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Schools are at breaking point as funding is not keeping up with the expenditure schools face. The government’s funding commitment for schools is not adequate and equates to a real-terms cut in education spending. The situation is critical for schools, so NAHT is campaigning to:

Lobby the government to provide sufficient funding for the education of all pupils

Support the School Cuts campaign
Lobby for provision of accessible and available health, social care and other therapeutic services to support pupils' educational progress and attainment
Lobby for sufficient funding for the High Needs block
Lobby for sufficient funding to support pupils with SEND in all mainstream schools
Lobby for more funding for early years education; including specific funding to stabilise and protect the maintained nursery school sector
Support the Raise the Rate campaign to ensure sufficient funding for students in sixth form / FE / KS5 education
Maximise the funding for pupil premium for schools through auto enrolment
Press the government to provide appropriate support to schools for financial planning and resource management
Develop a better understanding of the unique challenges facing small schools and lobby the government to ensure their long-term sustainability
Lobby government to introduce the hard funding formula

Lobby to ensure that schools have sufficient funds to provide a safe environment for pupils and staff

Press for the phased removal of asbestos from the school estate
Lobby the DfE to secure sufficient capital funding and restoration of the school estate where required
Press the government to ensure that health and safety regulations maintain the highest standard of safety within schools
Lobby the DfE to support members to effectively manage the school estate

The gender pay gap in school leadership

As we mark International Women’s Day 2025, we’re launching our latest findings into the gender pay gap in education.

As a school leaders’ union, we have a responsibility to advocate for fair pay, challenge systemic inequalities and support our members in securing the recognition and remuneration they have earned. To effectively promote equality in our classrooms, we must reflect those values within our school structures.

What does the picture look like in England?

All data is taken from the School workforce in England statistics.

What is NAHT calling for?

NAHT believes more work needs to be done to tackle the gender pay gap (the difference between the average pay rate for men and the average pay rate for women) 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 the 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, eg paternal leave
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 work on our members’ pay. Read more about our work on pay.

NAHT’s Women’s network

In November 2024, NAHT launched our Women’s Network to shape the union's work in tackling the exact same injustices displayed here. If you would like to get involved in our work to tackle the gender inequality, please join our Women’s Network.

Our report 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 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.

Download the 2021 report in full.

Read our press release on the 2021 report here.

First published 07 March 2025

Funding