Sustainable School Leadership: Final Report

This report presents findings from the Sustainable School Leadership project, a three-year mixed methods study which explored the training, supply, retention, and wider sustainability of senior school leadership across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The ESRC-funded research addressed two questions: 1. How does each nation recruit, train, and retain school leaders, particularly headteachers? 2. How well do these approaches account for individual, local, and systemic needs, including the sustainability of leadership supply, diversity, equity, quality and fitness for the future? The study examined these questions through two interconnected lenses: i) The sustainability of leadership (i.e. supply and succession planning) ii) Leadership for sustainability (i.e. meeting present needs without compromising future needs). The study included five main strands: 1) Evidence review - reviewed 159 articles, 67 for England, 32 for Northern Ireland, 51 for Scotland, and 9 for UK overall2) Expert interviews - interviewed 17 international and UK experts 3) Secondary data - analysis of workforce census data in England and Scotland and public statistics in Northern Ireland 4) Locality case studies - 132 interviewees across 7 localities (3 in England, 2 each in Northern Ireland and Scotland) 5) Survey – 1623 respondents from across the UK. The report outlines an original conceptual framework for sustainable leadership, comprising four overlapping 'petals': leadership, identity, place and an ethic of education and care.The report sets out six UK-wide themes: 1. The nature of school leadership is widely seen to have changed in recent years – COVID as a hinge point 2. Schools and leaders are often working beyond their ‘education’ remit – limited time for instructional leadership - an ethic of education and care 3. It’s not a pipeline crisis (yet) – it’s a sustainability crisis4. Diversity – a problem that no-one really owns 5. Preparing for headship – the importance of developmental experience 6. One-size-fits-all policy does not fit all – place & the need for local solutions.