A new 24/7 counselling and coaching service for Scotland�s teachers was launched yesterday to help reduce the number of staff absent from school because of stress.

A NEW 24/7 counselling and coaching service for Scotland's teachers was launched yesterday to help reduce the number of staff absent from school because of stress.

The free confidential helpline will be staffed around the clock by qualified advisers and counsellors who can offer help and support to teachers in need.

An interactive website will also offer teachers self-help information, allow them to put questions to qualified coaches online and provide the chance to sign up for one-to-one e-mail coaching.

It has been set up by the charity Teacher Support Scotland after a trial in Fife and Renfrewshire revealed a need for the service, which has been available south of the border for years.

Yesterday's launch follows research reported earlier this month in The Herald showing that Scottish teachers are up to six times more likely to take time off through stress and depression than the rest of the UK workforce.

Launching the initiative at Commercial Primary School in Dunfermline at the start of the new academic year, charity chairman Dr Ivor Sutherland said it was long overdue.

Referring to The Herald's coverage of the recent study on stress levels, he said: "All of this comes as no surprise to us. In 2004 we asked Glasgow University to do some research. One of their key findings was that 44% of teachers in Scotland found their jobs very or extremely stressful."

He added: "The same service exists in England and Wales and is used widely, so it's not before time that our teachers have access to the same kind of facility."

The service will offer help for a range of problems from behaviour management and workload issues to personal matters such as financial pressures and bereavement. Trials of the service revealed that Scottish teachers were likely to ask for help on similar issues to their colleagues in England and Wales.

The most common issue bringing 32% of inquiries during the trials was working conditions, including workload, organisational management and legal issues. Personal issues including family problems caused 24% of inquiries.

However, concerns about health and wellbeing during the trial were double the numbers generally received by the English service, accounting for 18% of inquiries compared to 9%. A further 16% of inquiries were about career concerns and 8% involved worries about people skills.

The new support service is largely being funded by the charity's parent body, the Teacher Support Network Group, with costs for the first year estimated at around £25,000 plus wages for counsellors and coaches.

Whatever the overall cost it pales into insignificance next to the estimated annual cost of teacher absence in Scotland of £43m. Statistics show that 350 teachers retire through ill-health every year, nearly 40% of whom suffer from mental health problems.

Ronnie Smith, general- secretary of the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, said: "We are in no doubt that teaching is a high-stress occupation. It is very important that we face that reality and help people to manage that.

"We also have to make sure that does not allow employers to feel absolved of any responsibility themselves."

'This would have calmed the nerves'
Case study

"I STILL have that gutwrenching feeling when I think of what my first day was like. You're standing in front of a class and you don't know what on earth you're going to be doing."

Nine years after that stomach churning introduction to teaching, Euan Mitchell, 32, says his biggest worry this week when he returned for the new term was whether his decision to change radically the way he delivered his lessons would work.

Instead of having set times for set subjects during the day he has set up different tasks for different lessons around his classroom, allowing pupils to decide what they learn, when and for how long.

"That has taken me seriously out of my comfort zone," he says. "My main stress is keeping on top of the organisation of that."

Although he rates colleagues as "incredibly supportive", he said he would probably use the new 24:7 helpline and interactive online Scottish teacher support service launched yesterday at Commercial Primary School in Dunfermline, where he teaches P7 children.

He said: "I relied heavily on my mentors in school and college, but I think something like this would have really calmed the nerves and made me realise that I wasn't the only person having sleepless nights.

"Teaching is quite a demanding profession. Being a male in a female-dominated profession there are certain things that are maybe expected of you. You should be able to do technology, or this, or that.

"It would be good to speak to other male teachers in the primary sector sometimes."

By Julia Horton