This year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is community, a word that pretty much sums up the City & Guilds Foundation network.
Through the Foundation, we are dedicated to providing support to people facing barriers or disadvantage, offering opportunities for relationship building, creating maximum reach, establishing clear links to skills development and being measurable. Empathy, a drive for change and the want to support others are three characteristics that our network has in spades. We know however, that working on the frontline, supporting individuals who have often faced complex trauma and barriers can take its toll. With this in mind, we reached out to two esteemed members of the Foundation network to explore how we can encourage members of our community to look after their own mental health and prioritise their own wellbeing, whilst carrying out the inspiring work they do day in and day out.
Compassion Fatigue as an Educator: Understanding and Managing the ‘Cost of Caring’
Author: Kerry Hill FCGI FCCT, Founder Normanton Education
“This mental health week has the theme of community. Connection, belonging & mutual support are some of the foundations of community as well as cornerstones of mental health and wellbeing. Many sectors & workplaces such as education, connect everyday through caring for others. The weight of caring should not be carried alone. A strong community can provide the crucial support needed to navigate, protect & combat mental health issues such as compassion fatigue”
Kerry Hill, FCGI, FCCT, City & Guilds Fellow & Princess Royal Training Awards Alumni
Being an educator is more than teaching —it’s nurturing, supporting, and often absorbing the emotional weight of students’ lives. There’s a quiet weight many educators carry — not the books, the marking, or even the lesson planning — but the emotional labour of caring. Really caring.
Over the years, as an educator and in my role supporting those in the education sector, I’ve listened to students, parents and carer and professionals disclose trauma. I have watched students struggle with challenges far beyond their years, and seen practitioners absorb heartbreak that doesn’t clock out at 3:30.
We come into this profession with open hearts and outstretched hands. But what happens when the well runs dry? What happens when your empathy becomes exhausted? That’s what we call compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is considered a ‘cost of caring’. (Noor et al, 2025).
Compassion itself can be defined as the feeling that occurs when witnessing another person’s suffering which motivates the desire to help the other person (Goetz et al. 2010). Compassion fatigue comes from over-caring — being consistently exposed to distress without adequate emotional replenishment.
The NHS defines compassion fatigue as the “emotional cost of caring for others or their emotional pain, whereby the individual struggles emotionally, physically and psychologically from helping others as a response to prolonged stress or trauma.”
The signs and symptoms of burnout and compassion fatigue may appear similar, but the causes are different. Compassion fatigue stems from working with individuals who are in psychological distress or have been psychologically traumatised, and is therefore rooted in emotional engagement. Compassion fatigue can also occur almost immediately as a reaction to an event or circumstance, but typical sets in after a prolonged period, hence the ‘fatigue’.
“Compassion fatigue (CF) is increasingly prevalent among educators, affecting teachers across their career stages.” (Xiao et al, 2024), as a result of educators seeing increasing levels of trauma across their students.
Leaders, teachers, tutors, teaching assistants, pastoral leads, safeguarding staff — we are often the first responders to our students’ and families’ emotional needs. We are mentors, mediators, sometimes the only consistent adult a child or young person sees. And while we wouldn’t trade that connection for the world, it takes a toll.
Especially in recent years, with rising needs and stretched resources, the emotional bandwidth required of educators has only increased. We often hear “just take care of yourself,” but that’s not always easy in a culture that praises overextension and self-sacrifice. We are often under pressure to perform emotionally and professionally, simultaneously. We are expected to “always care” sometimes without systemic supports in place to support our wellbeing. As educators, we also work in environments where personal boundaries can be hard to maintain.
This blend makes compassion fatigue a silent but significant threat to educators’ well-being and retention.
Signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue:
A 2020 study also found that long working hours, high workload, low job satisfaction and those who had long-standing careers in education, also increased risks of compassion fatigue. The study also found that educators were in the highest risk group for compassion fatigue, alongside doctors, nurses and home care givers.
Supportive strategies for individuals
- Develop a self-care strategy. Prioritise time for your own wellbeing and to reduce stress levels.
- Prioritise Self-Compassion. Educators are often their harshest critics. Practice self-talk that is kind, not punitive. Recognise that you are human and can’t “save” every student.
- Set Boundaries. Create emotional boundaries. It’s okay to care deeply and acknowledge that your role has limits. Define your scope of influence—and stick to it.
- Peer Support Matters, Seek out colleagues or professional learning communities where emotional honesty is welcome. Shared experiences reduce isolation.
- Build Recovery into Your Day, Use “micro-breaks” during the working day—five minutes of breathing, stretching, or stepping outside. Recovery doesn’t have to be a weekend thing; it can be found in moments.
- Reclaim small joys. Compassion fatigue makes you forget what used to spark joy. So, make space for small recoveries — music in the car after work, walking without your phone, making something with my hands.
Supportive strategies for managers and organisations
If we want emotionally present, resilient educators, we need emotionally sustainable systems. That means:
- Build a Culture of Psychological Safety. Encourage openness about emotional challenges without fear of judgment or reprisal. Staff should feel safe saying, “I’m not okay” or “This was a hard day.”
- Acknowledge and normalise conversation around compassion fatigue, wellbeing and stress. If compassion fatigue is not addressed, it can manifest in more serious mental and physical health issues.
- Advocate for strong systemic support systems. Creating organisation wide protective factors such as embedding regular wellbeing check-ins, providing structured supervision with trained professionals, protected in the diary. Provide access to mental health support and promoting workload balance and reasonable expectations.
- Monitor Workload and Role Creep. Compassion fatigue worsens when staff are stretched too thin or take on emotional labour outside their remit. Audit responsibilities and expectations regularly. Set clear boundaries for pastoral vs. instructional roles.
- Training and development. Help educators understand what compassion fatigue is so that they can monitor themselves and report symptoms of compassion fatigue, to gain support. Train leaders to model vulnerability and emotional honesty.
- Embed Wellbeing into CPD (Continual Professional Development)
Don’t make wellbeing optional or an afterthought. Embed it into professional learning and development. Offer sessions on self-regulation, trauma-informed practice, and boundary-setting. Invite experts in occupational health, wellbeing, mindfulness, or psychological flexibility.
- Designate Recovery Time. Integrate recovery periods into the school year or term: Wellbeing INSET days, no-email weekends and evenings, reduced meeting weeks or quiet weeks after high-stress periods. Recognise were staff might be supporting individuals with traumatic situations and provide recovery breaks in the working day to decompress and help restore wellbeing.
Managing Stress – Back to Basics
Author: Paul Chambers, The Creative Mental Health Charity (PoetsIN)
“Your mental health is as important as your physical health. No matter your age, once you start your wellbeing journey, you’ll be amazed at what you find out about you and how better life can be – especially when you can’t control certain things; BUT you can change how you react to them. Learning about yourself, what makes you tick, what your red flags are and what health outlets help and nourish you are all part of this journey and pave the way for you to have more compassion for yourself. Begin your journey now, even if it’s just the basics”
Paul Chambers, Co-Founder & COO of The Creative Mental Health Charity PoetsIN
Good and Bad Coping Mechanisms
Whether we like it or not, stress is an inevitable part of life. Some days there’s lots of it, some days there’s less. On the days with less, some of us find coping manageable, some of us don’t. On the days with extra stresses, planned or otherwise; the story can be very different indeed – for everyone.
Do you find yourself sometimes blowing up over the smallest thing? Maybe you only spilled your drink or couldn’t find your keys; but your reaction is completely disproportionate to the ‘thing’ that made you explode? This is likely down to not maintaining a ‘buffer zone’ – and you ‘spilled over’.
Let’s Look At The Stress Bucket
The Stress Bucket is a great way to visualise how we cope with what life throws at us. We need a buffer zone to allow us to manage life effectively. Too much stress can cause your bucket to overflow if you don’t have a buffer zone. When we overflow, that’s when things can become self-destructive or even fatal if unchecked.
However, we can reduce stress levels and make sure our buckets don’t ‘spill over’ by having multiple coping mechanisms. The more we have, the better we cope. Layer those mechanisms up like a mental health lasagna to bite into as much as you can!
The Stresses Filling Up Our Buckets
We’re all different, yet the types of stress that we deal with have general themes.
Intrapersonal Stresses start with just you, within yourself or your mind; such as poor mental or physical health, low self-esteem and personal stresses, such as money or existential worries.
Interpersonal Stresses involve interaction with other humans. Relationships with partners, friends, children, family, housemates. Meetings, relationships and conversations all impact on us.
Environmental Stresses involve your surroundings which can include new and unfamiliar situations or conflict between people. Noise, crowds, weather, war, disasters, air quality – all can count. These can be your environment or the environment; or all of the above.
Other Stresses that aren’t listed here, unique or personal only to you.
And let’s not forget…
Recycled Stress From Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Recycled stress comes from unhelpful or unhealthy coping mechanisms that may feel right or fun and seem to help at the time but are more harmful to you long term. Things such as avoidance, using drugs, alcohol, violence, self-harm or casual sex without boundaries. Things that numb us or distract us.
So What Are Good Coping Mechanisms?
Practical Coping Mechanisms are things you use to change the source of the problem when you can. Used when you have influence over the situation. Things like healthy eating, exercise regimes, learning better time management skills, joining a social club, scheduling learning better skills.
Emotional coping mechanisms areused to reduce the negative emotions you feel. Emotion-focused coping mechanisms are especially useful when you cannot change the source of the stress. Things like relaxation, self-care, writing, meditation, talking to friends, seeking support from family.
What Are Your Coping Mechanisms?
Do you have healthy coping mechanisms that keep your buffer zone in place? Take a look at the stresses going into your own stress bucket and the means you use to ‘empty’ that bucket of stress. Is the balance right and are you avoiding the temporary fix that recycles stress?
Looked at this way, we see people struggling to keep on top of stresses find it easier to picture what it is they need to do. There are plenty of tools you can use, such as the worry diary, journaling, mindfulness and wellbeing exercises that are all proven to help.
Managing Overwhelm and High Anxiety – What is Worry And How Can We Manage it?
Are you a worrier who maybe loses sleep worrying about nothing and everything? Do you feel like you sometimes overthink things? Maybe you catastrophise the smallest thing until it becomes huge.
If you are any of these things, we’re here to tell you that you are not alone. We’ve also got a tool that will help you if you give it a little time and just a couple of weeks of effort. It’s called The Worry Diary and is something that saved my life.
What is the Worry Diary?
It’s a simple way to get a grip on the constant whirlwind of worry that can cloud your vision and stop you getting on with life when all seems too much to deal with. It helps you put things in perspective. Like any good habit it is worth working at it, as many have said it has changed their lives.
How does it help?
By getting you to focus on worries, whether you can do something about them, by putting aside time each day to ponder upon them, break them down and take action or move on.
There are two main types of worries: practical worries and hypothetical worries.
- PRACTICAL WORRIES are worries we can do something about. They are within our “circle of influence” and normally require us to put into place a plan to deal with them. Whilst technically the easiest to deal with, they are the things that fall by the wayside thanks to;
- HYPOTHETICAL WORRIES are ones we cannot do anything about. They are often ‘what if’ thoughts. If you have anxiety, you may have a lot of these – often when you are trying to sleep or focus. Hypothetical Worries can create the real noise in your head and stop you focusing on your normal day to day tasks.
Once you get into the Worry Diary habit, you realise how much of your time is taken up worrying about things that you can do absolutely nothing about. This can be pivotal in getting on top of your worries.
How do I do it?
- NOTE IT DOWN Every time a worry pops up, note it down either in a detailed Worry Diary template (downloadable from our site) or note them down simply in a journal, pad or app.
- WORRY TIME Set aside a period of time each day to focus on your worries, trying to only worry in that time. Allow 20 minutes a day, ideally the same time, framing it as ‘worry time’.
- THINK ABOUT THEM Focus on each worry, paying particular attention to the hypothetical ones; and commit thought as to why it is that you cannot affect the ‘what ifs’ that take up your headspace. Visual learners can cut or tear these worries from the page and write over them why it is that you can’t do much about them. Then screw it up and throw it away.
- PUT PLANS INTO PLACE With the practical worries, the ones you can do something about, decide what actions you need to take, schedule those actions and add them to do list.
- KEEP TRYING Everyone’s different, it could click into place quickly or take a while – there are no time limits – but it will highlight how many of your worries cannot be changed either way.
The Worry Diary is a very simple yet incredibly powerful tool – but it requires a little commitment.
If you feel your anxiety is stopping you getting on with everyday life, we recommend trying it out fully for a couple of weeks at minimum. We have seen adults, children and young people all benefit from using it, time and time again.
PoetsIN go into more depth on their downloadable version of The Worry Diary on their website. You can download it for free. Visit www.poetsin.com to get your copy or for any mental health help.
This week and every week let’s commit to building communities where mental health is valued, where support is mutual and where no one feels they have to struggle in silence. When we care for ourselves and each other, we all thrive.
A big thank you to Kerry Hill & Paul Chambers for sharing their wisdom with us, if you would like to find out more about our work get in touch at foundation@cityandguilds.com.
If you’d like to find out more about their great work:
The Creative Mental Health Charity is a Charity created for people struggling with their mental health by two poets who have struggled too! Find out more here – Front Page – The Creative Mental Health Charity PoetsIN™
At Normanton Education we are experienced leaders of Special Educational Needs and have significant school improvement consultant experience in supporting SEND in both the mainstream and Special Schools. Find out more here – NED for Schools – Send Training, Special Educational Needs, Education for All
See our supportive infographic below: