School leaders have felt let down, isolated and bullied while coping with the demands of the Covid crisis, a counselling service for heads has warned.

Headrest’s first annual report, seen by Tes, states that school leaders have been “treated abysmally” during the pandemic and that some are “anxious, burnt out and, at times, overwhelmed”.

Headrest has offered support to headteachers, executive headteachers and multi-academy trust chief executives for the last 14 months. Calls are responded to by four experienced former headteachers.

Heads: Call for Ofsted inspections to be halted during pandemic

Warning: Increasing number of heads seeking support

Covid: Union says DfE failed heads on wellbeing

The group’s report highlights the return of graded Ofsted inspections this academic year and the government’s Covid guidance and expectations as major sources of the pressure facing heads.

It also warns that callers to the service have experienced bullying - from people with authority in academy trusts or local councils - but also “upward bullying”, where “individual staff, or sub-groups of staff, are maliciously undermining them”.

The report charts why heads have been using the service for support since it started work in October 2020, attracting around 200 calls.

It says that from October 2020 to April of the following year - during which schools went in and out of a second and third national lockdown - concerns largely revolved around the stresses of managing the pandemic within schools.

Ofsted inspectors ‘lack empathy’

But it says that for the second half of 2021, a major new source of stress and anxiety emerged with the return of graded Ofsted inspections.

The report’s authors say: “There is a moment when a viewpoint must be proffered that is robust, even controversial. Therefore, we will be direct - some school leaders have been let down.”

It adds that, in the early stages of the pandemic, those leading schools were “desperately worried” about how they could manage to address all aspects of their role.

It says that, at the time, the message from national policymakers and local decision-makers was “that the here and now was the priority - that the strategic tasks that could not be completed should be set aside to prioritise meeting urgent pupil needs arising from a once-in-a-century global pandemic”.

However, it says some heads now feel like they are being criticised for this through the return of Ofsted.

The report says: “We have no doubt some inspection teams have acted with empathy, sensitivity and professionalism.

“However, in some instances, Ofsted teams have criticised school leaders, and their staff teams, for having neglected strategic leadership. It was as if for some inspectors Covid had never happened, was an insignificant event, or was over.”

The report claims that some callers cited cases of inspectors “lacking empathy, being overly oppressive, and showing scant regard for the wellbeing of staff, school leaders and, in some instances, students”.

Heads have also feared being judged by bodies other than Ofsted for failing to deliver on strategic tasks during the pandemic, Headrest says.

The report adds: “There is a concern that some of those external to the school do not comprehend just how pressured things have been. Some of our callers have cited such behaviour from trusts, local authorities, governing bodies and the inspectorate”.

Disempowered by ‘external diktats’

The report also highlights other key areas of pressure and stress for school leaders during the pandemic. These include heads feeling a sense of disempowerment owing to external diktats “from a range of sources”.

It finds that heads felt insufficiently supported, leading to a sense of isolation, self-doubt or feeling overwhelmed.

This is a concern, the report warns, “not only for those relatively new to headship but also experienced school leaders”.

The report adds: “Being a school leader through Covid has been physically and emotionally draining. An area of challenge is that school leaders have had to exhibit an external sense of calmness and control.

“However, internally they were often just as anxious, uncertain, frustrated and uneasy as their colleagues. They also have had to contend with short-term changes to their own priorities due to staff absence; the requirement for them, or SLT colleagues, to cover an absence; or the need for them to retain a high visibility around the school to support the wellbeing of students and staff.”

It highlights how leaders of small schools had fewer, or no, senior leaders to delegate to or share tasks with, leading to them “feeling particularly isolated”.

In October last year, the Headrest group wrote to education secretary Nadhim Zahawi warning that graded Ofsted inspections during the Covid pandemic were “toxic” to the wellbeing of headteachers and should be stopped.

The DfE and Ofsted have been contacted for comment.