Our commitment

NAHT is dedicated to promoting equality for all its members, and this commitment is enshrined in NAHT’s constitution.

NAHT’s work on equality is overseen by our diversity and inclusion group, a sub-committee of NAHT’s national executive.

NAHT’s role

Our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) work is centred around three aspects:

Supporting our members as leaders: as school leaders, NAHT members are ideally positioned to create inclusive learning and working environments for all their pupils and staff, one which welcomes diversity and champions equality. NAHT’s role is to empower our members with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to do this effectively.
Supporting our members as individuals: we know members with certain protected characteristics face additional and/or specific challenges in their roles. As a Trade Union, our core purpose is protecting our members; whether proactively, for example campaigning to remove systemic inequities in the system, or reactively, aiding members who are experiencing particular issues in their workplace, through our representation and/or legal teams.
As a democratic organisation: NAHT recognises that we are most effective in representing the views and needs of school leaders when we engage with all of our membership. We are therefore committed to ensuring our own democratic structures are inclusive and reflect the diversity of the educational professionals and learners that we serve.

NAHT’s equality networks

NAHT has three informal equality networks for members. These are led by members, for members.

Find out more about our networks, including how to join and planned meetings, by clicking on the links below.

NAHT's EDI statements

Following a resolution at NAHT Annual Conference, we are developing a series of policy statements outlining NAHT’s views and commitments around equality, diversity and inclusion. These have been developed in conversations with NAHT’s equality networks, our diversity and inclusion group, and our national executive.

Click below to see our EDI statements:

Statements will continue to be reviewed and additional statements may be developed, as led by our membership.

Our statement of action and commitments on EDI in education for 2023/24

In September 2023, NAHT, alongside other key organisations working in the sector, outlined its new actions and commitments to help further equality, diversity and inclusion in education. Find out more and read our statement of action and commitments on EDI in education for 2023/24.

Resources

Advice and support

For more about the advice and guidance available from NAHT, along with resources to support members with EDI in their schools, see our EDI hub page.

TUC equality conferences

Every year, the TUC hosts a series of equality conferences that supplement the general work of TUC Congress. These conferences focus on supporting the advancement of issues that disproportionally impact minority groups. Find out more and how NAHT members can get involved.

Latest news and advice

NAHT signs TUC letter to the PM repudiating race commission report

On 31 March 2021, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published its report into racial and ethnic disparities in the UK.

In our response to the report, NAHT has been clear that "the report does not reflect the reality of many people’s lived experiences" and "to many, the findings will come as an insult."

As such, NAHT has added its name to a TUC letter to the Prime Minister that expresses our concern and disappointment at the Sewell report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which we feel understated both the challenge and the scale of change required.

The letter outlines the challenges and inequalities that black, Asian and minority ethnic workers experience across the labour market, and which have been exacerbated during the pandemic, with black, Asian, and minority ethnic workers far more likely to be in frontline roles.

Institutional and structural racism exists in the UK, in both the labour market and wider society. We do not believe that the Commission recognised its extent and impact.

We hoped that the report would recommend action to stamp out insecure work and make employers act to close their ethnicity pay gaps. Instead, the Commission has chosen to deny the experiences of black, Asian and minority ethnic workers and be complacent about the UK’s progress towards being an anti-racist society.

The UK’s trade union movement repudiates this report.

We, therefore, hope that ministers will reflect on the inadequacies of the report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, recognise the insult it has offered to black, Asian and minority ethnic workers and pick a different path.

You can access the full letter here.

First published 19 April 2021

;

Equality diversity and inclusion