More lecturers 'seeking support'

A teacher support charity says more lecturers in further and higher education are seeking support because of the current funding crisis.

Calls to the College and University Support Network rose by a quarter to 10,162 in the year to May 2010.

The extra calls were due to increased job insecurity and high stress levels linked to job losses and bigger workloads, it says.

It also made £56,000 in hardship payments to those in financial need.

The charity, which offers financial, emotional and practical support to staff working in post-16 education, is now relaunching with boosted resources under a new name, Recourse.

It says this is because of increasing demand from teachers and lecturers working in a sector faced with hundreds of job losses.

In 2008-9, its services were used 8,176 times, compared to 10,162 times in 2009-10.

Recourse chief executive Julian Stanley said: "We know from our own research that workers in the post-16 education sector are facing serious wellbeing, health, status and financial issues.

"It is no coincidence that as financial belts are tightened we awarded more than £56,000 in grants to people from this sector who were in desperate financial need."

He said with the mounting challenges facing teaching staff it was important that they felt they had somewhere to turn.