New wellbeing app launched to help stressed out care and education workers amid burnout and thousands of unfilled jobs

A new free-to-use app has been launched to help workers in the crisis-hit care and education sectors look after their own wellbeing.

The pioneering product which will be initially accessed by around 140,000 workers, is the brainchild of Merseyside-based Flourish, part of The Progress Group, which provides specialist training and staffing solutions to raise standards and the quality of care across adult and children’s social care and education markets.

The crucial helping hand comes amid bleak figures from Skills for Care that show there are currently 111,000 vacant posts in the adult social care sector with common factors behind people leaving the profession ranging from burnout and stress to financial worries.

Government figures also show that, although down slightly from the previous year, 41,200 full-time teachers left their jobs in 2023-24 with 76% of education staff who took a survey from charity Education Support stating they were stressed.

And in light of such worrying statistics, the Flourish Wellbeing app has been launched to offer personalised wellbeing support, helping workers in these sectors build resilience with tailored tools and resources to help address the issues they have identified.

Built into Click Learning, it provides personal, practical tools and tips, tailored to the user, bringing everything together in one place: a wellbeing tracker, trigger predictor, action planner, and expert advice – all available to carers and educationalists at the click of a button.

The more they use the app, the more personalised their advice and guidance, with areas covered including sleep, finances, anxiety, relationships and healthy eating.

“The organisations we work with are well aware of the need to look after the wellbeing of their colleagues,” said Sarah Stark, Senior Account Manager at Flourish. “But unfortunately, funding and resources aren’t always available to help with this.

“So, the idea behind Flourish Wellbeing was to provide this for free within an app that they can stay in contact with and use when they need it. If they have had a really hard weekend for example, they know that there is something there which can help them find more information, videos to watch or try some practical strategies to work through those challenges they’re facing.”

At launch, Flourish Wellbeing will be available for free to all existing learners on the Click Learning platform, totalling over 140,000 professionals working across the adult and children’s care and education sectors.

“We know that people within these sectors are experiencing levels of stress and burnout, which in turn is causing a high turnover rate, with the care sector in particular having a vacancy rate three times that of the wider economy. There are currently 111,000 vacant posts in the sector, so we cannot afford to continue losing carers to burnout.

“One of our priorities with this app is to help the people we already support through our training platform be retained within their sectors by helping them feel more able to cope with the challenges they face, meaning better outcomes for the people they support,” said Sarah.

It is no coincidence that Flourish Wellbeing is being launched in January. Sarah said:

“Before and during Christmas, it can be tempting to push aside your own stresses and struggles, especially if you are supporting somebody else.

“But after Christmas and into this month, these challenges return, with financial difficulties especially at the forefront, and it can feel overwhelming and exhausting. That is why we felt now was the time to offer this free support.”