Recruitment
Leaders for your school, when you need them
Interim leadership at short notice, permanent appointments through executive search, and board level support when governance needs strengthening. Everyone we introduce has led in settings like yours. Below is what we cover and who we place.
Interim leadership for special schools and alternative provision
A leadership gap rarely arrives at a convenient moment. A head resigns, someone is signed off, or a safeguarding lead leaves in the middle of a term, and the question is not who is best in theory but who can hold this together from Monday.
Everyone we introduce has already done the job in a setting like yours. That matters more in specialist provision than anywhere else, because someone who has only led in mainstream will spend their first half term learning what your staff already know. Tell us the setting and the gap and we will come back within one working day.
From our experienceSchools come through a leadership gap best when they get the right person in early, rather than the available person quickly. An interim who steadies things also buys you the time to appoint properly.
Our interim leadership services
- Interim leadership overview Experienced interim headteachers, deputies, DSLs and SENCOs introduced to independent special schools and alternative provision, so your setting keeps running properly while you take the time to appoint well. →
- Interim Headteacher How interim headship works in an independent special school, what it costs, and how to make sure the handover leaves the school stronger. →
- Interim Head of Centre Interim leadership for alternative provision and pupil referral units, from people who have held the role before. →
- Interim Deputy & Assistant Head When a setting needs senior capacity rather than a replacement head, an interim deputy is often the better appointment. →
- Interim Designated Safeguarding Lead What to do when your designated safeguarding lead leaves suddenly, and how interim DSL cover works. →
- Interim SENCO & SEND Lead Interim SEND leadership when EHCP oversight, annual reviews and provision mapping need holding securely. →
- Interim Executive Head & Principal Interim executive leadership for groups and providers running more than one specialist setting. →
Executive search and permanent leadership recruitment
A headship advert that attracts four applicants, none of them right, costs a school far more than the advert did. In specialist settings the pool is smaller again, and the strongest candidates are usually already in post and not reading the jobs pages.
We approach people directly, help you design a process that tells you something real rather than testing who presents well, and stay involved through shortlisting and panel. The aim is an appointment that is still in place in three years, which is a different target from filling the vacancy.
Interim governance, IEB members and trustee recruitment
Sometimes the gap is at board level. A governing body has lost the people who carried it, an interim executive board is needed quickly, or a trust needs a trustee with a skill nobody currently has.
We place experienced governance professionals, including IEB members and chairs, and help boards recruit and induct the people they are actually short of. It is quieter work than appointing a head, and in a school under pressure it is often what determines whether the leadership appointment succeeds.
Our governance & ieb services
Not sure which one you need?
Every school's circumstances are different. Tell us what is happening and we will point you to the right place, even if that place is not us.
Contact us