More than 50 teachers have been signed off sick due to stress, anxiety or depression in the past 12 months, Education Minister Graham Cregeen has revealed.

In a written answer to House of Keys question this week from Clare Barber (Douglas East), Mr Cregeen said: ’There have been 52 teachers recorded as being off sick with stress/anxiety over the last 12 months

’This equates to 1.2 days per full-time equivalent for teachers were lost to stress, anxiety and depression, compared to 4.06 days per FTE across government.’

Mr Cregeen recently gave a figure that there were 614 full-time teachers in the island.

His answer did not specify if all of the 52 teachers were full-time. Nor did his answer give details of the length of time for which any of the teachers had been signed off sick.

Mrs Barber had also sought a breakdown of pay grades of the teachers affected, but Mr Cregeen’s answer did not address that.

He did, however, respond to a request for details on how many staff had access occupational health services.

The minister said: ’Teachers can access occupational health via a referral from their manager or referring themselves, a self-referral.

’In the case of the former, some schools send their referrals direct to occupational health and some are sent via the Office of Human Resources.

’For those sent via OHR, there were 27 management referrals made for teachers in the last 12 months.’

He said the occupational health department would have the details on self-referrals and the total number of management referrals.

Mr Cregeen also outlined some of the support services for staff wellbeing in schools.

He said: ’The Department of Education Sport and Culture has, for the last five years, been delivering a physical activity programme to supplement and complement the existing well-being support for teachers.

’Initially delivered as a pilot scheme, a number of schools where staff absence was greatest were provided with access into physical activity programmes.’

After a three-year pilot scheme, he said, an assessment of the impact on staff absence was carried out and the scheme was then rolled out to all schools.

’Due to its success, two other government departments (Infrastructure and Home Affairs) have resourced a similar programme that will be managed by Manx Sport & Recreation,’ he said.

There were no figures on the number of teachers accessing staff welfare, he said, because it was a confidential service.

A number of teaching unions are in dispute with the DESC over pay. Members of the NAHT and ASCL have already begun industrial action short of a strike, while teachers in the NASUWT are due to start a similar form of industrial action after the half-term break.

The NEU recommended to its members that they accept an offer from the DESC, but its members voted against.

The offer, similar to moves in the UK, was to scrap the lowest pay grades - giving an effective £6,000 pay rise to new starters - and put all teachers on the ’London fringe area’ grading, effectively worth an extra £1,100.

The unions in dispute have accused the department of failing to address their concerns, while Mr Cregeen has counter-accused the unions of not giving enough information on what they want.