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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
 

Teachers’ Pension Scheme 2020 Valuation Report published (England and Wales)

Most public service pension schemes are unfunded defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, meaning that members’ pension benefits are guaranteed by the government and there is no fund of assets from which pension benefits are paid.

Every four years, the Government Actuary’s Department carries out a valuation of all unfunded public service pension schemes, including the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). The TPS 2020 Valuation Report was published last Friday (27 October 2023) and sets out the results of the actuarial valuation of the TPS as at 31 March 2020.

The two main outcomes are:

  • An increased Employer Contribution Rate – where employer contributions will be increasing by 5% to 28.6% of pensionable pay next April 2024.  A levy of 0.08% of pensionable pay is also payable by employers in order to meet the cost of administering the scheme
  • No changes to individual employee contributions – this means members will continue to pay the same % into their pension scheme for 2023/24, with employee contributions staying the same until 1 April 2025.

As there is no breach of the cost control mechanism then there is no requirement for the secretary of state for education to consult on changes to the scheme.

Funding

For our members managing the budget, the government confirmed back in March that it would fund the increased employer costs to support employers that are centrally funded. We expect that this will be in the form of a grant in 2024/25, as we’ve seen in previous years.

We are pressing the government to provide detail on how and when this additional funding can be expected as soon as possible, to support members with their budget planning.

It remains the case that independent schools that participate in the scheme will be expected to meet the additional costs involved from their income. For members in independent schools, we have additional advice to support you.

Considering the longer term, the government has confirmed that for future years, the costs will be covered within spending review considerations for 2025/26 onwards. NAHT will continue to make the case for any additional costs to be fully funded, to reflect the ongoing budget pressures that schools are facing. You can access further details on our funding campaign here.

For devolved administrations, the Barnett formula will apply in the usual way.

 

First published 30 October 2023

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