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Balado and Kirsty Savage, the chair and co-ordinator of the Norfolk School Leaders\u2019 Association, invited headteacher groups to join the national network at the start of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It aims to use \u201cour powerful, apolitical voice to ensure that the government hears directly from headteachers collectively representing the interests of schools, staff and pupils\u201d. It is now drawing up a survey for each association to share with heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Balado said this will examine the \u201cpressure\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lobbying MPs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The latest report by the Kreston<\/a> 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<\/a> since 2021, from 19 per cent to 58 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re 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,\u201d Balado added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pam Langmead, of the Essex Primary Headteachers\u2019 Association, which has joined the network, said a \u201creally effective way of lobbying is for individual headteachers to hassle their own MPs\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group is also prioritising work around rising parental complaints. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teacher Regulation Agency (TRA) misconduct referrals leapt by more than 60 per cent to almost 1,700 in 2023-24. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was \u201clargely driven\u201d by an increase in the number of complaints from members of the public, the TRA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The network will \u201cgather best practice from across the country to ensure that school leaders are advised and supported when they manage complaints\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It will \u201cfeedback to local authorities and the DfE the impact\u201d on heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NHTAN vice-chair Dave Lee-Allan, of the Suffolk Association of Secondary School Headteachers, said: \u201cThe idea is that, by paying into my local headteacher association, I know it\u2019s connected into a national group where intel is going to be of a greater depth, and influence reassures heads that we\u2019ve got their back during a really difficult period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the things the network has noticed is that associations are \u201cstructured and funded in a variety of ways\u201d, with some led by headteacher volunteers and others employing professional officers to manage them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some are funded by local authorities, others receive subscription fees from members and \u201ca few\u201d get their cash through a top slice of budgets, determined by schools forums. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about making every headteachers\u2019 association an identikit. Each one is run really differently, funded really differently, able to offer more or less,\u201d Langmead said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re pretty sure there probably is a headteacher association in every local authority area, but there is no directory\u2026 and that is part of the reason [for the group].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nComplaints data sent to DfE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Headteacher association in ‘every LA’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n