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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

Don't leave it too late. It's time to plan for your future

Kate Atkinson, NAHT specialist adviser, explains why it's never too early to explore the options available to you for your retirement, pension, well-being and employment.

The problem with pensions is that they are complicated, not particularly interesting and can often be put on the bottom of the 'to do' list when you're busy. This is particularly the case when you are paying into an occupational pension scheme such as the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, which is generally thought of as a 'good' pension scheme - if you’re paying in and can’t change it, why worry?

Despite being pushed to the bottom of the 'to do' list, it's likely that at the back of your mind you know you should be getting a handle on your pension and what it could mean in terms of retirement. The choices you make in the later stages of your career are as important, if not more important, than those you make at the beginning – taking control sooner rather than later is always the best approach.

There are a range of retirement options available to you, and if you aren't aware of them, you could fail to take advantage of what is, other than buying a house, the most significant financial decision you will ever make.

There are also some costly mistakes that can be made by not understanding how your pension works - avoiding these mistakes can make the difference between working for longer or being able to retire when you want.

Our course, 'Planning for the future; options for your retirement, pension, well-being and employment', has been designed to give you the tools to begin to make a plan for the later stage of your career and takes into consideration the technical aspects of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and how it works. It also provides you with some ideas about your future in the wider sense; at the course, we will discuss ideas related to flexible working, phased retirement and methodologies to ensure you remain well enough to achieve your personal goals in the later stages of your career.

People often think this course deals with issues that you only need to consider at the very end of a career. That isn't the case. The earlier you begin to think about how and when you would like your career to end the more likely you are to be in a position to make that happen – please don’t wait until six months before you want to retire to take control because by then it's often too late!

Read our latest fact sheets that will help you to understand the options for your pension pot and avoid the pitfalls of fools' gold

First published 25 June 2018

First published 30 January 2020

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Recruitment and retention