Moving and sharing staff between schools in a MAT

Last reviewed on 30 November 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 44211

Get to grips with how to manage staff movement - whether it's sharing staff to plug recruitment gaps or creating flexible, cost-effective roles based across your schools.

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Contents

  1. Check your contracts
  2. Seek the staff member’s agreement
  3. Varying or changing a contract
  4. Creating roles across your schools
  5. Benefits and challenges of staff movement
  6. Advertise for senior appointments

The advice below comes from the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and Jacqueline Baker, one of our associate education experts, who specialises in senior leadership recruitment.

Check your contracts

If you're considering moving a staff member between schools in your multi-academy trust (MAT), look at the staff member’s contract to see whether they can be instructed or asked to move to another school as required.

This is usually in a mobility clause. Mobility clauses are also likely to say that requests to move will be 'reasonable'. There's no fixed definition of 'reasonable', so seek HR advice if in doubt.

Example wording for a mobility clause

Place of work You will be based at [insert school name and address and site (if relevant)]. You will not (normally) be required to work outside the United Kingdom. From time to time, at the request of the

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