Panel of experts to provide extra support for headteachers

A team of experts will help make sure headteachers have the guidance and advice they need to support the recruitment of the next generation of school leaders.

The advisory group, which will be led by Malcolm Trobe, an education specialist and former General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, will lead a review into updating the Headteacher Standards, which underpin best practice for heads and school leaders in recruitment, appraisal and training.

The group will aim to ensure the standards are of more practical use for heads and school leaders, encouraging them to be adopted more widely in the sector. This will include addressing how they relate to the variety of leadership roles in the school system.

Minister for School Standards Nick Gibb said:

Strong head teachers are key to driving up academic standards in our schools, helping teachers thrive and ensuring pupils realise their potential. That’s why it is important that we support school leadership across the entire school system.

The advisory group that meets today is made up of a wide range of talented and knowledgeable experts who have unrivalled experience in the world of school leadership. The group will play an essential role in helping us to ensure the support heads and school leaders receive is consistent, and of the highest quality.

The latest version of the Headteacher Standards was published in January 2015 and included a commitment to review the standards after five years.

The review will seek to establish that the standards continue to effectively serve the education sector in England. This will include ensuring they reflect how the sector has evolved since the last review, alongside how the standards can be best embedded in the sector.

Malcolm Trobe, Director of the National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership Programme, ASCL said:

I am very pleased to have been asked to chair the review group on Headteacher Standards. There have been several changes in the educational landscape since the standards for headteachers were last reviewed in 2015 and it is essential that these changes are taken into account as part of this review.

Both the profession and society rightly have high expectations of those that lead our schools and it is important that the standards accurately reflect those expectations. I very much look forward to receiving and reviewing the evidence that is presented to the group as we consider how we can best represent the standards expected of our school leaders.

Leora Cruddas, Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts said:

I am delighted to be working with Malcom Trobe to lead this important work. Standards articulate the profession’s self-understanding and the expectations of the state, the public and parents.

School leaders are holders of public office and the standards are one of the ways in which we hold ourselves to account and are accountable.

The group will report to Ministers with recommendations for the updated standards by November 2019, with the standards to be revised for the beginning of the academic year 2020/21.

The advisory group is made up of union representatives, education experts and current headteachers, with the full list of members below:

• Malcolm Trobe (Chair) – Director of the National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership, ASCL; Interim Executive Director, Foundation for Leadership in Education.
• Leora Cruddas (Vice Chair) – CEO, Confederation of School Trusts.
• Mufti Hamid Patel, CBE – CEO, Star Academies.
• Lesley Powell, CBE – Executive Headteacher, Academy at Shotton Hall; CEO, North East Learning Trust.
• Carolyn Roberts – Headteacher, Thomas Tallis School, Greenwich.
• Sarah Wilson – Headteacher, Joseph Norton Academy, Huddersfield.
• Lauren Costello, OBE – National Director for Primary and SEND, Academies Enterprise Trust.
• Geoff Barton – General Secretary, ASCL.
• Paul Whiteman – General Secretary, NAHT.
• Tom Rees – Executive Director of School Leadership, Ambition Institute; Education Director of Northampton Primary Academy Trust.
• Emma Knights, OBE – CEO, National Governance Association.
• Stuart Lock – Executive Principal of Advantage Schools