Foreword
Restructures and redundancies are reshaping our education system, stretching schools beyond their limits and undermining the support that pupils need. The consequences are already visible: larger class sizes, fewer subject choices, and a shrinking workforce of teachers and support staff. Children are paying the price – particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), who are too often left without the support they deserve. At the heart of this crisis lies a simple truth: there is a continued failure to fund education properly.
When jobs are cut, the work does not disappear; it is redistributed to the staff who remain, increasing workload, reducing the time available to support individual pupils, and placing unsustainable pressure on an already overstretched workforce. In short, teachers and support staff are expected to do more with less. This is contributing to the recruitment and retention crisis in our schools, damaging staff wellbeing and undermining the quality of education.
Declining pupil rolls should be seen as an opportunity to improve education, not as an excuse to reduce staffing or educational provision. Smaller cohorts should mean smaller class sizes, more individual attention for pupils, better support for children with SEND and a more manageable workload for staff. Instead, too many employers use falling rolls to justify workforce reductions that further erode educational provision.
The National Education Union believes there is always an alternative to compulsory redundancy. Through strong workplace organisation, effective bargaining and collective action, NEU reps and members have successfully challenged redundancy proposals, negotiated better alternatives and protected jobs. This toolkit has been developed to support that work.
Inside, you will find practical guidance on scrutinising an employer’s case for restructuring, challenging the financial rationale for redundancies, identifying alternatives to job losses, organising members and building campaigns that put pressure on employers to think again.
Resisting restructures and redundancies is more than a fight to save jobs. It means protecting manageable workloads, defending quality education, and standing up for the principle that every child deserves a rich, broad and well-supported education. This work is critical to our Save Education campaign and its primary aim: to reverse years of chronic underfunding in education.
Together, we can challenge redundancies, secure better outcomes for staff and pupils, and continue the fight for a properly funded education system. Together, we can save education.