Why is legislation important in education? Your in-depth guide

The Teachers’ Standards outline the minimum level of practice required by teachers and trainee teachers working in schools in England.

Many teachers want to know, How do the Teachers’ Standards affect my daily classroom practice? The standards set expectations for planning, subject knowledge, and behaviour management

According to these standards, teachers must:

• Set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils.
• Promote good progress and outcomes by pupils.
• Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge.
• Plan and teach well structured lessons.
• Adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils.
• Make accurate and productive use of assessment.
• Manage behaviour effectively to ensure a good and safe learning environment.
• Fulfil wider professional responsibilities.

Teachers are also held to account in terms of their personal and professional conduct, and should act in ways that uphold public trust in the profession. In order to meet their obligations, teachers must understand and work within the statutory frameworks that outline their professional duties. Further information is available in the government’s Teachers’ Standards, which provide guidance for leaders, staff and governors.

In terms of the curriculum, there is statutory guidance for key stages one to four, primary and secondary schools, as well as for specific subjects. If you’re a maintained school, you have to follow the national curriculum — it’s the law. Think of it as the baseline every school is measured against.

At primary and secondary age, core subjects with a national curriculum include English, maths, science, design and technology, history, geography, art and design, music, physical education (PE), computing and languages.

Academies and private schools do not have to follow the national curriculum by law, though many will follow the framework to prepare students for their exams.

More information can be found regarding the national curriculum for different age groups and subjects.   

Employment in the education sector is subject to a complex mix of statutory regulations, contractual agreements and guidance, which vary depending on the type of school and where it’s located in the UK.

The government publishes official pay scales for teachers and leaders in maintained schools. These set out minimum and maximum salaries, plus extras like responsibility payments or SEN allowances.

There is also a contractual framework for teachers, which includes guidance on working days and specified working hours, how teachers’ time needs to be allocated (e.g. planning and preparation time), professional development and more.

Some key areas of the guidance include:

• Statutory pay ranges for leadership, spanning from £51,773 to £153,490 per annum.
• Pay ranges for teachers. This is the main pay scale for 2025: 
  • England: Lower £32,916 – Upper £45,352
  • Inner London: Lower £40,317 – Upper £52,300
  • Outer London: Lower £37,870 – Upper £50,474
  • Fringe: Lower £34,398 – Upper £46,839
• The process for applications to be paid on the upper pay range.
• Teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payments for sustained additional responsibility, which can range from £702 to £17,216.
• Special educational needs (SEN) allowances, which can be paid to teachers in posts that require a mandatory SEN qualification, teachers working in special schools or teachers who teach designated special classes or units.
• Acting allowances for teachers carrying out duties of the headteacher, deputy headteacher or assistant headteacher without holding that post.
• Salary sacrifice arrangements for childcare benefits or other schemes.
• Pro rata principles for part-time teachers.
• Responsibilities of headteachers and teachers, which include teaching, whole school organisation, strategy and development, health, safety and discipline, management of staff and resources, professional development, communication and working with colleagues and relevant professionals.
• Full-time teachers are expected to be in school for 195 days a year — that’s about 1,265 hours — covering lessons, planning, and duties.
• Work/life balance, with headteachers and governing bodies having regard for a satisfactory balance between professional and personal time.

When dealing with pay, pensions, sick leave and administrative tasks required for employment, schools will likely use digital tools and dedicated HR software to meet their obligations. This will automate calculations and help to ensure human error does not cause them to breach their legal duties.

More information can be found in the school teachers’ pay and conditions document 2025. For Wales, information can be found in the teachers’ pay and conditions guidance. In Scotland, the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) Handbook sets out teachers’ pay and conditions. And in Northern Ireland, teachers’ pay and conditions are decided by the Teachers’ Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee, commonly known as the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee (TNC).  

Additionally, the National Conditions of Service for Teachers in England and Wales 2023, or the “Burgundy Book”, outlines conditions for England and Wales. The National Education Union refers to it as a collective agreement for local authority maintained schools, and teaching contracts will usually refer to it — contracts detailing role expectations are required by law. The Burgundy Book sets out provisions for appointment, resignation, retirement, sick pay, enhanced maternity leave, collective dispute procedures and more.

For support staff, most maintained schools use local government rates of pay with National Joint Council (NJC) terms and conditions. This means rates of pay can vary between local authorities, and should be stated in an employee’s contract. Schools will also need to take into account the Green Book, or National Agreement on Pay and Conditions of Service, which applies to support staff. General employment advice which is not limited to teachers can be found in the government’s “employing people” guidance.

For supply teachers, statutory entitlements depend on whether they are engaged directly by a school, or hired via an agency. If the supply teacher is employed by a school, their contract will need to include relevant provisions according to schoolteachers’ pay and conditions and the Burgundy Book. If the school is hiring supply teachers via an agency, then they will deal with the agency regarding pay.  

Academies do not need to apply the same terms when hiring new teachers and staff (as opposed to those who have transferred in when the school became an academy). However, they may still choose to follow or be guided by national frameworks so their salary levels don’t hinder recruitment, and they will usually incorporate the Burgundy Book into their contracts. The National Education Union is calling for the Burgundy Book’s conditions of service for teachers to become a mandatory part of all employment contracts, offering protection for teachers working in academies.  

The government issues statutory guidance on keeping children safe in education, which applies to all schools in England. The guidance is split into five sections:

1. Safeguarding information for all staff. This section provides essential guidance on what all school and college staff should know and do, promoting a child-centred approach to safeguarding. After reading it, staff should understand their role, as well as that of the school or college. It highlights children who may need early help, for example, those with mental health conditions or special educational needs, young carers and children who frequently go missing. There are also details on how staff can help identify abuse, neglect and exploitation, and what schools should do if they have concerns.
2. The management of safeguarding. School governors and leaders have clear responsibilities here — from appointing a safeguarding lead to making sure every member of staff is trained and knows what to do if they’re worried about a child. It outlines relevant laws, and provides guidance on safeguarding policies and procedures. Among other steps, schools must appoint a designated safeguarding lead, share information as required between practitioners and local agencies, train staff effectively, teach children how to keep themselves and others safe and pioneer online safety.
3. Safer recruitment. The guidance sets out robust recruitment and vetting procedures at all stages of the hiring process. It covers pre appointment checks, regulated activity definitions and ongoing oversight, including sanctions and reporting duties to uphold child safety.
4. Safeguarding concerns or allegations made about staff. This guidance focuses on schools’ responses to concerns or allegations about staff conduct, from an appropriate initial response through to suspension, and the return to work or exit arrangements dependent on the outcome. It outlines what constitutes the threshold for harm vs minor concerns, and details reporting, investigation and safeguarding action.
5. Child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment. In this section, the focus is on preventing, identifying and responding to sexual violence and harassment, including incidents that happen outside of school or online. The guidance covers risk recognition, disclosures and the need to provide ongoing support and safeguarding after an incident to protect victims.

Many sections of the guidance highlight the importance of record keeping in protecting children and young people. It is the school’s responsibility to handle record keeping appropriately and securely, ensuring HR systems used for these purposes are capable of the necessary processes and procedures.

There are also specific resources for schools in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland regarding safeguarding legislation. 

Regarding financial legislation, much of the onus is on local authorities to publish schemes for financing schools. However, it is the individual school’s responsibility to follow the scheme set out by their local authority.

Schemes will require schools to follow their financial controls and monitoring procedures, which will include:

• Provision of financial information and reports. Schools must provide the local authority with details of their expected income and expenditure, on a schedule outlined in the scheme. It should be in a format that’s compatible with the consistent financial reporting framework.
• Payment of salaries and bills. Schools may need to abide by separately published administrative procedures for payment of salaries and bills, according to their local authority’s scheme.
• Control of assets. Inventories of moveable assets will need to be maintained by schools, and there will be basic authorisation procedures for disposal of assets.
• Accounting policies and year-end procedures. There will be procedures to follow that schools must adhere to as outlined by the local authority.

Schemes will also outline a number of other financial responsibilities that schools must abide by:

• Every year, schools have to hand in a budget to their local authority — and update it if things change. Miss the deadline, and you risk falling out of compliance. Schools must also submit a three-year budget forecast each year between May 1 and June 30.
• They must manage resources to maximise pupil outcomes, seeking to achieve value for money.
• Internal audits must be conducted as determined by the local authority, and they must co-operate with the authority’s external auditors.
• Audit certificates for any voluntary and private funds held by the school must be submitted.
• Schools need to follow the local authority’s financial rules and standing orders for purchasing, tendering and contracting.
• If earmarked funds are granted from the local authority, they must only be used for the given purposes, for example supporting pupils with SEND or running a specific initiative.
• Schools should consult their local authority’s scheme in regards to capital expenditure on school premises, as rules can vary. If governing bodies expect there to be capital expenditure from the budget share, the authority may need to be notified.
• Compliance with the schools financial value standard needs to be demonstrated, and schools will need to complete the assessment form on an annual basis.
• Governors and headteachers must provide sufficient information to staff on procedures related to fraud and theft prevention.

If schools fail to comply with any provisions of the scheme, the local authority may issue a notice of concern. 
More information can be found in the statutory guidance regarding schemes for financing local authority maintained schools.

If you run an academy trust, you’re on the hook for making sure every school is managed properly — from the finances to the governance. You’re accountable for the lot. They must comply with the academy trust handbook, and will have a funding agreement with the DfE. More information can be found in the financial support and oversight for academy trusts guidance.

“School leaders often ask, What happens if we don’t follow the academy trust handbook? The short answer: it can trigger audits, funding cuts, or a notice to improve.”

To operate compliantly, schools are required to have policies outlined by the governing body. Some of the core policies might include:

• A safeguarding policy
• A behaviour and discipline policy
• A health and safety policy
• A complaints procedure
• An admissions policy (for maintained schools)
• A policy covering pupils with SEND
• An anti-bullying policy

Schools are also subject to GDPR regulations, requiring them to protect the personal data of students, staff and parents. Schools must be registered appropriately and have an appointed data protection officer, to ensure data handling is fully compliant and consent has been obtained for data processing.