Agenda item

(Report by Mr M Whiting, Cabinet Member, Education, Learning and Skills and Mr P Leeson, Corporate Director, Education, Learning and Skills)

 (Mrs S Rogers, Director, Education Quality and Standards, was present for this Item)

1.               The Director of Education Quality and Standards, Mrs Rogers,introduced the report.  The following points were made:

·       A Recruitment and Retention Group (RRG) was set up following discussions with the Members Monitoring Group which had developed strategies for supporting and recruiting Headteachers as well as retaining them.

·       Work had been undertaken to attract teachers and Headteachers into Kent.

·       Mrs Rogers clarified the opening words in paragraph 1.2 of the report explaining that there were not 55 Kent schools without Headteachers.  She stated that no Kent school was without an Acting Headteacher, Executive Headteacher or Head of School or a combination of all 3 who were covering the Headteacher position while the appointments of the new Headteachers were being made.  Ms Rogers advised that the Headteacher appointments were ongoing and appointments had been made and the number of schools with a Headteacher vacancy was now 19.

2.               Mr Whiting considered that the report was misleading due to the terminology that was used to describe the Headteacher vacancies in Kent Schools which had lead to misleading press coverage.  He assured the Cabinet Committee that every school in Kent, whether it was Maintained, Church, academies or Free school, had appropriate leadership in place.  He stated that there was a good Core Development Programme in Kent identifying potential and new leaders.  There was a good campaign on recruitment, 50 places sat on Kent’s Aspiring Leaders Team working with Medway and the National College to train new leaders and Headteachers of the future.  The Primary Deputy Heads Conference identified a further cohort of aspiring leaders and 55 deputies registered for that programme.  He considered that Kent was in a far better place than the report suggested.  Mr Whiting suggested that a revised report be resubmitted to the January meeting of this Cabinet Committee.

3.               Mr Leeson advised that the key indicators were vacancy rates in Kent.  The Headteacher turnover rate in Kent needed to be explained and the numbers of schools that had gone through to second and third adverts in order to recruit a Headteacher were the issues that should indicate concerns.

4.               Members were given the opportunity to make comments and ask questions:-

a)    A Member suggested that information, such as good collaborative ventures between schools could be mentioned in the literature when trying to attract Headteachers to Kent.

b)    In reply to a question, Mr Leeson explained that the difficulty of recruiting Headteachers was a national issue.  It was a national issue that more than half of the existing Headteachers would be retiring in the next 2-3 years.  Kent needed to be able to carry out its succession planning for the next cohort of senior leaders to be prepared well enough to take on Headships.  There was a general concern that it was becoming harder to recruit Headteachers.  He explained that many Deputy Headteachers viewed how hard and pressured the Headteacher’s role was and did not want to pursue that role although, at the same time, there were many who were keen for the role.

c)     In reply to a comment, Mr Leeson advised that he had regular meetings with all of the professional associations and Trade Unions in Kent to discuss current issues and plans.

d)    A Member commented that the role of Headteacher had been rundown over many years, even by Headteachers themselves and suggested that the Advance Skills Teachers should be considered for the Headteacher role.

e)    The Chairman asked for a report back to explore whether Kent was missing out on recruiting good teachers because of its close proximity to London where teachers would receive London weighting.

5.               RESOLVED that:-

a)    the responses to comments and questions by Members be noted; and

b)    a revised report be resubmitted to the next meeting in January 2013.