One in four school leaders are planning to leave

New research has found that one in four (28 per cent) school leaders and headteachers across England are planning to leave their roles, with 23 per cent attributing this to stress and poor mental health.

20 per cent of education leaders assign burnout and resignation to the struggle of recruitment and retention, closely followed by frustrations with government polices (18 per cent) and intense pressure from accountability measures including Ofsted inspections and exam results (17 per cent). These conclusions suggest that school leaders are pushed to leave by factors out of their control.

Commercial Services Group commissioned a survey of 500 school leaders and headteachers, and said that this comes at a time when school leaders are under pressure to make difficult decisions to balance increasingly limited budgets.

24 per cent of schools intend to cut back on essential teaching material such as classroom equipment, with less than one in ten schools reporting making no financial cutbacks at all.

Matt Johnson, CEO of Commercial Services Group, said: "These findings deliver a clear and urgent message, that school and trust leaders need greater support. They are working diligently in increasingly difficult conditions, often forced to make impossible decisions. This is not a failure of leadership, it's a universal issue that calls for a collective, sector-wide response. We're committed to standing alongside education leaders to help create sustainable, practical solutions that support both staff and students."