What puts people off applying for headteacher posts?

During the pandemic, when we conducted research into school leaders’ work, wellbeing and career intentions, nearly half of the assistant and deputy heads said they would rather stay where they were rather than apply for the top job.

Given this was occurring at a time when leadership vacancies were skyrocketing, it was an alarming finding. After all, education relies on people stepping up to lead - whether in schools or multi-academy trusts (MATs) - to move their settings forward.

For those seeking new leaders, it is also imperative to find the right people - but it can be time-consuming work, and with little room for error.

We wanted to find possible solutions so we ran 10 roundtable discussions in late 2022, asking what might be done to enhance recruitment, training and retention for headteachers.

The roundtables were held regionally or online, with each one attended by a specific group of leaders: serving headteachers, black, Asian or minority ethnic school leaders, senior leaders from MATs, HR specialists, leadership development providers and policymakers.

From this, a series of clear ideas and recommendations for enhancing the recruitment of new senior leaders were gathered, which we summarise here:

1. Review recruitment processes

Some assistant and deputy heads told us they were put off by “high stakes” recruitment processes.

Interviews that run over two days, with unsuccessful candidates sent home on day one, could lead to people losing confidence and the motivation to reapply. In short, the recruitment process needed to be “less exposing, less exhausting”.

A few were satisfied that current practices were effective, although this depended on having effective external moderation by professional human relations experts.

We heard that some schools had reduced the time spent in interviews, and this had not detracted from successful appointments.

Another approach to make the process more streamlined for individuals and schools was the use of “sifting interviews” - one-hour video interviews conducted with potential candidates before any physical interview is held.

This means applicants don’t need to declare to their school that they are applying before they have had a chance to talk to a potential new employer in the sifting interview, allowing them to “save face” and not “burn bridges”. 

It also means schools should end up with a small but well-focused final few candidates for in-person interviews, helping them have the best chance of finding the right person.

2. Ensure interview panellists are trained regularly 

Several roundtables expressed concern about the expertise and impartiality of non-educator panellists.

We were told some governors were often not well informed about the range of local needs, or about the range of educational issues that leaders must engage with.

Training must, therefore, go further than simply attending to how the interview process works but must address wider questions of policy and practice.

There were also concerns about panel members in some centralised MATs who operate very remotely from their schools and do not know the local context. Trusts must recognise the need for interview members to be very familiar with the school they are involved in selection for.

3. Establish a local succession plan

The roundtables also discussed “growing your own” leaders, where some local schools and MATs have established their own succession planning processes.

These included establishing “talent pools”, ensuring that training opportunities were taken up by potential applicants, and ensuring that there was a merit-based process for short-term leadership opportunities.

However, people were concerned about the potential for local and internal succession planning processes to lead to inward-looking practices, depriving the school or MAT of new ideas and reducing the opportunity for outside hires.

While one group thought that the way to address this was to ensure teachers were recruited from a larger-than-local pool, others saw that the processes of local enculturation might not be strong enough to avoid an inward-looking leadership.

Conversely, large MATs, in particular, appeared to have the opportunity to either poach leaders from other schools or to appoint largely from within, potentially giving them an unfair advantage in the race for talent.

4. Monitor and track EDI statistics

We asked how well the recruitment processes worked for women and BAME potential applicants.

Roundtable participants reported that merit was not always the major criteria for appointment but that preconceived ideas about experience, talent and “fit” were often markers of unconscious bias.

They told us support for women and BAME applicants was patchy across the system and often depended on the commitment - or lack of commitment - of existing senior leaders.

We were told winning school leadership positions was harder for BAME teachers. They often had to apply more times than their peers and this was in part due to not “looking like a leader”.

We were warned succession planning processes could potentially work against BAME staff and women - rather than work on the notion of “talent”, it might be more equitable to assume that everyone is capable of leadership and to set up succession planning schemes on that basis.

We also heard women applicants were sometimes discriminated against. We were told gender and racial discrimination extended to different salaries being awarded to successful candidates.

In addition to these local actions, the roundtables highlighted that recruitment should not simply be left to local schools and trusts - there is also a need for national support. A first priority should be to ensure there is better data about leadership across the system.

5. More top-level data

The final point was that the Department for Education should publish an annual report of headteacher resignations and retirements, vacancies, and filled and unfilled posts.

National data was seen as essential for workforce planning at both central and local levels. This work is largely undertaken voluntarily by leader unions, academics and organisations, such as TeacherTapp.

As such, a DfE annual report should aggregate national and local data and should report on equality, diversity and inclusion statistics for succession planning schemes, applications and success rates.

Of course, simply publishing data on its own is unlikely to achieve significant change, but if Teaching School Hubs were given the responsibility to work with local partners to use this information to identify local priorities for enhancing headteacher recruitment, this could address a significant gap in the existing system architecture.  

The full recommendations and a booklet of existing promising practices in these areas, together with previous Leading in Lockdown research reports, can be found on the project website: https://schoolleadersworkandwellbeing.com/

Toby Greany is professor of education in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham and was previously director of research and policy at the National College for School Leadership.

Pat Thomson is professor of education in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham and was formerly a headteacher and senior civil servant in South Australia. 

Eleanor Bernardes is a former school and trust leader who has undertaken research for a range of organisations, including LKMCo/CfEY. She is currently undertaking a PhD in educational leadership at the University of Nottingham