Leadership for wellbeing: how a Scottish secondary school embeds whole-school health and wellbeing promotion

Purpose Leadership is considered essential for successful implementation of whole-school health and wellbeing (HWB). However, individual schools face unique contextual factors which can enable or constrain action, for example, schools serving pupils from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, this study explores how school leaders adapt HWB practices to suit their local context and identifies leadership practices perceived by staff to support whole-school HWB promotion, which may inform future research, policy and practice. Design/methodology/approach Twelve educators were purposively recruited from a Scottish secondary school serving primarily affluent pupils, but with a minority of lower socioeconomic pupils. Participants were invited to take part in qualitative, semi-structured interviews and data were thematically analysed to gain insight into school context and HWB practices. Findings School leaders emphasised three key actions: communication, sharing power and provision of resource, and these efforts enabled leadership to drive shifts in organisational ethos, foster collegial relationships and encourage participative decision-making. These efforts were perceived by staff to enable whole-school HWB promotion and suggest that leaders were able to synthesise different leadership styles and practices to embed HWB across the school. Originality/value There is limited research, in Scotland or internationally, exploring socioeconomic composition and how it may impact school leaders’ thinking and practices to support HWB in schools serving pupils from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. This study explores this unique context to gain insight into how leaders responsively adapt school HWB practices when there is more socioeconomic diversity.