STANWAY FEDERATION

Frequently Asked Details and Questions regarding Co-Headship

  1. Why are Governors considering Co-Headship to replace Jonathan Tippett?
  • Our critical driving force is to continue to develop the best educational opportunities for the students within our care.
  • We want to maintain the momentum of all initiatives.
  • We want to continue building on and expanding the benefits and influence of the Stanway Federation playing a significant role in the North East Essex area in educational development and achievement for students, staff and governors.
  • We want to try our best to make a decision which best meets the Federation’s long term interests and ensure that we deliverboth stability and development for every student, person and activity involved.
  • We want to appoint the best candidate/s to deliver our aspiration of achieving an Ofsted grade of ‘Outstanding’.
  1. What is a Co-Headship?
  • A co-headship exists where more than one-personcovers a full-time headteacherpost.
  • Other terms that are sometimes used to describe this headship arrangement include: shared headship; joint headship and partner headship.The interview panel saw no advantage to any other title than co-headship.
  • A number of schools have already decided to support this structure.
  1. Legal position regarding advertising for and having a Headteacher?
  • All schools must have a full-time equivalentheadteacher. The governing body may organise the split as they wish, but they must ensure that this does not exceed the equivalent of 1.0 FTE.
  • The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (2010) was rewritten and the section on a headteacher’s roles and responsibilities was shortened considerably as part of the drive to reduce bureaucracy.
  • DfE guidance (Dec 2010) states thatco-headship is permissible as long as the governors are certain that the school always has a suitably qualified, experienced and appropriately remunerated named person in charge for the whole week.
  • In order to appoint the best quality candidates, the general guidance is that governing bodies should advertise nationallyany headship vacancy.The guidance recognises that there may be occasions where external advertisement may not be considered the most beneficial to the school or its students. It suggests that a decision not to advertise should only be taken if the governing body can demonstrate there is good reason not to, and that it does not leave them open to challenge. All decisions should be documented fully, as the governing body will need to demonstrate that it has acted reasonably if challenged.

  1. What are the potential benefits of a Co-Headship?

  1. Who makes the decision as to whether a Co-Headship should be introduced?
  • This decision rests solely with the governing body.
  • The governors need to be confident that the co-headship will not have any detrimental effect on the school’s standards of achievement or the health and safety of the students.
  • The ultimate question is: Does the proposed arrangement meet the needs of the school in providing the most stable, best quality and standards for its young students in the future?
  1. What are the potential difficulties with a Co-Headship?
  • As with any ‘new’ staffing arrangement, there will always be initial challenges to overcome. This will include clarifying the lead requirements; appointing the right people (qualifications, personalities, complimentary skills and competencies); issues of appropriate remuneration; and establishing clear roles and responsibilities, especially accountability for standards and quality.
  • Governors and staff may be sceptical, with concerns about compromised accountability and decision-making, and contractual arrangements.
  • The key will be the quality of communication between the partner headteachers.

  1. How should the statutory duties be split?
  • The responsibilities of each person must be made clear as both individuals are accountable to Ofsted and the Governors in relation to statutory duties. Governors will insist that certain responsibilities, such as Health and Safety and Safeguarding are not split, both Heads are jointly responsible. This will be clearly specified in the job description and person specification.
  1. What are the pay and pensions considerations?
  • A co-headship should be a similar cost asa one headteacher/one deputy model.
  • Co-headship partners need not be paid the same, but they shouldbe paid within the same Individual School Range (ISR).
  1. How will the Co-Headship partnership be managed?
  • Essential to an effective co-headship is clarity about what happens in each circumstance. It is the governing body that needs to be wholly satisfied.
  • Establishing the work pattern is an obvious starting point. Although it is not necessary for either headteacher to be on site throughout every school day (any more than it is necessary that a single headteacher be on site all day, every day), it is essential that there is an identified headteacheron duty at all times.
  • The duties and responsibilities of headship need to be very clearly set out.
  • Liaison arrangements between the co-heads and chair of governors need to be clearly set out.
  • Liaison between the co-headtechers needs to be planned and not left to chance or goodwill. Governors need to see evidence that it is happening.
  1. Who shouldattend key school, social events or extraordinary happenings?
  • This should be formally agreed through discussion between the co-headteachers and the governing body, but there is likely to be some flexibility.
  • Attendance at “big” events is likely to need a change in expectations within the school community. Neither governors nor parents can expect that both heads attend everything, clarity on attending governing body and new parent meetings particularly. Visibility of partnership working is likely to maintain confidence.
  • During short and long term school closures there needs to be some flexibility. One of the characteristics of headship is that there are no defined working times; they are not bound by the 1265 hours per year. A headteacher is a headteacher all of the time.
  • This is an area where a co-headship has many advantages over a single headship, in that the off-duty but on-call periods can be shared and agreed in advance.
  1. The point of contact for parents and other agencies/organisations?
  • This will be the designated headteacher on that day.
  • When dealing with individual problems – staff, parents, contractors et al – one partner should take ownership and see the problem through to completion. However, both partners would need to be aware of the activity through their weekly liaison meetings.

  1. What happens when one of the Co-Headteachers is absent?
  • Contingency arrangements for absence need to be in place and understood before the need arises, and they are likely to be different for short-term compared with long-term absence.
  • Leave, salary and absence arrangements should be clearly written into the contract
  1. Responsibilities outside the school
  • Any headteacher has significant community responsibilities outside the school. It is important that any decision Governors make particularly supports our involvement with our primary school network or the North East Essex Education Partnership.
  1. What happens when one Co-Headteacher leaves?
  • It is a certainty that no governing body will want to be forced to try and fit an unsuitable applicant into the gap in order to preserve the co-headship arrangement, however valued the remaining partner is. The contract of employment for both partners should be explicit about the fact that headship is a single job and that the contract for both partners will need to be reviewed when one leaves for any reason. This does not rule out the possibility of continuation of a co-headship arrangement if a suitable (to the governing body) partner can be recruited, but the call is with the governing body, not any individual employee.
  1. Who carries out performance management for the other staff?
  • Performance management arrangements for every member of staff are critical and the two partners need to be clear about who is performance managing whom and liaise with the other partner to ensure that all of the evidence is available.
  1. Who Appoints and/or Promotes Staff
  • It is important that evidence exists that both Heads have been consulted and agree to the appointment/promotion of any member of staff to a post above a certain level to be agreed.
  1. How do you carry out performance management for the Co-Headteachers?
  • The governors’ performance review panelshould carry out separate performance management reviews with each co-headteacher with help from an external adviser. Each should therefore have some common objectives which relate to whole-school issues about student progress together with clear individual objectives which are linked to their areas of responsibility.
  1. What happens if there is a dispute between the Co-Headteachers?
  • The chair of governors should determine the process for resolving the dispute in each case calling inan external adviser where they feel a professional judgement is required. In all cases the decision of the Chair is final and there is no appeal process.

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