NAHT
Call us: 0300 30 30 333
Home Menu

Recruitment and retention

 
Pay and conditions icon.jpg

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
 

Update on the support staff pay award for 2026/27

May 2026

UNISON is currently preparing for an industrial action ballot running from 9 July to 6 August. GMB has been consulting its members on whether to accept or reject the offer. The consultation closed on 22 May 2026, and the union will shortly announce the results. Unite has also rejected the offer and, having opened its ballot in April 2026, will announce its next steps soon.

April 2026

UNISON’s National Joint Council (NJC) Committee has formally rejected the pay offer and is now balloting a selection of employers for industrial action as part of a wider strategy to encourage the employers back to the table. GMB is currently consulting its members on whether to accept or reject the offer, with its ballot closing on 22 May 2026. Unite has rejected the offer and opened its ballot in April 2026; balloting activity is continuing through late spring 2026. 

March 2026

The National Employers have made the following full and final, one-year (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027) offer to the recognised unions.

With effect from 1 April 2026, it is:

  • an increase of 3.30% to be paid as a consolidated, permanent addition on all NJC pay points 3 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 Para 5.41)
  • an increase of 3.30% on all allowances (as listed in the 2025 NJC pay agreement circular dated 24 July 2025)

They have also responded to the other aspects of the claim, rejecting these calls – see the full response.

The recognised unions will now be discussing this proposal with their members. 

February 2026

Regional consultations on the pay claim have been taking place across January. The National Employers are due to meet at the end of February to discuss these and next steps. 

November 2025

At the end of November, the support staff unions (UNISON, GMB and Unite) submitted their claim to the National employers for 2026/27, calling for an increase of at least £3,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) across all NJC spinal column points.

The claim also calls for:

  • a minimum pay rate of £15 an hour for the NJC pay spine
  • a two-hour reduction in the working week
  • an increase of one day annual leave
  • the ability of all school support staff to take a day of paid leave during term time
  • the abolition of level one teaching assistant role and instead all level one role holders be moved onto level two.

The unions have also noted an interest in a possible multi-year settlement. In the event of a multi-year settlement being proposed, the unions are seeking the following structure to a three-year agreement: 

  • year one: £3,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) on all spinal column points, alongside the introduction of a £15 minimum hourly rate
  • year two: An increase of RPI + 3%
  • Year three: An increase of RPI + 2%.

Read the full details of the claim.

Context

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 26 May 2026

Related articles