GEC Response to the Keep Britain Working Review
By Dr Nicole Ponsford, Founding CEO of the Global Equality Collective
A Workforce-First Education System: Why Flexible Working, Inclusive Leadership and Data for Inclusion Are Now Essential
The Keep Britain Working Review delivers a stark warning: rising ill-health, mental health pressures and long-term conditions are pushing people out of work at an unsustainable rate. Crucially for education, the Review notes that “frontline public services — including education — face the highest exposure to work-related stress, limited flexibility and the greatest risk of workforce burnout.”
It estimates that without decisive intervention, 600,000 additional people could leave the workforce by 2030, with younger workers most affected by mental health challenges and older workers by chronic conditions.
While the Review rightly focuses on physical disability, mental health and socio-economic status, the GEC’s evidence — aligned with the Education Endowment Foundation’s findings that workload, leadership support and working conditions shape recruitment and retention — shows that a far wider range of lived experiences are already being affected in schools.
As part of the largest inclusion dataset of its kind in UK education, the GEC has surveyed over 12,000 staff. This gives us a clear picture: the same factors driving national economic inactivity are already deeply embedded in the education workforce.
inflexible work
inconsistent leadership behaviours
poor psychological safety
uneven access to support and adjustments
cultures where belonging and trust vary dramatically across identity groups
And the GEC’s latest Inclusion Index (Autumn 2025) confirms this with precision. Staff are signalling early warning signs — long before sickness or resignation data shows it.
Dr Nicole Ponsford, Founding CEO, GEC
“The education workforce is at breaking point — but it doesn’t have to be this way. We now have the data, the insight and the tools to design schools where staff can thrive. The Keep Britain Working Review sets the agenda. Data for inclusion shows us exactly where to act. The time for incremental tweaks is over; we need system-level change that starts with the people doing the work.”
What Must Change in Education: A GEC Analysis Aligned to the Review
The Review sets out four national priorities for building a healthier, more sustainable workforce: Prevention, Early Intervention, Retention & Job Design, and Employer Responsibility.
Using data for inclusion the GEC reveals how these priorities must be applied in education.
1. Prevention: Stop Healthy Workers Becoming Unwell
Review requirement - Prevent avoidable decline through better job design, culture and working conditions.
GEC evidence
Only 41% say leaders model inclusive behaviour.
Trust scores for Global Majority and LGBTQ+ staff are up to 20 points lower than White peers.
Just 38% say flexible working is available in practice.
Only 27% feel a strong sense of belonging.
What must change in education
Make inclusion, leadership behaviours and workload governance part of school improvement planning.
Treat leadership culture as a determinant of staff health.
Use data for inclusion to reveal the early cultural and workload strains invisible in HR metrics.
2. Early Intervention: Act Before Problems Escalate
Review requirement - Provide early support, rapid adjustments and safe routes to disclose needs.
GEC evidence
Fewer than 1 in 3 staff feel psychologically safe to raise concerns.
Disclosure is lowest among disabled, neurodivergent and Global Majority staff — those who most need adjustments.
Staff often reach crisis before support becomes available.
What must change in education
Build psychologically safe environments where staff can speak without fear.
Ensure adjustments are consistent, rapid and stigma-free.
Train leaders to identify early warning signs using data for inclusion, not just gut instinct.
Early intervention cannot happen without psychological safety — and GEC data shows this foundation is currently fragile.
3. Retention & Job Design: Keeping Educators in Work Safely
Review requirement - Design roles that allow people to stay well and stay in work — rather than relying on return-to-work programmes after decline.
GEC evidence
Staff identify flexible working as the No.1 support for wellbeing and retention.
Progression pathways feel inequitable for Global Majority and disabled staff.
FE settings show the lowest trust and most fragile retention signals.
What must change in education
Move from “allowing” flexible working to designing flexibility into timetables and structures.
Make progression transparent, data-led and equitable.
Provide proactive support for long-term conditions, not crisis-response.
🔎 Sidebar: EEF evidence
The EEF’s recruitment and retention review finds that senior leadership support, workload, role clarity and flexibility are central to keeping staff. GEC’s data for inclusion shows how these structural factors intersect with identity, belonging and trust — revealing the deeper cultural drivers behind attrition.
“Recruitment is not the crisis. Retention and conditions are.” - Dr Nicole Ponsford, Founding CEO, GEC.
4. Employer Responsibility: Health as a Shared Duty
Review requirement - Employers must work with staff and services to provide early, tailored and preventative support.
GEC evidence
Data for inclusion reveals invisible harms: microaggressions, inconsistent leadership behaviours, discriminatory cultures and belonging gaps.
Support is uneven across settings, phases and identity groups.
Staff wellbeing declines fastest where leadership trust is low.
What must change in education
Leaders must treat inclusion, staff health and culture as strategic duties.
Schools need systems that surface lived experiences early (like KD).
Support must be tailored, not generic or one-size-fits-all.
GEC Position: Data for Inclusion Is the Infrastructure for Change
The Keep Britain Working Review sets the national direction. Data for inclusion provides the mechanism to act — and Kaleidoscopic Data gives education the detail, nuance and humanity needed to intervene early.
Through surveying over 12,000 staff, the GEC provides the deepest insight available into:
how inclusion, workload and wellbeing intersect
how leadership behaviours shape staff health
how identity and experience affect trust, belonging and safety
where flexible working would have the greatest impact
which groups are at highest risk of leaving
This is the evidence the sector needs to redesign working conditions around real people, not assumptions.