Local headteacher associations have joined forces to launch a national network to ensure that leaders have a stronger voice over policymaking.
The National Headteachers’ Associations Network (NHTAN) wants to “mobilise” leaders to lobby politicians on issues such as funding and the impact of rising parental complaints on those running schools.
Launched in January, NHTAN consists of 20 regional headteacher organisations, but it is looking to take in more. Its chair Jess Balado believes there is a heads association in most local authorities.
‘One consistent headteacher voice’
“There are headteachers organisations all over the country,” she said. “[But] we’re not yet working in a coherent manner so that, when there are big-agenda items that affect all schools, we can exercise one consistent voice.”
Balado and Kirsty Savage, the chair and co-ordinator of the Norfolk School Leaders’ Association, invited headteacher groups to join the national network at the start of the year.
NHTAN will hold termly meetings to share best practice from each region and air solutions to common challenges faced by headteachers. The first of these was held in January.
It aims to use “our powerful, apolitical voice to ensure that the government hears directly from headteachers collectively representing the interests of schools, staff and pupils”. It is now drawing up a survey for each association to share with heads.
Balado said this will examine the “pressure” of the school funding crisis, how it is affecting reserves and the reasons behind this. Heads will also be asked if they are carrying out restructures or making redundancies.
Lobbying MPs
The latest report by the Kreston network of accountancy firms warned that academy trusts could be on the verge of going bust. It found the proportion of trusts racking up in-year deficits had more than trebled since 2021, from 19 per cent to 58 per cent.
“What we’re doing is trying to get the voice of as many school leaders in the country to have more clarity over that so we can go to our local MPs and lobby around that as a collective,” Balado added.
Pam Langmead, of the Essex Primary Headteachers’ Association, which has joined the network, said a “really effective way of lobbying is for individual headteachers to hassle their own MPs”.
The group is also prioritising work around rising parental complaints.
Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) misconduct referrals leapt by more than 60 per cent to almost 1,700 in 2023-24.
Complaints data sent to DfE
This was “largely driven” by an increase in the number of complaints from members of the public, the TRA said.
The network will “gather best practice from across the country to ensure that school leaders are advised and supported when they manage complaints”.
It will “feedback to local authorities and the DfE the impact” on heads.
NHTAN vice-chair Dave Lee-Allan, of the Suffolk Association of Secondary School Headteachers, said: “The idea is that, by paying into my local headteacher association, I know it’s connected into a national group where intel is going to be of a greater depth, and influence reassures heads that we’ve got their back during a really difficult period.”
According to Langmead, another function will be to support regional groups to help leaders in a more organised way, as some new heads may not even know about their local association. To aid this, groups will share best practice through the network.
Headteacher association in ‘every LA’
One of the things the network has noticed is that associations are “structured and funded in a variety of ways”, with some led by headteacher volunteers and others employing professional officers to manage them.
Some are funded by local authorities, others receive subscription fees from members and “a few” get their cash through a top slice of budgets, determined by schools forums.
“It’s not about making every headteachers’ association an identikit. Each one is run really differently, funded really differently, able to offer more or less,” Langmead said.
“We’re pretty sure there probably is a headteacher association in every local authority area, but there is no directory… and that is part of the reason [for the group].”
To add your association to the network, email Balado at head@thurlton.org.
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