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Recruitment and retention

 
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School leaders are driven by an ambition to provide opportunities for young people to reach their full potential. To fulfil that ambition, teaching must attract and retain a high-quality, well-trained and properly rewarded workforce. 

Through our work with members, NAHT is documenting and communicating the unfolding recruitment and retention crisis taking place in our schools to policymakers at the highest levels. 

NAHT is campaigning to:

Ensure all schools can recruit and retain excellent teachers and leaders

  • Lobby for change and reform of key macro issues affecting recruitment and retention: pay, accountability, funding and workload and identify key actions to be taken to improve these
  • Press for the development of a range of flexible leadership and non-leadership pathways to support recruitment and retention, including new opportunities that will retain the experience and expertise of mid to late career leaders
  • Build on the opportunities offered by the Early Career Framework to press for similar support for new heads, deputies and assistants, and school business leaders
  • Maintain a watching brief on the impact of Brexit on teacher supply
  • Lobby the DfE for practical measures to address the workload of school leaders, including protection of strategic leadership time
  • Campaign for a staged real term, restorative pay award for teachers and school leaders
  • Develop a position on the role of CEOs and other posts outside the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) including a position on which roles should have a requirement for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
  • Lobby for a review of the pay system, including the STPCD
  • Press government to maintain and enhance the teacher's pension scheme and/or Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
  • Support work to ensure the profession represents a diverse workforce, including those with protected characteristics
  • Support effective partnerships between school leaders and governors with clarity of roles and responsibilities across different school structures.

Create a safe working environment for school leaders and their staff

  • Lobby the DfE to take concrete steps to tackle verbal and physical abuse and aggression against school staff, including harassment online and through social media.  

Ensure professional recognition of school business leaders (SBLs)

  • Lobby the DfE for SBLs to be included within a new national framework of terms and conditions for school staff
  • Promote the professional standards framework for all SBLs
  • Raise the profile and understanding of the SBL role across the school sector, including with governors.  

 

Read our latest report on the school leader retention crisis (December 2022)
 
Read the latest updates in our pay hub
 
Read the latest updates in our pensions hub
 
Find out more about our campaign to Restore Pay in Education
 
Find out more about NAHT's work for school business leaders
 

Support staff pay award 2025/26

July 2025

After consulting with members, Unison, GMB and Unite have all voted to reject the 2025/26 pay offer of 3.2% from local government. The next steps as a result of this rejection have not been announced by the unions; we'll share further details once they have been released.

May 2025

Unison, GMB and Unite have consulted their members, with a recommendation to reject the 3.2% pay offer from local government. The consultation period for all three unions took place between the end of May and the end of June.

April 2025

The National Employers have shared their ‘full and final, one-year offer’. It includes:

  • With effect from 1 April 2025, an increase of 3.2% (pro rata for part-time employees) to be paid as a consolidated, permanent addition on all NJC pay points 2 to 43 inclusive and on all pay points above the maximum of the pay spine but graded below deputy chief officer (in accordance with Green Book Part 2 Paragrap 5.42)
  • With effect from 1 April 2025, an increase of 3.2% on all allowances (as listed in the 2024 NJC pay agreement circular dated 22 October 2024)
  • With effect from 1 April 2026, the deletion of pay point 2 from the NJC pay spine
  • No plan to reach £15 an hour
  • No extra day of annual leave
  • No provision for school staff to take a day of annual leave during term time.

The recognised support staff unions will now review this offer and decide on a response.

Here is NAHT’s statement on the proposed offer:

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: ‘All staff working in schools, from our own members to their valued support staff, deserve to be paid fairly.

‘It’s important school leaders receive the funding needed to cover any pay uplift, with budgets already severely stretched in many cases.

‘NAHT represents school business leaders whose salaries are governed by this award, and we believe that their pay and conditions should be aligned with a revised leadership pay range.’

January 2025

The support staff unions (UNISON, GMB and Unite) have submitted their pay claim for 2024/25 to the employers. This calls for an increase of at least £3,000. 

A full breakdown can be found below:

  • A £3,000 flat rate increase on all pay points. This would ensure that all Local Government and Schools workers receive at least an uplift of RPI plus 2%. (the RPI rate is forecast at 3.5% April 2025)
  • School support staff - to be allowed to take 1 day of their current annual leave during term time.
  • A reduction in the working week by two hours for local government workers
  • A clear plan to reach a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour
  • The ability for school staff to take [at least] one day of their annual leave during term time, with no loss of pay.

You can access full details of the claim here.

December 2024

The unions are expected to submit their pay claim for 2025/26 at the end of January 2025. 

This is NAHT's view on the local government pay scales:

We do not believe that the current local government pay scales offer enough flexibility to recognise the status and seniority of a school business leader (SBL) role, nor do they take account of the growth in the scope and responsibility of SBLs' roles over recent years.

We are clear that in the long term, there should be a national framework that defines the roles and sets out the pay and conditions of all those employed in a national, publicly funded education system, including SBLs. We have repeatedly and extensively made this case to the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB), including in our latest work, which you can find here.

We continue to call for a significant pay increase for all teachers and leaders, including school business leaders, which is fully funded by the government. In the interim, NAHT has developed member advice around SBL pay and grading to support individuals with their personal circumstances and offer support to individual members with their cases for pay reviews.

 

First published 14 July 2025

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