Leading through crisis

About this resource

This guide supports FE staff and leaders to respond well during times of crisis and protect workforce wellbeing. It explores common pressures in the sector, such as workload, inspections and redundancies, as well as wider challenges like the cost-of-living crisis and the post-Covid landscape.

The guide explains how these challenges can affect staff mental health and may lead to collective or secondary trauma. It offers practical strategies and real-life examples to help create supportive, trauma-informed settings with a focus on psychological safety.

Using this resource:

This resource is designed for: 

FE staff who may be experiencing or supporting colleagues with trauma
mental health leads and leaders in FE settings who want to signpost staff to support

Learning outcomes

This resource addresses the following learning outcomes:

Use their knowledge to effectively communicate a positive values-based approach, and to promote openness and understanding to normalise mental health and its fluctuations throughout life
Connect different policies and processes (equality & diversity, bullying & harassment, behaviour and safeguarding) to ensure they are working together to support wellbeing