can it absorb sustained reform. 

The white paper includes welcome commitments on workload, flexible working and leadership support. But these sit alongside a wider programme that increases pressure. 

We must give the workforce the conditions to succeed 

Rather than asking whether these reforms are needed, the question is whether schools have the conditions to implement them well. 

That depends on whether staff have the time to absorb change, the support to adapt practice, and the capacity to sustain performance over time. 

What is missing is a coherent approach to sustaining the workforce through this period of change and constrained resources. 

The stakes are high. The Schools White Paper, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act and the Milburn Review all point to a shared ambition: to improve the life chances of a generation of children and young people. 

Schools have a central role to play in that, but if we are serious about delivering that ambition, workforce wellbeing cannot sit at the margins of the conversation. It must be treated as a strategic priority. 

The success of these reforms, and the outcomes for a generation of young people, depends on a workforce that is well enough to deliver them. 

About Gemma Scotcher

Gemma Scotcher has a background in corporate public affairs and crisis communications and leads Education Support’s efforts to raise awareness of the pressures facing educators. Gemma works closely with teachers, school leaders and policymakers to ensure wellbeing is treated as a priority, not a luxury, in the education system.

Gemma is a passionate mental health advocate, with training in psychotherapy, counselling skills, and analytic psychology. She is also a listening volunteer for the Samaritans and a former board director of Brighton's LGBT Switchboard. Through her outreach across England, she supports educators to recognise and prioritise their own mental health and the importance of supportive school environments.