DAVID Blunkett has promised teachers that the Government is doing all it can to reduce the stresses of work.

The Education and Employment Secretary heard that one East Lancashire teacher to kill himself earlier this year.

Mr Blunkett said there had been an increase in pressure within the profession, but said they would never be able to wipe out all the factors which led Hyndburn teacher Dennis Winkley to take his own life in January.

Mr Blunkett said the Government, along with teachers' unions, had funded a telephone helpline for teachers and said extra funding and new education initiatives would ease burdens.

Speaking at a Sure Start scheme -- an initiative aimed at giving young people a better start in life -- in Church yesterday, Mr Blunkett said: "There has been an increase in pressures because of increased standards within the profession. They will ease as new measures take effect.

"We have established some imaginative programmes to support teachers. We want to bring in extra staff and are putting 20,000 extra teaching assistants in.

"We have also lowered class sizes, not just for infants but primary school children as a whole in Lancashire and there is an extra budget. There are a whole range of measures that will have an impact. "But we will never be able to eliminate all the personal distress, some of which we have no idea the causes of."

Earlier this month, an inquest heard that Mr Winkley, 51, killed himself after becoming depressed over problems at work and his struggle to cope with new technology. He had been a design and technology teacher at Rhyddings High School, Oswaldtwistle, for 25 years and his specialist area was woodwork.

Union leaders in East Lancashire today said that stress was one of the biggest issues affecting teachers. They added that a government initiative to introduce performance-related pay would further increase the pressures of the job.

Simon Jones, Blackburn with Darwen secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: "There is a very serious problem with stress in the profession. The latest figures show that teachers are among the most stressed-out professions in the country and it is leading some teachers to suicide.

"The teacher stress counselling service line, which started in September, has already received around 8,000 to 10,000 calls."

Mr Blunkett is pictured meeting pupils and parents.