Legal advice from Forbes Solicitors (you can also contact Forbes yourself)
See the sources section at the bottom of this page for the other guidance, advice and legislation that these FAQs draw from.
Please note, unions may have differing interpretations of your legal requirements than the DfE. We recommend you seek legal advice and consult with any union reps in your school as appropriate.
What's the current state of play?
What's happening with minimum service levels in education?
Who can go on strike?
Can staff in independent schools go on strike?
What's 'industrial action short of strike action?'
How to respond to strike action
Who do we need to tell about strikes?
Who can decide to close the school?
Do staff have to tell our school if they're going on strike?
How much notice of a strike will we get?
Who do we need to notify about closing the school?
Do we need an industrial action policy?
Do we need a risk assessment to keep the school open during strikes?
Which pupils should we prioritise to be in school?
What are the minimum staffing ratio requirements to stay open?
What happens if our headteacher is striking?
What if strikes affect exams?
What to do about cover and teaching arrangements
Do we need to deliver the curriculum on strike days?
Can we ask other staff to cover lessons?
Can we employ temporary staff to cover strikes?
Can we combine classes?
Can we use volunteers to supervise pupils?
Can we ask striking teachers to set work in advance?
Understand rights and pay for striking workers
Can we ask striking teachers to make up lesson time?
Do we have to rearrange missed PPA time?
Do striking workers get pay?
How do we deduct pay?
Does striking impact continuous service or the length of service?
Practical considerations for strike days
How should we handle school lunches?
Can we be inspected by Ofsted during a strike?
What if staff are sick on strike days?
Can we rearrange school events and parents' evenings?
We've updated the current state of play section, with information about the DfE's consultation on minimum service levels.
7 September 2023
We've updated the current state of play with the latest on industrial action short of strike action.
11 August 2023
We've updated the following questions:
Question
Change
What's the current state of play?
Updated this section with information about unions accepting the government's pay deal and calling off strike action for the autumn term
What are the minimum staffing ratio requirements to stay open?
Changed the required ratio for 2-year-olds from 1:4 to 1:5 in line with updates to the EYFS statutory framework
Can we employ temporary staff to cover strikes?
Updated this section to state that you can't employ agency staff to cover strikes, following a law change and update to the DfE's strike guidance
Get email updates
Bookmark this article to get email notifications when we update this article
The Key has taken great care in publishing this article. However, some of the article's content and information may come from or link to third party sources whose quality, relevance, accuracy, completeness, currency and reliability we do not guarantee. Accordingly, we will not be held liable for any use of or reliance placed on this article's content or the links or downloads it provides. This article may contain information sourced from public sector bodies and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
