Secondary Leadership Scale Vacancies
The Leadership Scale contains three main groups of vacancies: assistant heads; deputy heads and headteachers. There are also executive head teachers in academy trusts, but those posts are not included in this analysis.
Assistant Head vacancies
Vacancies in the three leadership grades in the secondary sector are sufficiently numerous to warrant consideration for each individual grade of assistant; deputy and headteacher. Although TeachVac collects data from the private school sector, these tables only contain details of vacancies for leadership posts in state schools across England.
| 2022 State Secondary Sector -Assistant headteacher vacancies | |
| GOR | Vacancies |
| East Midlands | 102 |
| East of England | 173 |
| London | 248 |
| North East | 39 |
| North West | 164 |
| South East | 201 |
| South West | 174 |
| West Midlands | 138 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 129 |
| Grand Total | 1368 |
| 2023 State Secondary Sector – Assistant headteacher vacancies | ||
| GOR | Vacancies | Difference 2023 on 2022 |
| East Midlands | 120 | 18 |
| East of England | 180 | 7 |
| London | 241 | -7 |
| North East | 24 | -15 |
| North West | 154 | -10 |
| South East | 221 | 20 |
| South West | 128 | -46 |
| West Midlands | 139 | 1 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 139 | 10 |
| Grand Total | 1346 | -22 |
In 2023 there were more vacancies at this level in the South East than in 2022, whereas in the South West there were fewer recorded advertisements than in the same period in 2022. London and the South East regions account for 33% of the vacancies at this level in 2022 and 34% in 2023. Vacancies at this level were rare in both years. However, some schools might have advertised internally or in a form not caught by TeachVac’s recording of the data.
Deputy Head Vacancies
As with the assistant head grade, there were very similar numbers of advertisements for deputy heads during the first seven months of 2023 advertised by state secondary schools in England when compared with the same schools during the same period in 2022.
| Deputy Head 2022 | |
| GOR | Vacancies |
| East Midlands | 67 |
| East of England | 74 |
| London | 132 |
| North East | 28 |
| North West | 93 |
| South East | 119 |
| South West | 74 |
| West Midlands | 77 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 98 |
| Grand Total | 762 |
| Deputy Head 2023 | ||
| GOR | Vacancies | Difference 2023 on 2022 |
| East Midlands | 72 | 5 |
| East of England | 86 | 12 |
| London | 134 | 2 |
| North East | 24 | -4 |
| North West | 88 | -5 |
| South East | 147 | 28 |
| South West | 59 | -15 |
| West Midlands | 63 | -14 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 94 | -4 |
| Grand Total | 767 | 5 |
Source: TeachVac
Although the overall total of advertisements was similar in 2023 to the number in 2022, there were some regional differences, with more vacancies being advertised by schools in the south East and the East of England and fewer advertisements in the south West and West Midlands.
Headteacher vacancies
As with both the assistant and deputy head teacher grades, in the first seven months of 2023 the number of advertisements logged for headteacher vacancies was very similar to the number recorded during the same period of 2022.
| Headteacher 2022 | |
| GOR | Vacancies |
| East Midlands | 26 |
| East of England | 31 |
| London | 55 |
| North East | 18 |
| North West | 43 |
| South East | 48 |
| South West | 54 |
| West Midlands | 46 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 44 |
| Grand Total | 365 |
| Headteacher 2023 | ||
| GOR | Vacancies | Difference 2023 on 2022 |
| East Midlands | 19 | -7 |
| East of England | 47 | 16 |
| London | 38 | -17 |
| North East | 12 | -6 |
| North West | 44 | 1 |
| South East | 59 | 11 |
| South West | 48 | -6 |
| West Midlands | 47 | 1 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 44 | 0 |
| Grand Total | 358 | -7 |
Source: TeachVac
As with deputy head advertisements, there were more advertisements for headteachers in the South East and East of England in 2023, and fewer in London, where at least one secondary school closed in the summer of 2023. It seems likely that some of the increases may be the result of new schools opening following the building of new housing estates in the Home Counties.
Most secondary schools are able to appoint a new headteacher after their first advertisement. However, around 10% of schools require more than one advertisement before they can fill their headteacher vacancy.
As an exercise, all schools with a re-advertisement for their headteacher posts were matched with their percentage of pupils listed as eligible for Free School Meals. The 33 schools identified as having re-advertised their headteacher vacancy were divided into three groups: schools with less than 20% FSM; 20-25% FSM and schools with more than 25% FSM
The analysis showed that in 2023 there were:
12 schools in the less than 20% FSM group
4 schools with between 20-25% FSM group
17 schools with 25%+ FSM, including two schools with more than 40% that had both readvertised twice so far in 2023.
The below 20% FSM group contained two Roman Catholic schools and a Church of England Middle school. These are schools of a type that often finds recruiting a new headteacher challenging.
Repeating the exercise at the end of September might well add some more schools to the list of those re-advertising for a headteacher as schools often wait until the autumn before re-advertising.
John Howson 