Labouring to Love Headship

Almost half of experienced headteachers feel ‘stuck’ or plan to leave their role because of overwhelming challenges and a lack of effective preparation, induction, training and support.

This July 2024 report is a summary of the findings from a survey of 236 serving and former headteachers who, between them have almost 2,000 years of headship experience. The survey questions drew from 26 reports into headteacher retention published since 2017.

The report provides a damning and worrying insight into headteacher wellbeing. It identifies that a failure to provide effective preparation, induction, training and support (alongside significantly increased demands on them from all quarters) needs to be urgently addressed.

Perhaps the starkest headline from SSAT’s Labouring to Love Headship report is that 47% of headteachers in their sixth to tenth year in role do not want to stay in post beyond the next three years. One contributor to the survey captured the mood of many in stating that:

“I thought I had the skills and experience needed to do the job, but it is a job that is impossible to do in its current form. I have decided to leave while I am whole and still not broken.”

This sense of a skills gap for serving headteachers is supported by the report’s insight that 34% of respondents felt that their preparation for the role was limited. Many reported having to “sink or swim” whilst “learning on the job”, in part because of the limitations of the NPQH.

Things appear to get worse for headteachers once they are in post, with 40% of our respondents reporting that they had very little or no formalised support for meeting the challenges of the role. In the face of post-pandemic challenges faced by school communities, this means that:

“Support for heads is truly inadequate in my experience. It is a very vulnerable position.”

Respondents to SSAT’s survey identified the accountability systems as being the most common pressure they faced as heads (51%), followed by incessant and unreasonable expectations from others (48%) and finances and resourcing challenges (42%). One quarter said the fragmented system of school governance contributed to or amplified these challenges.

Our education system cannot cope with a mass exodus of the lead professionals within our nation’s schools. Labouring to Love Headship makes eight recommendations to improve the training, support, wellbeing and, ultimately, retention of headteachers. The recommendations are aimed at policymakers, responsible bodies, professional bodies and training providers.

Sue Williamson, CEO of SSAT, described reading the report as “an emotional and disturbing experience”. She also recognised that the report’s recommendations offer hopeful messages for a future with the promise of “better preparation, better training, better support, and a willingness by political parties to listen to headteachers”.

The survey and report is part of our work on Rethinking Headship. Find out more.