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:

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.
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.
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

Long covid

What is long covid?

While most people recover quickly from coronavirus (covid-19), for some people, covid-19 can cause symptoms that last weeks or months after the infection has gone. This is sometimes called post-covid-19 syndrome or 'long covid'.

Depending on how long you have ongoing symptoms for, it can be called one of two things:

ongoing symptomatic covid – where symptoms continue for more than four weeks
post-covid Syndrome – where ongoing symptoms continue for longer than 12 weeks and cannot be explained by any other condition.

The chances of having long-term symptoms do not seem to be linked to how unwell a person is when they first get covid-19.

Symptoms of long covid can be many and varied and can change over time. Some of the most common ones include:

cough
fatigue
breathlessness
muscle and joint pain
sleep problems
brain fog, loss of concentration or memory issues (cognitive impairment
depression, anxiety.

You can find further details on the NHS website.

What work is NAHT doing to support members with the impact of long covid?

NAHT’s work supporting members with long covid is considered from two aspects – supporting individual members who may be suffering from long covid and supporting members as leaders, who may be supporting staff who are suffering with long covid.

Below we outline some of the key aspects of our current work.

Ill-health retirement and long covid

NAHT, through our involvement with the Teachers' Pensions Scheme Advisory Board, to press the Department for Education to scope out changes to teachers' ill-health provision in order to respond better to the health impact of the coronavirus pandemic on teachers and leaders: find further details about this here.

Managing staff with long covid

NAHT has developed g uidance designed to support the member, as a line manager, to understand the implications of long covid when managing long-term absence.

Joint protocol: the management of long covid

NAHT, alongside ASCL, Community, GMB, NASUWT, NEU, Unison and Unite, have developed a joint protocol that provides the basis for a consistent approach to management at the workplace of those individuals medically diagnosed as having long covid.

Individual support

For those members who require individual support, we offer guidance through our advice line. For those members whose employment might be impacted and/or is at risk, additional support is available through our regional teams. You can get additional information on contacting NAHT here.

NAHT’s Disabled Members' Network

The Disabled Members' Network is a safe space for all members who identify as disabled (including those who are suffering from long covid) to come together to discuss the experiences and issues facing disabled school leaders, both within the profession and NAHT itself. You can find out further information about the network and register here.

First published 22 April 2022

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