Warning over school head shortage

A shortage of school heads in England and Wales could become a crisis unless urgent action is taken, the National Association of Head Teachers says.

Head teacher posts advertised this year in some 32% of primary schools, 37% of special schools and 21% of secondary schools are unfilled, the NAHT says.

Temporary heads are doing the jobs until permanent replacements are found.

The government says it wants to "attract strong people into leadership positions" in schools.

NAHT General Secretary Mick Brookes described the current shortage as a "serious and chronic problem".

He said: "It's something that the NAHT has been drawing to the government's attention for the past three years and it doesn't appear to be getting any better.

"With less that three people on average being interviewed for any job and the re-advertising rates being very high across the country as well, it is serious.

"We don't want it to move into being a crisis situation."

Grooming candidates

The government said the union's figures are based on advertised jobs and the real vacancy rate is around 3%.

But it admitted the situation could get worse as greater numbers of heads retire soon.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said: "We have asked the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) to look at the issues around how we bring deputies on, how we identify people sooner, how we attract strong people into leadership positions."

He added that it was important to "make sure, through the qualification that they now have to have, that they will lead good teaching and learning and create the 21st Century vision of schools that we want".

The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, John Dunford, said the figures would not surprise anyone who had followed the demographic trends.

"We know that many heads are reaching retirement age between 2008 and 2011 and that a concerted effort is needed to ensure that there are enough high quality candidates to fill those places."

"NCSL's succession planning programme is helping to fill the gap by encouraging more senior leaders to aspire to headship.

"The government must play its part too and do more to address the fundamental issues of increased workload and pressure on senior school leaders."

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