Permanent Leadership Recruitment and Executive Search

Appointing a permanent leader is the most consequential decision a proprietor body or board makes. Everything else follows from it: how safe children feel, how settled the staff team is, what commissioners think of you, and whether the improvement work of the last three years holds or quietly unravels. It is understandable that boards feel the weight of that, and that some put the decision off longer than they meant to.

It is also the decision most often made under pressure. A head resigns in October, the governors would like somebody in post by January, and a campaign that should take two terms gets compressed into six weeks. Many leaders tell us they knew at the time it was too quick. From our experience, the appointments that go wrong are rarely the ones where the board could not find anybody. They are the ones where the board found somebody in time.

This page sets out how permanent leadership recruitment works in independent special schools, alternative provision and residential settings, what we do at each stage, and how it fits alongside an interim appointment. If you would rather talk it through than read it, get in touch and we will give you an honest view of what your timescale allows.

What is executive search in education?

Executive search means going out and finding candidates rather than waiting for them to arrive. A recruitment advert reaches the people who are actively looking for a new post. Executive search reaches the people who are not, which in senior specialist leadership is most of the strong field.

In practice it is two things running together. An advertised campaign, so the role is visible and the process is open. And a confidential approach to leaders we know, or leaders our network points us towards, who are doing the job well somewhere else and had not thought about moving. The second is where the difference usually shows.

What is the difference between executive search and posting an advert?

• An advert is passive. It reaches candidates who are already looking, which in a small specialist market can be a handful of people, and it tells you nothing about the ones who did not see it.
• Executive search is active. We approach named individuals directly and confidentially, which means a leader who is settled and successful can have a conversation without it becoming public.
• Assessment differs too. An advert produces applications. A search produces candidates who have already been talked to properly, so the board is not reading fifteen forms to find two people worth meeting.
• Both together is usually right. The advert keeps the process open and defensible. The search makes sure the field is worth choosing from.

Which permanent roles do you recruit?

Within specialist settings we recruit across the senior structure, not only at the top:

• Headteachers and principals of independent special schools, alternative provision and pupil referral units
• Executive headteachers, principals and directors of education for groups running more than one setting
• Deputy and assistant headteachers, including improvement facing and curriculum facing posts
• Heads of care and registered managers for residential special schools and children’s homes
• Designated safeguarding leads and safeguarding managers
• SENCOs and SEND leads, including where the post carries EHCP and annual review oversight
• Proprietor body, trustee and chair appointments, where a board needs strengthening rather than covering

Our focus is independent special schools, alternative provision and residential care, because that is where our experience is deepest and where our network is strongest. For permanent appointments in mainstream schools, academies and multi academy trusts, our wider executive search service covers schools and trusts of every type and phase.

When is a permanent appointment the right answer?

Every school’s circumstances are different, but the picture is usually clear enough once two questions are separated: how much time do we genuinely have, and how settled is the setting right now. Permanent recruitment is normally the right first move where:

• A leader has given a full term’s notice and the timeline is genuinely workable rather than optimistic
• The setting is broadly stable, and the board wants to appoint for the next five years rather than the next five months
• A planned retirement or an internal promotion has been visible for some time
• A new provision is opening far enough ahead that the leader can be appointed before registration
• A trustee, chair or proprietor body vacancy needs filling properly rather than covering

It is less likely to be the right first move where the setting is unsettled, where a safeguarding or regulatory issue is live, or where the honest answer to “how long can this post stay open” is less than a term. In those cases interim leadership usually comes first, and the permanent campaign follows once the ground is steadier.

How long does it take to recruit a headteacher?

For a headteacher or principal in a specialist setting, a campaign run properly usually takes around a term from the first conversation to a decision, and then a further term before the successful candidate is released from their current post. Two terms end to end is a realistic planning assumption, and boards who plan on that basis are the ones who appoint well.

Some roles move faster. Deputy, SENCO and DSL appointments often conclude inside a term. Executive and group level posts frequently take longer, because the field is smaller and the people worth approaching are harder to move.

We will tell you honestly at the first call whether your timescale is realistic. If it is not, we would far rather say so then than let you discover it in February.

How does the recruitment process work?

The stages below are the full version. Boards often ask us to run all of it, and sometimes to support only the parts they are least confident about, which is equally fine.

1. Understanding the role. We meet the board and, where it helps, the senior team. What does this setting need from its next leader, which is not always what the last one did.
2. Role definition and package. Job description, person specification and assessment criteria agreed in writing, with an honest view on whether the package is competitive for the market you are recruiting in.
3. Campaign design. Where the role is advertised, how it is described, and who we approach directly and confidentially.
4. Search and longlist. Advertising runs while we approach candidates individually. We speak to everybody before they reach you.
5. Shortlist. Longlist assessed against the agreed criteria, with evidence recorded for each decision, so the process is defensible if it is ever questioned.
6. Assessment and interview. Structured interviews, task based exercises that reflect the actual job, and stakeholder panels where they add something rather than where they simply add a day.
7. Decision support. We sit with the panel as an independent adviser. We do not vote and we do not push a candidate.
8. References and due diligence. Completed thoroughly, including the checks a specialist setting has to get right.
9. Onboarding. Where you want it, support through the first term, because an appointment is the start of the work rather than the end of it.

Who carries out the safer recruitment checks?

You do, and that is the right way round. The appointment is yours, the single central record is yours, and the responsibility under Keeping children safe in education sits with the school rather than with us.

What we do is make sure nothing reaches your shortlist that should not have. Before we put anybody in front of a board we verify identity and right to work, confirm an enhanced DBS with the children’s barred list check, take up references with the most recent employer rather than a chosen referee, check the prohibition and section 128 registers, and explore any gap in employment history properly rather than noting it.

It is understandable to want to compress this when a post has been open a long time. It is the one part of the process we would always encourage you to take the extra week over.

Should we appoint an interim or recruit permanently?

This is the question boards ask us most, and the honest answer is that it is often not a choice between the two. They work together more often than they compete.

A permanent campaign takes the time it takes. Where the post cannot sit open for two terms, an interim headteacher holds the setting steady while the substantive campaign runs at the pace it needs. That removes the pressure that causes panels to settle, and it is usually the cheaper decision even though it looks like the more expensive one on paper.

• Permanent recruitment is a campaign. We define the role, advertise, search, assess and support the panel to appoint. The appointment is substantive and open ended.
• Interim leadership is an introduction. An experienced leader takes the post for a defined period, holds the accountability and makes the decisions, while you appoint properly. You can see how interim placement works in full.
• Used together, the interim buys the time and the campaign uses it. Where that is what we think you need, we will say so, including when it means a smaller piece of work for us.

For groups running more than one setting, the same logic applies at executive level. See interim executive headteacher and principal for how that is usually handled.

A common misconception about permanent recruitment

Boards often assume that a strong field is a matter of reach, and that the answer to a weak response is to advertise more widely or spend more on the advert. In specialist settings that is rarely the problem. The field is small, the strong candidates are already in post, and no advert has ever persuaded a settled headteacher to apply.

What actually moves those people is a conversation with somebody who understands the sector, who can describe the setting honestly, and who is not going to waste their time. That is the work, and it is why a campaign that produces four serious candidates is usually worth more than one that produces forty applications.

What happens if the campaign closes without an appointment?

It happens, particularly in specialist settings, and it is not a failure. It is a great deal better than appointing somebody the panel had doubts about because the process had reached its final day.

What matters is that you decided in advance what you would do. Schools that recover well from a failed campaign usually have three things ready: an interim arrangement that can start quickly, an honest review of whether the role or the package needs to change, and a date for the second campaign that is already in the diary. Deciding all that in the week after a failed interview day is much harder.

Can an interim become our permanent headteacher?

Sometimes, and it can be an excellent outcome. Somebody who has held the post for two terms knows the setting, the staff and the children, and the board has seen them work rather than seen them interview.

What we would encourage is that you still run a fair substantive process rather than arriving at the appointment by default. Both the staff and the appointee benefit from that. An internal candidate who wins an open process starts with authority. One who is simply confirmed starts with a question mark that follows them around for a year.

Good practice: what makes a senior appointment work

What good looks like, drawn from the campaigns that go well:

• The board agreed what this setting needs next before it wrote the job description, rather than reissuing the last one
• The package was benchmarked honestly against the market, not against what the previous postholder was paid
• One named person on the board owned the process and had genuine time for it
• Assessment activities looked like the actual job, so candidates were tested on what they would really be doing
• Every candidate was treated well, including the ones who were not appointed, because the sector is small and reputations travel
• Staff, families and commissioners were told what was happening and roughly when, rather than left to speculate
• Onboarding was planned before the start date, not improvised in the first week

Questions for boards and proprietors

• What does this setting need from its next leader, rather than what did the last one do?
• How long can this post genuinely stay open before children feel it?
• Is our package competitive for the market we are actually recruiting in?
• Who on our board owns this process, and do they truly have the time?
• What is our plan if the campaign closes without an appointment?
• Have we agreed who completes each part of safer recruitment, and when?

Continue exploring

• Interim leadership for specialist settings, if the post cannot stay open while you recruit
• How interim placement works, step by step
• Executive search for schools and trusts, for mainstream schools, academies and multi academy trusts
• For interim leaders, if you are a senior leader looking for this kind of work

How can Jarvis Education help?

We run permanent leadership campaigns for independent special schools, alternative provision and residential settings, and we do it as people who have led and inspected schools rather than as generalist recruiters who also cover education. Jarvis Education is led by a former His Majesty’s Inspector, so the conversation about what your setting needs next is a conversation about children and provision, not only about a vacancy.

Our terms are agreed in writing before we approach anybody, there is no exclusivity, and you are free to run your own campaign alongside ours if that helps you appoint well. Tell us what has happened and what your timescale is, and we will give you an honest view, including if we think you need an interim first or do not need us at all.