Pastoral manager and pastoral support worker

Pastoral managers and pastoral support workers are non-teaching school staff who deal with pupils’ behaviour, attendance and wellbeing so that teachers can teach. A pastoral support worker usually handles day-to-day incidents and a caseload of pupils. A pastoral manager leads a team or a whole area such as behaviour or inclusion, often with safeguarding responsibility. Neither role needs QTS. Both are paid as support staff, usually on the NJC pay spine, and most posts are term-time only.

Two jobs under one heading

Titles vary a lot, so read the job description. As a rough guide:

A pastoral support worker (sometimes pastoral support officer or pastoral assistant) is attached to a year group or key stage. They pick up pupils removed from lessons, deal with incidents at break and lunch, phone parents, run detentions, check in with pupils on report and keep records. They are visible on corridors all day.

A pastoral manager carries more responsibility. They may line-manage pastoral support workers, lead behaviour systems or the internal exclusion room, coordinate support for vulnerable pupils, attend multi-agency meetings, and report to a senior leader. In some schools the pastoral manager is effectively a non-teaching head of year.

Behaviour work

Behaviour takes up much of the day: investigating incidents, taking statements from pupils, deciding sanctions within the school’s policy, and talking to parents. The best pastoral work happens before things escalate, through restorative conversations, report cards, mentoring and adjustments agreed with teachers and the SENCO.

The job can be confrontational. Pupils may be angry or upset, and parents sometimes disagree strongly with a sanction. Some schools train pastoral staff in de-escalation and, where needed, in physical intervention. Ask what training and backup you would have.

Wellbeing and safeguarding

Pupils often trust pastoral staff more than any other adult in school, so they hear about self-harm, family breakdown, neglect and exploitation. Under Keeping Children Safe in Education, every member of staff must pass concerns to the designated safeguarding lead, and many pastoral managers are trained as deputy DSLs. That means taking part in referrals to children’s social care, strategy meetings and child protection conferences. See our profile of the designated safeguarding lead.

Attendance is part of the job too. DfE guidance expects schools to spot and act on absence early, and pastoral teams work with the attendance officer and families on support plans.

Hearing difficult disclosures repeatedly takes a toll. Good schools provide supervision for staff in heavily safeguarding-focused roles, so ask whether yours does.

Working with teachers and other services

Pastoral staff sit between pupils, teachers and families, and much of the job is passing information to the right person at the right time. Teachers want to know why a pupil is struggling and what to do in the next lesson. Parents want to know what happened and what the school will do. The SENCO needs to hear when behaviour may be linked to an unmet need.

Outside the school, pastoral managers often deal with early help teams, children’s social care, school nurses, mental health services, youth justice workers and the police. Accurate, up-to-date notes matter, because they may be shared in multi-agency meetings or requested later. Anyone who likes a predictable day will struggle here. If you are good at keeping many threads going at once, it can suit you well.

Pay on the support staff spine

Maintained schools in England and Wales usually pay pastoral staff on the NJC pay spine through the council’s grades, and many academies follow it. The 2026/27 award was 3.3% from 1 April 2026 on spine points 3 to 43.

Role (typical)	Example spine points	Full-time salary 2026/27
Pastoral support worker	SCP 9 to SCP 17	£28,153 to £32,046
Pastoral manager	SCP 18 to SCP 27	£32,578 to £39,481

These ranges are only illustrative, since each employer grades posts through its own job evaluation. The spine values are calculated from the 2025 figures plus 3.3%. The full table is in our NJC pay spine guide.

Most posts are term-time only, so you are paid a percentage of the full-time salary. Using the NJC worked example, 39 weeks with a 36-day leave entitlement gives 86.778% of full-time pay before any adjustment for hours. Say a pastoral manager post is on SCP 22 (£34,811) and full-time, term-time only: that comes to about £30,208 a year. See term-time-only pay and the take-home pay calculator.

You join the Local Government Pension Scheme, with 2026/27 contributions of 6.5% on pay from £29,001 to £47,300.

Getting into pastoral work

People move into pastoral roles from teaching assistant, learning mentor and cover supervisor jobs, and from youth work, social care, the police and the armed forces. Schools look for calm authority with young people, good judgement on safeguarding, clear record keeping and the ability to talk to parents in difficult moments. A Level 3 qualification in a relevant field helps for manager roles but is not always required.

Interviews often include a safeguarding scenario, a role-play with a parent, and a student panel. You will need an enhanced DBS check with a children’s barred list check, which costs £41.00 in England and Wales from 5 October 2026. Vacancies are listed under school support jobs.