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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
 

'Nothing generous' about government pay recommendation, says NAHT Cymru

NAHT Cymru responds to IWPRB report and Minister for Education announcement - Monday 22 July 2019

The first report of the new Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB) is published today (Mon 22 July), alongside a fanfare from the Welsh government increases to pay for some teachers. 

Rob Williams, Director of NAHT Cymru, which represents leaders in the majority of schools in Wales, said: “We have consistently called for a fully funded 5% increase for all teachers and leaders. In this announcement whilst there’s a welcome 5% increase for new teachers, longer serving professionals will get only 2.75%. It is disappointing that the Welsh government has not seen the importance of a pay award where everyone benefits equally.

“Pay for school staff has to be competitive in the context of the wider labour market, and currently it is not. In contrast to the general trend in other OECD countries, teachers’ statutory salaries in Wales fell in real terms by about 10 per cent between 2005 and 2017. 

“The most concerning aspect to this announcement, however, is the uncertainty about funding. NAHT Cymru’s evidence to the IWPRB was crystal clear; school leaders told us in no uncertain terms that all pay awards must be fully funded. School budgets cannot absorb pay awards on top of the recent and ongoing pressures they have faced – pension contribution increases, rising costs of services, inflation costs including energy increases.

“The Welsh Assembly’s Children, Young People and Education committee’s recently published school funding report painted a stark picture. School budgets are at breaking point already and new reforms, whilst welcome, come at a cost. It would be shameful, and somewhat perverse, if Wales’ schools were placed in the invidious position of facing staff redundancies in order to balance the school budget due to an unfunded teachers’ pay award. There’s nothing generous about this announcement, despite what the Welsh government says.”

Cyhoeddir adroddiad Corff Adolygu Cyflogau Annibynnol newydd Cymru (IWPRB) heddiw, ynghyd â chodiad cyflog i rai athrawon gan Lywodraeth Cymru

 

Ymateb NAHT Cymru i adroddiad IWPRB a chyhoeddiad y Gweinidog Addysg - Dydd Llun 22 Gorffennaf 2019

 

Does 'dim byd hael' am argymhellion cyflogau’r llywodraeth, meddai NAHT Cymru

Cyhoeddir adroddiad Corff Adolygu Cyflogau Annibynnol newydd Cymru (IWPRB) heddiw, (dydd Llun 22 Gorffennaf) ynghyd â chodiad cyflog i rai athrawon gan Lywodraeth Cymru

Meddai Rob Williams, Cyfarwyddwr NAHT Cymru, sy'n cynrychioli arweinwyr yn y mwyafrif o ysgolion Cymru: “Rydym wedi galw'n gyson am gynnydd o 5% wedi'i ariannu'n llawn ar gyfer  pob athro ac arweinydd. Yn y cyhoeddiad hwn, tra bod cynnydd o 5% i athrawon newydd i’w groesawu, dim ond 2.75% fydd gweithwyr proffesiynol sydd wedi rhoi blynyddoedd o wasanaeth yn ei gael. Mae'n siomedig nad yw Llywodraeth Cymru wedi gweld pwysigrwydd dyfarniad cyflog lle mae pawb yn elwa'n gyfartal.

 

“Mae'n rhaid i gyflog staff mewn ysgolion fod yn gystadleuol yng nghyd-destun y farchnad lafur ehangach, ac ar hyn o bryd nid felly mae pethau. Yn wahanol i'r duedd gyffredinol mewn gwledydd OECD eraill, gostyngodd cyflogau statudol athrawon yng Nghymru o ran eu gwir werth tua 10 y cant rhwng 2005 a 2017.

“Fodd bynnag, yr agwedd o’r cyhoeddiad hwn sy’n peri’r pryder mwyaf yw'r ansicrwydd ynghylch cyllido. Roedd tystiolaeth NAHT Cymru i'r IWPRB yn berffaith glir; dywedodd arweinwyr ysgolion wrthym yn bendant iawn bod yn rhaid i unrhyw gynnydd mewn cyflogau gael ei ariannu'n llawn. Ni all cyllidebau ysgolion gynnwys codiadau cyflog ar ben y pwysedd diweddar a pharhaus y maent wedi'i wynebu - cynnydd mewn cyfraniadau pensiwn, costau cynyddol gwasanaethau, costau chwyddiant gan gynnwys cynnydd ym mhris ynni.

“Roedd adroddiad ar gyllido ysgolion a gyhoeddwyd yn ddiweddar gan Bwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg y Cynulliad Cenedlaethol yn rhoi darlun digyfaddawd. Mae cyllidebau ysgolion bron â thorri eisoes, ac er bod diwygiadau newydd i’w croesawu, maent yn costio. Byddai'n gywilyddus, ac ychydig yn rhagrithiol, pe bai ysgolion Cymru yn cael eu gosod yn y sefyllfa annymunol o wynebu diswyddo aelodau staff er mwyn cydbwyso cyllideb yr ysgol oherwydd codiad yng nghyflog athrawon heb arian i’w gynnal. Does dim byd hael am y cyhoeddiad hwn, er gwaethaf yr hyn y mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn ei ddweud.” 

First published 23 July 2019

First published 23 July 2019
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