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Equality diversity and inclusion

Our commitment 

NAHT is dedicated to promoting equality for all its members, and this commitment is enshrined in NAHT’s constitution. 

NAHT’s work on equality is overseen by our diversity and inclusion group, a sub-committee of NAHT’s national executive.

NAHT’s role

Our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work is centred around three aspects:

  1. Supporting our members as leaders: as school leaders, NAHT members are ideally positioned to create inclusive learning and working environments for all their pupils and staff, one which welcomes diversity and champions equality. NAHT’s role is to empower our members with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to do this effectively. 
     
  2. Supporting our members as individuals: we know members with certain protected characteristics face additional and/or specific challenges in their roles. As a Trade Union, our core purpose is protecting our members; whether proactively, for example campaigning to remove systemic inequities in the system, or reactively, aiding members who are experiencing particular issues in their workplace, through our representation and/or legal teams.
     
  3. As a democratic organisation: NAHT recognises that we are most effective in representing the views and needs of school leaders when we engage with all of our membership. We are therefore committed to ensuring our own democratic structures are inclusive and reflect the diversity of the educational professionals and learners that we serve.

NAHT’s equality networks

NAHT has three informal equality networks for members. These are led by members, for members.

Find out more about our networks, including how to join and planned meetings, by clicking on the links below. 

NAHT's EDI statements

Following a resolution at NAHT Annual Conference, we are developing a series of policy statements outlining NAHT’s views and commitments around equality, diversity and inclusion. These have been developed in conversations with NAHT’s equality networks, our diversity and inclusion group, and our national executive.

Click below to see our EDI statements:

Statements will continue to be reviewed and additional statements may be developed, as led by our membership.

Our statement of action and commitments on EDI in education for 2023/24

In September 2023, NAHT, alongside other key organisations working in the sector, outlined its new actions and commitments to help further equality, diversity and inclusion in education. Find out more and read our statement of action and commitments on EDI in education for 2023/24.

Resources

Advice and support

For more about the advice and guidance available from NAHT, along with resources to support members with EDI in their schools, see our EDI hub page.

TUC equality conferences

Every year, the TUC hosts a series of equality conferences that supplement the general work of TUC Congress. These conferences focus on supporting the advancement of issues that disproportionally impact minority groups. Find out more and how NAHT members can get involved.

Latest news and advice

Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Education: A leadership imperative

In 2021, NAHT in partnership with ASCL, NGA and WomenEd released a new report exploring the gender pay gap (the difference between the average pay rate for men and the average pay rate for women) in the English education system.

The report, Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Education: A leadership imperative, was intended to inform debate and highlight areas where action may be needed to ensure that women leaders and educators are valued appropriately and equitably for the work that they do.

Each year since the report’s release, we use the Department for Education’s school workforce statistics to update our analysis, to see if there have been any changes and/or improvements.

What does the picture look like in 2023?

What is NAHT calling for?

NAHT believes more work needs to be done to tackle the gender pay in education, in line with the original recommendations of our ‘Closing the gender pay gap in Education: a leadership imperative’ report.

This includes a series of calls on government including:

  • To review the equality implications of the current pay system, including the immediate removal of performance-related pay. 
  • To renew or replace the EDI Hub funding, discontinued by the government in 2020. 
  • To provide greater support to help mitigate the systemic barriers to flexible working for all roles, including encouraging better sharing of caring responsibilities, e.g. paternal leave.
  • And to improve their data monitoring to allow monitoring of other pay gaps, for example ethnicity or disability.

Our work to tackle the gender pay gap in education, forms part of our broader policy and campaigning on members’ pay generally. You can access full details on all of our pay work here.

Download the 2021 report in full.

Read our press release on the 2021 report here

First published 01 December 2021
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