Being a Leader in the UK today is not for the faint-hearted. The pressures of educational leadership, particularly in the current climate, are immense. Whether it’s managing staff, ensuring pupil outcomes, liaising with parents, or navigating government policies, Leaders are tasked with a wide array of responsibilities that impact the entire school community. The accountability of a leader is stretched further when education feels like the last remaining pillar of some communities and the leadership goes beyond the school gates. But as the role of the Leader seems to range from finding paperclips (a client told us this last week!) for a teaching assistant to standing in front of their board to explain student progress despite budgetary shortfalls and with an Ofsted knock looming it is critical to ask what accountability for school leaders should really look like? 

This questions leads to a host of other related questions including:-

• What should the balance be between support and scrutiny? And by who?

• How can Leaders lead effectively whilst being held to the high standards the role demands?

• What should the culture of leadership accountability be like across a whole organisation for it to develop and nurture all stakeholders?

What is accountability?

Before diving in, it is first worth defining what we actually mean by accountability. In its broadest sense ‘accountability’ is about owning your role, being open to feedback and taking responsibility for mistakes, triumphs and moving forward. However, as we are well aware, within the context of education, it is much more complicated than this.

It is no secret that there has often been a ‘blame culture’ surrounding poor performing schools. This has damaging consequences for both the Leadership effectiveness and any school improvement efforts. When a school underperforms, there is often a tendency to place disproportionate blame on the Leader without consideration for the multi-faceted challenges that schools face as well as the concept of accountability across all stakeholders. We often hear of a whole leadership team being replaced following a poor judgement. This can lead to increased stress, burnout and high turnover rates across those in leadership positions, making the challenge of improving our education establishments ever more difficult. It is therefore not surprising that it is the culture and wider working environment that can discourage innovation, stifle open dialoge and move the focus away from meaningful and sustainable solutions. Accountability needs to be balanced across a deliberately developmental culture of support and shared responsibility across all stakeholders including governors, leadership, teachers, parents, support staff and local authorities.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/governance-in-maintained-schools/3-accountability#:~:text=The%20governing%20body%20must%20hold,to%20implement%20the%20strategic%20framework

The Scope of Leader Accountability

So back to Leaders, in recent years, there has been an increasing focus on performance. And rightly so, as leadership is fundamental to the success of a school. This predominantly includes:

1. Academic Outcomes: Leaders are judged heavily on student performance, particularly through GCSE and A-Level results, Progress 8 scores, and primary school SATs. While academic outcomes are important, the pressure to deliver exceptional results can sometimes overshadow other vital aspects of a Leader’s role.

2. Ofsted Inspections: The inspection framework led by Ofsted has long been a cornerstone of UK educational accountability. However, many Leaders feel that the intensity of these inspections adds considerable stress, and the fear of a poor rating can lead to a narrow focus on "pleasing" inspectors rather than improving the overall quality of education.

3. Financial Management: With many schools facing budget constraints, Leaders are also held accountable for financial health. Managing a school’s budget is a challenge that demands a Leader’s attention to detail and ability to prioritise. Mismanagement, even minor, can result in heavy criticism.

4. Safeguarding and Wellbeing: Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of students and staff is non-negotiable. This includes everything from safeguarding protocols to creating an inclusive and supportive school environment. As local authorities decline, education is left to provide or organise the social and health support around a child. With rising mental health challenges among students, Leaders are increasingly expected to address these complex issues, often with limited resources.

5. Strategy Implementation: Ensuring that the schools vision and strategy is being realised and developed within the day-to-day of the school. This may involve overseeing the progression of certain projects, initiatives and partnerships depending on the specific context.

What actually is the role of a Leader?

The idea of context is essential here. The role of Leader is not the same for everyone and is not the same across contexts. Whereas for some being a Leader very much involves operations and day-to-day management of a school, for others it may be carved into more of an executive role with far more influence on broader strategy and organisational development. This clarification of role, without assuming that a Leader can be everything and anything to anyone is essential as it is where roles and responsibilities have not been clarified that we enter an accountability ‘grey area’. This can lead to clashes with differing values and motivations that lead to conflicting priorities, interpretations of success, or approaches to problem-solving across stakeholders. This tension can manifest in disagreements about long-term vision versus short-term outcomes, innovation versus tradition, or equity versus efficiency, ultimately challenging the cohesion and progress of strategic initiatives and a murky approach to leadership and direction, the impact of which ripples across the whole organisation.

The Role of the School Governing Body

Governors are entrusted with holding the Leader, most commonly the Headteacher, to account while also providing support and guidance. It’s a fine balance between challenging leadership and offering a safety net when things go wrong. The UK Government advise that “The governing body must hold the Headteacher to account for the day-to-day running of the school” including the educational and financial performance and it is within the scope of the Governors to ensure that the strategic direction of the school is clearly defined, the Headteacher is fulfilling their role and that they are acting with integrity, transparency and objectivity within their roles. In this respect, accountability can become a ‘grey’ area in education with the role of local Governors being shifted by the academy system and with well intentioned ‘experts’ not necessarily understanding education. We are very fortunate in the UK to have a system that is open to all people (who want to) having the opportunity to be involved in running schools. This creates the invitation for individuals with a whole host of different experiences, skills, knowledge and values to contribute to the strategic guidance and oversights within a school. However the chances of successfully achieving all the above in practice and achieving it well, without continuous development is pretty slim.

Whilst Governors receive the relevant training to the role, it is essential that such Governors are developing and accessing development opportunities within their governing role that is in line with the organisation as a whole. For Governors to fulfil their role effectively, they must have a deep understanding of the school’s needs, the Leaders’ vision, and the broader educational landscape. Training for Governors is essential to ensure they can ask the right questions and engage in meaningful oversight without creating an adversarial relationship. Ultimately, they should act as critical friends, promoting school improvement while maintaining a healthy, constructive dialogue with the Leader, respecting the specialist knowledge of the day-to-day that the Leader brings relevant to that specific school context in partnership with their own.

Striking the Right Balance: Support vs. Scrutiny

While Leaders undeniably need to be held accountable for the performance and wellbeing of their schools, the question arises: how do we ensure that this accountability is fair and constructive rather than punitive?

1. Recognising the Complex Role: Leaders are not merely managers—they are educators, mentors, strategic planners, and community leaders. Accountability measures and pay need to reflect the multifaceted nature of the role. This means looking beyond data points and recognising the broader impact a Leader has on school culture, student wellbeing, and staff morale.

2. Providing Adequate Support: Leadership can be lonely. Leaders often face immense pressure without the necessary support structures in place. Regular professional development, access to coaching, and mentorship should be provided to all Leaders. In Scotland, for example, the Columba 1400 Leader Leadership Academy offers a leadership programme focused on resilience and decision-making in challenging contexts. Models like this could be extended across the UK to ensure Leaders are not isolated in their roles.

3. Revisiting Ofsted’s Role: While inspection frameworks are essential for accountability, they should not drive Leaders into a reactive, "tick-box" mentality without providing a clear infrastructure of what should be where, by when and by whom. This lack of clarity and subjective nature of inspections creates much anxiety of ‘have we got everything in place’. We are eagerly watching to see how the new Ofsted report card unfolds in practice and seeking to present a solution to Ofsted. 

4. Tailoring Accountability to Context: Schools vary widely in context, whether it's the socio-economic background of students, the level of additional needs in a school, or the unique challenges of a rural or inner-city setting. Holding Leaders to rigid, one-size-fits-all standards fails to account for these differences. A more nuanced approach to accountability of progress on multiple lines of growth would consider the context in which a Leader is working and what success looks like in that specific environment.

5. Mental Health and Wellbeing of Leaders: Recent reports have highlighted an alarming rise in stress and burnout among Leaders in the UK. Accountability should not exacerbate mental health; instead, it should encourage a sustainable, healthy working environment for those in leadership roles. Greater attention needs to be given to Leader wellbeing, including mental health support and workload management strategies.

So What Is The Solution?

As with most things there is no one right answer here. However one thing key thing stands out to us here about holding individuals to account in a fair, clear and productive way and that is ‘feedback throughout the process’. Traditionally, performance or accountability reviews occur at set times throughout the year typically within an ‘annual review’ framework with all the goals and projects that an individual has set for themselves, coming under review for an hour at some point during the year. 

However, imagine if this is what we did for our students, we sat down with them at the start of the year set some goals for their learning and then left them to it for the rest of the year until sitting down with them again to see how they got on. How would they improve on what they are doing? How would they explore alternative approaches or ways of thinking about things for the learning? How do we know that they are making valuable progress? We wouldn’t. They may well be, but there would be no collective challenge or exploration for them; alternatively they may be going in completely the wrong direction.

Instead, we propose regular dynamic and digital check-ins through feedback loops built into a value chain operating model which provides instant data analysis, automated red flags, community voice and feedback as required. ‘Who has time for more meetings?!’ we hear you ask but by making dynamic feedback and regular check-ins central to the culture of the organisation you are promoting development and showing value to the people within the organisation; self-development becomes less of a novelty or a burden and but integrated into everyday practice through more frequent (but shorter) opportunities to reflect, get support and plan their next steps with rich feedback that is more likely to be implemented, a far more co-autonomous process.

What these feedback loops look like in practice can vary among organisations, project or even individual but we would suggest that the double looped learning model by Chris Argyris (1976) is a good place to start. This framework provides a format for reflection and feedback guidance based on ‘why’- a rationale that is often built from different values and beliefs (attitudes) but not well understood. Individuals’ attitudes can then contribute to a coherent plan. This builds trust and alignment that includes set times for check-ins and tailor the feedback to their specific needs and lens to ensure that they remain accountable for what they are responsible for but onboard to deliver it.

Furthermore, this responds to the need for flexibility within schools, things change all the time, the goals someone set at the end of last year may be completely irrelevant 2 months later. Regular check-ins provide opportunities for ongoing feedback, guidance, and collaboration, ultimately fostering a culture of growth and continuous improvement rather than fear of four years down the line.

Moving Forward

As we look ahead, it’s clear that the conversation and system around Leader accountability needs to evolve. We should continue to expect high standards, but we must also recognise the complexities and challenges of the role. Accountability must be multi-dimensional, supporting Leaders in their professional growth while holding them to the right standards.

In this journey, we must seek to build a culture of continuous improvement of the systems we are building rather than one of fear and criticism. After all, when the "head"  feels supported and empowered, the entire school community is likely to thrive.

If you are interested in exploring cutting edge coaching or team opportunities further for either yourself or your team and the benefits it can offer more widely for your organisation, we would be delighted to discuss options further. Please book a discovery call or contact us at info@glasshouselab.com.

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References:

Cappelli, P. & Travis, A. (2016). The Performance Management Revolution, The focus is shifting from accountability to learning. 

https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-performance-management-revolution?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter&tpcc=orgsocial_edit 

Department for Education (DfE). (2024). Maintained Schools Governance Guide. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/governance-in-maintained-schools/3-accountability#:~:text=The%20governing%20body%20must%20hold,to%20implement%20the%20strategic%20framewor

UK Government. (2013). The School Governance (Roles, Procedures and Allowances)(England). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/1624/part/2/made

Department for Education (DfE). (2020). Leader’s Standards. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-standards-of-excellence-for-Leaders/Leaders-standards-2020