Hit-squad head teachers

The notion of premier league head teachers moving around, spreading their expertise, initially filled me with horror – yet more hit'n'run consultancy! But reading the proposals more carefully, they seem to be based on head teachers being pre-assessed and going on to a transfer list, so that when a governing body has difficulty in getting a really good head, they can call on a premier league head teacher, and presumably the DfE will pay the extra - so it will be a permanent appointment, with the super-head having a real stake in the school.

Then I thought about the reality – how many head teachers will be willing to up-sticks at short notice and and move around the country to work (if not live) in a very deprived area. There will be some, of course, and my guess is that most of them already do just what is being proposed - go to where the challenge is. The policy does feel like a bit of a sticking plaster rather than a substantive programme of support.

But ... then I remembered, rather slowly, a different circumstance. Way back in 2000, I was asked by the department (then, I think, the Department For Education and Employment), when I was a deputy director in Somerset looking for my first directorship, to accept a six-month secondment to a local authority in the Midlands that had failed its inspection. At that time the only alternative was to bring in the privateers. I don't know how I was chosen, as I certainly was not in the premier league, or close to it, but I accepted, did some intensive but non-rocket-science straightforward management and leadership, was appointed to the post, and took the authority out of special measures in 15 months, and to good in two years.

So ... I'm rather less cynical about the process than I might have been. I'm not sure if I want to draw any general lessons, but done well, intensive external support can work.

John Freeman CBE is a former director of children's services and is now a freelance consultant