Teachers in Scotland miss nearly 400,000 work days over mental health

School staff in Scotland missed almost 400,000 work days for mental health reasons in the past three years, figures have shown.

Teachers and support staff took 395,330 sick days related to mental health since 2015-16, based on research using a Freedom of Information request by the Scottish Lib Dems. The findings reveal teaching absences have risen from 75,281 to 87,066 days in the three-year period.

Support staff sickness due to issues such as stress, depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder increased from 43,307 days to 58,300 by the past academic year.

Glasgow had the largest number of staff days lost in 2017-18 at 16,127. Fife was next with 12,127 days and then the Highlands with 11,781.

Blaming increased pressure on teachers, Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Tavish Scott said: “The pressure on classroom teachers is obvious.”