Responding to the new report from Education Support, Teaching: The New Reality, which highlights the impact of increasing responsibilities on school leaders and teachers, Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union, NAHT, said:

“There is no doubt that the role of teachers and school leaders has expanded significantly over recent years, at a time when the resources available to them have been dwindling.

“As a result of cuts to vital support services, school leaders and their staff increasingly end up acting as teachers, social workers and counsellors rolled into one, as they struggle to help families access stretched, under-funded provision like CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). Due to the lack of specialist support available, school staff are too often left feeling helpless, drained and overworked, which in turn only serves the fuel the recruitment and retention crisis in education.

“We cannot continue to expect school staff to continue to step in and fill the gaps created by the chronic underfunding of these vital services. Nor can we continue to ask them to sacrifice their own wellbeing in order to sustain the current system. As this report clearly shows, to do so would not only be unfair on them, it would be unfair on pupils too.”

Laura Doel, director of NAHT Cymru, said: “It should ring alarm bells for the Welsh government that more than half of education staff in Wales are looking to leave their jobs and that they could be more likely to suffer heart disease or a stroke based on their average working week being at or close to the 55 hours deemed a risk.

"Workload challenges, along with guarantees over proper funding of a pay offer, are a key reason for our members’ ongoing industrial dispute in Wales.

“The role of teachers and school leaders has expanded enormously in recent years, at a time when the resources available to them have been reduced.

“Staff are too often left feeling stressed and overworked, and it’s therefore little wonder the profession is facing a recruitment and retention crisis.

"That’s why it is imperative that our ongoing discussions with the Welsh government lead to a tangible reduction in workload and that leaders are not expected to fund much-needed staff pay awards from already stretched school budgets.”