Only half of UK teachers feel safe speaking to SLT about concerns

• Category: School leadership
• Published: 12 June 2026
• Author: Only for Teachers editorial team
• Reading time: 5 min read
• Topic: SLT communication, workload support, and wellbeing

This report is based on original survey data collected directly from UK teachers through the Only for Teachers platform. All insights and findings are unique to our community.

Only 52% of UK teachers feel comfortable raising concerns or suggesting improvements to their Senior Leadership Team without fear of negative repercussions. The other half either said they are not or are unsure, which tells you something key about the psychological safety in many schools right now.

Key findings at a glance

• Only 52% of UK teachers feel comfortable raising concerns with SLT without fear of repercussions.
• Just 33% of teachers rate their SLT's communication as effective or highly effective.
• Only 9% feel that school management actively protects their time and wellbeing when rolling out new initiatives.
• 44% say the Trust or Local Authority has little noticeable impact on their day-to-day work.
• 49% describe staff relationships as merely adequate, with little active leadership in building community.

How confident are UK teachers in their SLT's communication?

When it comes to how well SLTs communicate school policies, changes, and strategic decisions, the picture is mixed at best. 42% of teachers said communication is 'somewhat effective', which is a polite way of saying it could be better. Add in the 11% who said it's 'ineffective' and the 4% who said 'highly ineffective', and you're looking at a significant chunk of staff who aren't getting the information they need, or aren't receiving it in a way that lands effectively.

On the brighter side, 33% rated communication as 'effective', and 10% said 'highly effective'. But that still leaves communication as a weak spot for the majority. In schools where information is siloed, contradictory, or arrives via email at 4:47pm on a Friday, teachers spend energy decoding messages instead of focusing on teaching.

Are school leaders considering workload when they ask more of teachers?

Here's where the survey gets sharp. When asked whether school management actively considers teacher workload and mental wellbeing when implementing new initiatives, only 9% said they do this 'to a great extent'. That's not a typo. Nine percent.

39% said initiatives are introduced but workload impact is treated as an afterthought. Another 31% said it happens 'to a moderate extent'. And then there's the 16% who said 'very little', plus the 4% who said 'not at all', leaving teachers with unmanageable workload.

This is where the gap between SLT intentions and classroom reality becomes real. New behaviour frameworks, curriculum changes, assessment systems, safeguarding protocols, digital transitions: they all land on teachers' desks. But when was the last time your school said, 'We're doing this new thing, which means we're removing that old thing'? 39% of respondents suggest it's rare.

Do UK teachers feel their Trust or Local Authority is actually supporting their school?

Moving up the chain, how much does the Trust or Local Authority actively support school leadership to ensure teachers have the resources and stability they need? 44% said it has 'little noticeable impact' on their day-to-day teaching. That's a neutral response, but it's telling. These organisations exist to serve schools. If nearly half of teachers in this survey feel they're invisible, something's off.

19% said the Trust or LA supports schools effectively. 12% said highly effectively. But 18% said support is ineffective, characterised by 'top-down pressure with little practical help'. Another 4% said it's 'highly ineffective', with policies actively hindering progress.

This chimes with ongoing conversations about MAT consolidation and LA restructuring. Teachers are often caught between multiple layers of bureaucracy without seeing tangible benefit on the ground.

What's the state of staff morale and culture in UK schools?

Finally, let's look at collaborative culture and working relationships across our teaching cohort. 35% said staff relationships are 'adequate' in the sense that they're functional, but leadership does little to actively build community. 31% said teamwork is good overall, though departmental silos exist. Only 14% said the culture is 'exceptionally well' developed, with strong morale and zero 'us vs. them' dynamics.

On the negative side, 14% said staff feel disconnected or fragmented, and 5% said the environment feels divisive or toxic.

When you add up the 'adequate' and 'poorly' responses, that's half your staff in schools where relationships are either just functional or actively strained. That matters. Staff morale affects everything: retention, sick leave, how teachers show up for students, and whether colleagues actually support one another through the hard weeks.

What happens next?

The single thread tying these findings together is trust. Teachers need to trust that SLT communicates clearly. They need to trust that workload concerns are heard. They need to trust that raising concerns won't come back to haunt them. Right now, 48% of UK teachers either don't feel that trust or are unsure. That's a leadership issue, not a teacher issue.

If you recognise your school in these numbers, the good news is that psychological safety, clear communication, and genuine collaboration are all things SLT can build. It takes time. It takes consistency. It takes being willing to say 'no' to some things so teachers can actually do the important things well. But it's possible.

Next week we're running another teacher survey. If you're in a school where SLT gets these things right, we'd love to hear about it. And if you're not, your voice matters. Come and tell us what's happening.