NASUWT opposes compulsory redundancies of the schools workforce. The Union is aware of the challenges and pressures that schools are facing in terms of the numbers of falling roles and school funding.

Cuts in school funding from 2010 onwards, together with structural school and system change, increased the risks of redundancy for teachers and this has been exacerbated by the chronic lack of funding that has led to a recruitment and retention crisis, with many teachers leaving the profession. The NASUWT position is that the Government should spend 6% of GDP on education. In 2009/10, spending reached 5.6% in 2024/25, representing a fall to 4.1% of GDP.

HM Treasury documents show that ‘the core schools budget will only grow by an average of 0.9% per pupil in real terms each year’ of the three-year spending review period 2026/27 to 2028/29.

There has been a long-term trend in lower birth rates, which has led to a fall in the number of children entering primary schools and has begun to affect secondary schools. Primary school numbers peaked in 2019, with secondary numbers peaking in 2024/25. Fewer pupils means there is a need for fewer staff in schools and this presents a real challenge to the Union in terms of our members being at heightened risk of redundancy.

It is more important than ever that NASUWT is involved in meaningful consultations and conversations with the employer from the outset and that any redundancies can be minimised where possible. Furthermore, where redundancies, school mergers etc are inevitable, the Union needs to be at the forefront of conversations to safeguard members’ rightful entitlements and to secure the best possible outcomes for them.

For schools facing budget pressures and declining rolls, redundancy exercises must be planned carefully, with robust evidence, objective selection criteria and full compliance with statutory and contractual consultation requirements. Failure to do so now carries significantly greater legal and financial consequences.

Many schools have experienced a gradual decline in their ability to set a balanced budget. Our evidence suggests that schools will often make what appear to be insignificant changes to their staffing structure, such as not replacing a member of staff if they retire, leave the profession or move to new employment. Any post that remains unfilled or that is deleted from the staffing structure is a redundancy and must be treated as such.

This means formal consultation with all recognised trade unions, regardless of whether the job role is a teaching role. We know very well how important the work of all those in job roles outside of teaching is to the work of teachers, so the removal of any post must have a clear rationale and the work and task associated with that post must either by identified as ceasing or diminishing or transferred elsewhere, with consultation and robust workload impact assessments undertaken.

However, it is crucial that, when handling cases of potential or actual redundancy, NASUWT Representatives do not accept that redundancies are inevitable. NASUWT aims to fight compulsory redundancies in the schools workforce, because of their impact on jobs and workload.

The publication of this NASUWT checklist does not constitute an acceptance that any potential or actual redundancy situation, when declared by an employer, is justified. The checklist details elements of a redundancy policy and procedure which NASUWT Representatives should seek to ensure are present in the policy and procedure during any negotiations and consultations. NASUWT Representatives should ensure that it is always made clear that negotiating over the content of a policy should not be used as consenting to redundancies taking place.

An increase in members’ workloads because of redundancy also gives grounds for further industrial action.

Workload challenges

Since spring 2022, the Department for Education has commissioned independent research that involves surveying over 10,000 teachers and leaders annually, with the same sample group being used in each subsequent year.

This survey is the Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders (WLTL) survey. The most recent survey (wave 4) results were published in April 2026.

The research for wave 4 was conducted in spring 2025, before the pay award for 2025-26 was announced and the mechanism initiated for how the pay award was to be funded (which resulted in schools having to find 1% of the pay award from their existing budgets for the cost of living pay award 2025/26). The wave 5 research was undertaken in spring 2026. We await the publication of those results.

What the WLTL survey shows is that workload challenges remain a significant and persistent issue for teachers and school leaders.

The wave 4 survey shows:

Working hours

Teachers and leaders both reported working fewer hours on average in their most recent full week of work in 2025 compared with all previous years. Average weekly working hours were as follows:

• leaders: 55.5 hours, down from 56.6 in 2024, 57.4 in 2023 and 56.8 in 2022

• teachers: 46.9 hours, down from 48.1 in 2024, 49.4 in 2023 and 49.7 in 2022

	2022	2023	2024	2025	% change 22-25	hours change 22-25
Leaders	56.8	57.4	56.6	55.5	2.3	1.3
Teachers	49.7	49.4	48.1	46.9	6.0	2.8

The 2.8 hours reduction over the past four years for teachers works out at an average of 0.7 hours per year. At this current rate of annual reduction, it will take 17 years to get to an average 35-hour working week for teachers. For leaders, it will be just over 63 years at the current rate of reduction.

Criteria for redundancy

An employee is dismissed for redundancy if the dismissal is wholly or mainly because:

the employer has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on the business for which the employee was employed, or to carry on that business in the place where the employee was employed; or

the requirements of the business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or to carry it out in the place where they are employed, have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish.

If either of these conditions is met, there will be a genuine redundancy situation.

A job change resulting from reorganisation, restructuring or a change of duties will only be a redundancy if the criteria for redundancy are met.

Examples of redundancy situations include:

• Reducing the number or pay range of senior leader roles.

• Reducing the number or pay value of Teaching and Learning Responsibilities (TLRs).

• Reducing the number of teachers.

• Reducing the number of pupil-facing support staff (teaching assistants).

• Reducing the number of administrative staff.

The requirement to consult and timescales for redundancy

An employer has a legal obligation to consult over collective redundancies if it proposes to make redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment for a ‘reason not related to the individual concerned’.

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, this ‘establishment’ threshold is being supplemented by a new organisation-wide threshold, which will require collective consultation where a set number of redundancies is proposed across the employer as a whole within a 90-day period, regardless of how they are spread across sites.

The precise threshold is subject to Government consultation and is expected to come into force during 2027. NASUWT Representatives should press employers for information on aggregate redundancy numbers across the whole organisation, e.g. Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), and not just at the individual school or college.

Appendix 1 of the Burgundy Book, which is a contractual document for teachers in local authority maintained schools in England and Wales, establishes a requirement to consult collectively on ‘any redundancy’. This is also the case in many school and local authority redundancy policies.

Whatever the length of the consultation, it must be ‘meaningful’. Simply meeting the minimum timescales does not mean that consultation is necessarily meaningful. For example, presenting the redundancies as a ‘done deal’ to the workforce and NASUWT, whatever the length of the redundancy consultation, is not meaningful consultation.

There should be a willingness to engage constructively and to genuinely seek and explore alternatives. NASUWT will only accept consultation as being meaningful when the requesting information has been provided. Then, and only then, will the consultation exercise begin.

Redundancy policy and procedure checklist

The procedure must include the following statutory elements:

a proposal for one or more redundancies;

consultation on the proposals (both collective or individual);

selection of one or more employees to be made redundant; and

an employee’s right of appeal.

From 1 January 2027, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, the qualifying period for the right to bring an ‘ordinary’ unfair dismissal claim (including over unfair selection, unfair/flawed redundancy procedures and failure to consider suitable alternative employment) reduces from two years to six months. This will apply to any employee who has six months’ service on that date. The statutory cap on the compensatory award for unfair dismissal is also being removed from the same date.

The time limit for bringing a claim is being extended from three to six months (expected to come into force 1 October 2026), from the date of dismissal under the Employment Rights Act 2025, which significantly increases the number of members who can legally challenge an unfair redundancy process and procedure and expose employers who get it wrong.

The Employment Tribunal can order:

• Reinstatement - employee returns to their original job.

• Re-engagement - Employee is given a comparable job with the employer or an associated employer.

• Compensation - basic award (similar to redundancy payment) and compensation for actual financial losses, e.g. pay, pensions and bonuses, suffered because of the unfair dismissal.

From a union perspective, these reforms strengthen members' legal protection because:

• members no longer need two years' service before gaining ordinary unfair dismissal rights;

• newly recruited teachers and support staff become legally protected much sooner;

• employers have a greater incentive to follow proper redundancy procedures and engage in meaningful consultation;

• unions have stronger leverage when challenging unfair redundancy processes or negotiating settlements.

The policy must state that:

An employee can only be dismissed for redundancy if the dismissal is wholly or mainly because:

the employer has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on the business for which the employee was employed, or to carry on that business in the place where the employee was employed; or

the requirements of the business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or to carry it out in the place where they are employed, have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish.

a job change resulting from reorganisation, restructuring or a change of duties will not necessarily be a redundancy. The criteria for redundancy need to be met. redundancy should not be linked to staffing restructuring. the non-renewal of a temporary contract may amount to a redundancy.

the employer will only implement compulsory redundancies as a last resort.

Consultation

The policy must state that:

The employer will meet its clear legal obligation to consult over collective redundancies if it is proposed to make redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment for a ‘reason not related to the individual concerned’.

The aim of consultation is to avoid, reduce or mitigate the impact of redundancy, and consultation will always be meaningful.

If 20 to 99 employees are to be made redundant in one establishment over a period of 90 days or fewer, consultation must begin at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect.

If over 100 employees are to be made redundant in one establishment over a period of 90 days or fewer, consultation must begin at least 45 days before the first dismissal takes effect.

Where an employer fails to comply with its collective consultation obligations, the Employment Tribunal can order a protective award. For failures relating to dismissals taking effect on or after 6 April 2026, the maximum protective award has doubled from 90 to 180 days’ uncapped pay per affected employee, significantly increasing the financial risk to employers who do not consult properly.

The employer will meet its clear legal obligation to consult over dismissal and re-engagement on new terms and conditions, even if there is no intention to reduce staff numbers.

From January 2027, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, dismissing an employee for refusing to agree to a ‘restricted variation’ of their contract (including pay, pensions, hours and shift patterns) will be automatically unfair in most cases, unless the employer can show genuine financial difficulties threatening the viability of the business. NASUWT Representatives should treat any fire-and-rehire (dismissal and re-engagement) proposal with particular caution and seek further advice from their regional centre.

In schools that employ teachers in accordance with the Burgundy Book, the Employer will consult collectively on ‘any redundancy’ and will follow the consultation procedure in Appendix 1 of the Burgundy Book.

During any collective consultation, the employer will provide the following specific information under Section 188 (4) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA):

• reason(s) for the redundancies;

• number and descriptions of employees proposed to be made redundant;

• total number of employees of any description;

• proposed selection procedure;

• proposed method for carrying out redundancy dismissals including timescale; and

• proposals for calculating redundancy pay, if it is to exceed the statutory minimum.

When providing the reasons for redundancies, the employer will provide:

• current and forecasted school budgets;

• NASUWT Representatives should seek historic budgets for the past three years and the forecast budgets for the next three years. In addition, they should seek the pupil numbers by year group for the same time periods.

• current and proposed staffing structures, with confirmation of staffing costs;

• other relevant financial information on request.

• This must include the salary ranges for all leadership posts and the value of allowances (TLRs, SEN etc).

When arranging individual consultation meetings and appeals, the employer will facilitate employees’ ability to be represented by a trade union representative, including by scheduling meetings to allow trade union representatives to attend.

Redundancy pay

The procedure must state that:

As a minimum, redundancy pay is calculated on the basis of actual salaries, not the statutory redundancy pay cap.

The statutory weekly pay cap used to calculate the legal minimum is reviewed annually. From 6 April 2026, the cap is £751, giving a maximum statutory redundancy payment of £22,530 (based on 20 years’ service at the highest age-band multiplier). NASUWT Representatives should check the current cap each year, as any enhanced local agreements should always exceed the statutory minimum.

Redundancy pay can be multiplied beyond a payment based on actual salaries, following consultation with trade unions. It is important to check what any existing policy provision says in terms of redundancy pay and any enhancements.

Voluntary redundancy

The policy or procedure must state that:

An employer should ask for volunteers for redundancy first and would not need to apply the redundancy selection procedure to them.

Voluntary redundancies are subject to discrimination law and the school will monitor its redundancy processes to ensure that they do not unlawfully discriminate in respect of offers of voluntary redundancy.

Enhanced severance and voluntary early retirement

The policy must state that:

The employer will make use of enhanced severance to avoid or reduce the number of redundancies and that 104 weeks’ pay is the maximum enhanced severance payment payable.

The employer will make use of voluntary early retirement to avoid or reduce the number of redundancies, but that the use of this precludes the awarding of the maximum enhanced severance payment.

Notice periods

The policy and procedure must state that:

Notice periods for teachers being made redundant are those that are set out in the Burgundy Book for England and Wales. 30 April: notice by 28/29 February 31 August: notice by 31 May 31 December: notice by 31 October

In addition, all members with at least 12 years’ service will be entitled to 12 weeks’ notice.

Selection criteria

The policy and procedure must state that:

Criteria for selection for redundancy will not unlawfully discriminate.

Criteria for selection for redundancy must be objective, e.g. exclude performance and sickness.

The following redundancy selection criteria will be avoided:

pupil outcomes;

performance management outcomes;

disciplinary or capability procedure outcomes;

being subject to a disciplinary or capability procedure; and

sickness absence.

Trade unions will be consulted fully and in good time on the criteria for selection for redundancy.

Last in, first out will be one of the selection criteria for redundancy provided that this does not conflict with the employer’s due regard to its equality duties as set out in the Equality Act 2010.

Suitable alternative work

The policy must state that:

The employer has a duty to consider suitable alternative work which must be made before the old contract ends and must begin within four weeks of the date of the end of the original employment.

Women who are pregnant or on maternity leave are in a special position if selected for redundancy, because the employer’s obligation to look for alternative employment is much stricter for women made redundant when pregnant or on maternity leave.

Under the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, the priority right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy ahead of other at-risk employees has been further strengthened and covers the ‘protected period of pregnancy’ (from the date the employee tells the employer she is pregnant) and an extended period after return from maternity, adoption or a block of six or more weeks’ shared parental leave, ending 18 months after the child’s birth or placement.

Failing to offer a priority candidate a suitable alternative vacancy may render the employer susceptible to a claim for automatic unfair dismissal and/or discrimination against the employer.

Equality impact assessment

The policy and procedure must state that:
The employer will discharge its Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) in the event of any redundancies and will ensure that every aspect of the redundancy process is monitored and controlled to comply with this.

Public bodies must consider equality implications before and during making any decisions and base decisions on relevant and objective evidence where appropriate, whilst keeping equality impact of those decisions under review.

The PSED is implemented to:

eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act;

advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it;

foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Protected characteristics are set out in Section 4 of the Equality Act 2010 and are:

• age;

• disability;

• gender reassignment;

• marriage and civil partnership;

• pregnancy (including maternity leave);

• race;

• religion or belief;

• sex;

• sexual orientation.

Equality Impact assessments are underpinned by undertaking workload impact assessments directly linked to the proposals to make any role redundant.

Employers must set out what work is ceasing or diminishing for each current role, and if any elements of that work are to remain, to which job role/s they will be assigned, identifying the workload associated with this transfer of work as part of the consultation process.