Education Support Partnership

Education Support Partnership, founded in 1877 as the Teachers’ Benevolent Fund and rebranded in 2015, is the UK’s sole national charity dedicated exclusively to the mental health and wellbeing of education professionals—including teachers, leaders, lecturers, teaching assistants, and support staff across schools, colleges, and universities. Its mission is to transform their lives through empathy, respect, inclusivity, evidence-based practice, and collaboration, reducing stress, burnout, and attrition via direct support, mental health literacy, research like the annual Teacher Wellbeing Index, and policy influence. This distinctive, sector-specific approach links staff wellbeing to improved pupil outcomes and a thriving education system.

It funds needs-driven interventions such as 24/7 confidential helplines, one-to-one therapy, counselling, professional supervision, peer support programmes, digital resources, and financial hardship grants for essentials amid crisis, illness, bereavement, or bullying. Priorities target high-stress groups like early-career teachers and senior leaders, emphasizing early intervention, resilience, stigma reduction, and systemic change through partnerships, with UK-wide reach across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

Eligible beneficiaries are individual UK education staff in acute need; organizations and charities are ineligible for grants, with no income/size rules, geographic restrictions, or religious barriers. Applications for individual hardship grants (typically £hundreds to low thousands) are accepted rolling via the website; no unsolicited organizational applications or open rounds exist—strategic partnerships require direct contact. It excludes general projects, capital works, or non-education staff support, uniquely filling the niche as the evidence-led national expert in educator mental health.