The most recent Department for Education school workforce data shows that school leaders are leaving the profession in record numbers, with a whopping 2,341 leaving in the 2021-22 academic year. Of these, 1,694 left for reasons other than retirement - a third more than in 2020-21.  

This alarming figure bears out the predictions made by leader unions and researchers, including ourselves with our two national surveys conducted during lockdown indicating that 30-40 per cent of headteachers were thinking of leaving early.

However, interviews with 100 heads, deputies and assistant heads showed that people’s minds were rarely fixed - leaders frequently changed their minds about whether to go or stay, depending on national and local events.

Stemming the flow

Given this finding, we suggest that it is still possible for the continuing exodus of experienced leaders to be reduced, if not entirely averted.

The 10 expert roundtables that we organised with heads and other experts to discuss the impending crisis had no shortage of ideas about what might be done.

The roundtables confirmed that many leaders are simply exhausted. Morale is poor and the recent funding decisions, reinstatement of a largely unchanged inspection regime, and pressures around special educational needs and disabilities and inclusion have all added to the pressure on leaders.

Many central initiatives, such as tutoring funding, are seen to encroach on leaders’ capacity to respond to local circumstances while, although local governing bodies and trusts do have a responsibility for school leaders’ wellbeing, it seems this is not always practised.

We heard examples of schools that support flexible working arrangements, including co-headship, but this remains rare.

Offering the right support

One leader explained that they wanted “structural support that makes me feel I’m not alone”. Four types of ongoing support were suggested:

1. Coaching: Structured and individual support from a trained coach.
    
2. Mentoring: Support from a peer, either a currently serving or retired school leader, able to offer professional educational advice and guidance.
    
3. Supervision (professional): A critical friend able to offer advice and support related to educational improvement.
    
4. Supervision (therapeutic): Trained support for staff dealing with highly vulnerable populations and difficult safeguarding issues.

With regard to that last point, it was also noted that while existing counselling and support services for serving leaders were welcome, they were patchy across the nation and generally insufficient.

As such, building on the existing DfE-funded telephone support for heads provided by Education Support, there is a need to assess how wider forms of coaching, mentoring and supervision could be enhanced and extended.     

Almost all of the roundtables discussed networks and their capacity to provide practical and emotional support for individuals as well as to advance cooperative activity. Many leaders belong to more than one network, but what they value most is a group of peers who they know and trust well enough to be able to ask for help and support.

Some roundtables were also keen to investigate the possibility of sabbaticals - the Canadian salary sacrifice model, for example, and Australian long service leave provision.

Creating networks

However, several attendees - in particular those working in standalone schools - explained that networks have become more problematic in recent years, for example as a result of schools joining different multi-academy trusts and/or the loss of in-person meetings since Covid-19.

The roundtables identified what could be done locally to address some of these issues. We provide some existing examples in the booklet of promising practices published on the project website (below):   

1. Governing bodies and trust boards should designate a trustee or governor responsible for staff and leaders’ wellbeing and should monitor this area.
    
2. Governing bodies and trust boards should investigate the provision of coaching, mentoring and supervision as an entitlement, understanding that a leader’s needs may change over time and depending on circumstances.
    
3. Governing bodies and trust boards should be more ambitious in how they support flexible working, including the possibility of sabbaticals.
    
4. Senior leaders should be encouraged and supported to form and join a range of purposeful networks, including providing peer support for wellbeing. 

However, the major sources of concern were beyond the school. In addition to examining the ways in which the system is regulated via punitive inspections, the roundtables recommended:

1. The DfE should establish a school and school leader impact assessment for all major initiatives, with opportunities for scrutiny by school leadership associations and employers.
    
2. Building on the existing pilot offering telephone support for heads, the DfE should fund an additional pilot scheme to develop an entitlement for coaching, mentoring and supervision.
    
3. The DfE should establish an annual school leader satisfaction survey that seeks feedback on key initiatives, resourcing and the quality of guidance for schools.
    
4. The DfE should monitor and publish annual school leader recruitment and retention data, including for under-represented groups.

This is the third in a series of articles: the first two made recommendations on headteacher recruitment and training. 

The full recommendations from the School Leaders’ Work and Well Being project, and a booklet showing existing promising practices in these areas, together with previous Leading in Lockdown research reports, can be found on the project website.

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 (now The Centre for Education and Youth). She is currently undertaking a PhD in educational leadership at the University of Nottingham