School Leadership

School leadership: where can Edapt support?

School leadership is a rewarding career. 

Leading and motivating staff, inspiring learners and having a wide impact on pupil attainment and educational outcomes. 

School leadership can also have its challenges, like any occupation, from receiving malicious complaints from parents, difficult conversations with governors to receiving false allegations and grievances raised against you.

At Edapt, we support thousands of school leaders from MAT CEOs, headteachers and deputy headteachers in schools in England and Wales. 

Our subscribers work in a range of settings from large multi-academy trusts, independent schools to small rural maintained schools.

We understand the challenges that school leaders face and we have been there to support them when they have needed us the most. 

With extended opening hours and our team of caseworkers available over the phone and in-person, when requested, we have been able to secure beneficial outcomes for our school leaders in difficult circumstances.

School leadership: what are the risks?

From our own casework analysis over the last 10 years we can see that school leadership positions are more inherent in ‘risk’ compared to other roles in schools.

Due to the nature of school leadership roles there is a higher chance of allegations and grievances being raised. These can come from both sides, staff you are managing as well as from MAT CEOs. governors and trustees.

Many school leaders are also understandably concerned with the reputational risk with their careers when receiving serious allegations and making the transition to other schools. Difficulties can occur such as withdrawal of job offers, negative references to settlement agreements being breached.

School leaders, like any role in school, can also adversely be affected by work-related stress, anxiety and burnout with high workloads. At Edapt, we are able to provide a personalised and approachable service where we will always be on your side. 

School leadership: what do our subscribers say?

Here is a selection of just some of the feedback we have received from our school leaders:

“My experience with Edapt has been superb. I have been in a nightmare and unexpected situation where my integrity and honesty have been questioned by my employer. For many months, my caseworker has meticulously scrutinised any paperwork (of which there has been a huge amount) and gone through it with a fine tooth comb or spent time on virtual meetings or the phone with me, resulting in advice and expertise that I would have found impossible to get my head round. What the advice did was give me the confidence to challenge my accusers and build a case that gradually proved my argument. Not only that, the initial shock and severity of the allegations caused my governors to doubt me, however, thanks to the support from my case worker and the consequent reports that I was able to produce based on that precise advice, they became my staunchest allies and then developed a whole team of supporters leading to a successful conclusion and an end to the whole affair. I am truly indebted to my case worker and Edapt. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!”

“The support was first class, I couldn’t honestly recommend Edapt highly enough. No one wants to be in a position where they need this sort of support but if you are, as many teachers are throughout their career, then Edapt are most certainly the people to rely upon.”

“The quality of support I received whilst with Edapt has been outstanding. Whenever I have felt the need to contact Edapt, I have received a reply within just a few hours. The advice given by Edapt has always been relevant and reliable. Unlike other teaching unions, I felt that Edapt were there to support their members, rather than advance a political agenda.”

Subscribe to Edapt today to receive high-quality employment support for your role in school.