Can local surveys help in tackling stress? Workshop – John Illingworth Health and Safety Adviser’s Briefing Stoke Rochford Hall – November 2010 www.teachermentalhealth.org.uk

Why Survey? The desire to know more To provide evidence and information so that we can: improve the knowledge and understanding of local officers, school and H&S representatives; inform decision makers; (If they are prepared to listen!) support individual and groups of members; promote stress reduction initiatives; have information to support negotiations; encourage press and media interest.

Learning from ‘Crazy About Work’ Design: Think first The power of free comments Who to survey? Significance of results Cost of Paper surveys: Postage and Printing Time Quality of Presentation Using Excel Launch and dissemination: Members Press and media Employers Making local national Within the Union Decision Makers

Nottingham City Association National Union of Teachers 28th October 2006 Dear Colleague, Nottingham City NUT – Mental Health Survey We are writing to you as one of a random sample of our members to seek help with an important survey. This is an anonymous survey and we do not want to know who you are, but we have asked questions about age, gender or minorities to see whether any groups are at increased risk. We know that an increasing number of teachers are suffering, or likely to suffer from, some form of mental illness. We also know that some of this illness is wholly or partly caused by work-related stress. The results of this survey will be used to help us negotiate improved working conditions in Nottingham, but will also contribute to national information used to influence Government policy. Employers have a duty of care under health and safety legislation and must act if we can demonstrate a need for them to do so. We know that filling in this survey will be yet another task in your busy lives, but urge you to respond. Please return the completed survey in the freepost envelope provided. (FREEPOST MID17798, NOTTINGHAM, NG5 1BR) The bigger response we get, the harder it will be for your employers and Government to ignore the findings. We will also send you a copy of the survey analysis when it is complete. Please help with this. John Illingworth Assistant Secretary

I look forward to going to work. Please tick the appropriate box and add written comments of clarification wherever you wish. This may help to illustrate our analysis of the survey. Strongly Agree Tend to agree I have no view Tend to disagree Strongly disagree Please use this space, or overleaf, for any comments you may wish to add 1 2 3 4 5 I look forward to going to work. I don’t have enough time to spend with my family and friends. My working hours are excessive. I worry about completing work tasks. I often wake up in the night and can’t get back to sleep because I am thinking about work.

Using Charts

Getting The Press and Media Interested Preparation Building contacts Building a story Seeking help of Press Officers (Local and national) Human interest stories Press releases coordinated with other events

Other Surveys: Reign of Terror Stress Risk Assessment – Headteacher Survey Workplace Bullying

Online Surveys: Survey Monkey Disadvantages: Advantages: Less expensive (The bigger the survey the more you save) Much easier analysis of responses (Very useful at a school level) Easy to repeat requests Once designed, easy to use a survey with different target groups Disadvantages: We don’t have email addresses for all members Some don’t regularly check emails Some ignore online surveys as ‘junk’ Not everyone is confident, able or willing to use software like Survey Monkey