12 February 2025
Originally featured in Trust Leadership Today: Winter 2025: Trust Leadership Today: Winter 2025 | School Management Plus
We have had a number of questions around the use of interim managers posed to Anderson Quigley (AQ), our executive talent partners, for this edition’s Ask the Recruiter feature. Paul Horgan, who specialises in interim recruitment at AQ, shares some of his insights and expertise to answer readers’ queries.
What is an interim school leader (manager)?
An interim school leader is someone who is brought in for a short to medium-term fixed period to complete a designated piece of work. This tends to range from a school term up to an entire academic year in length. The interim manager may provide support as an academic or in a professional services capacity. These include interim executive principals, principals, vice principals, assistant principals and business managers at academy level and interim directors of finance/HR/estates/IT at trust level, along with interim education and regional directors and interim CEOs.
Why would you engage an interim manager?
There are many reasons that a trust might engage an interim manager. One common need is to fill a leadership gap, often due to a late resignation, until a permanent recruitment campaign gets completed. In other situations, it could be a case of adding leadership capacity when a leadership team is depleted due to long-term sickness or when a new or inexperienced leadership team lacks particular skills. In worst case scenarios, a poor Ofsted inspection may result in a principal moving on and there is a need for an experienced and credible interim headteacher to come in, providing stability from the off.
What value will an interim manager bring to your trust?
First and foremost, interims bring experience and expertise to challenging situations. They ‘hit the ground running’ and need little time to bed in. They can add value from week one. They bring a totally objective viewpoint. They are not bound up with internal politics. Most are experienced strategic leaders and understand and appreciate the corporate demands of a trust environment.
Is an interim manager the same as a consultant?
Interim managers differ from consultants. Consultants advise, interims do. Interims are viewed as being part of the leadership structure and there is generally more buy-in all round from the school community than there is with consultants.
Are interims not terribly expensive, working on exorbitant day rates?
The truth is that many interims are now happy to work on fixed-term contracts on salaries similar to their substantive counterparts. Others will work on competitive day rates via umbrella companies. The vast majority of interim roles are inside IR35, which academy interims appreciate, so you can feel confident that engagements are HMRC-friendly. Some may look for reasonable travel and accommodation expenses if working away from home.
Do I need to engage interim managers on a full time basis?
The simple answer is no. Many suitable candidates are career interims who have a portfolio of offerings. Some prefer full-time positions, but many prefer to be part-time where they can bring often relevant experience and expertise to their interim roles from working in parallel as school improvement advisers and Ofsted Inspectors, etc.
If I have a senior gap, could I make an interim appointment from within my trust?
Yes, this is, of course, a way of filling an SLT gap and could prove to be a good leadership development opportunity. However, the availability of such candidates can sometimes be an issue when a particular skill is needed – and, even if there is such talent available within a trust, it can often be to the the detriment of the home academy of the senior leader appointed to the interim role.
Why do people choose to become interim leaders? Can they not sustain a substantive post?
Many of my interims have several substantive principal/vice principal roles behind them. They have superb track records. They have chosen interim work because they don’t want to commit to another five-year project and prefer the variety of going into different challenging environments where they can make a real difference in a relatively short period of time before moving on to their next assignment.
What support is given to an interim manager?
Any interims appointed by Anderson Quigley are contacted on a regular basis, initially by phone. We check in at the beginning of the assignment (week one) to ensure that the interim is settling in okay, and we also check in with the client trust to confirm they are happy. We then keep in touch by phone and email, arranging to meet with the appointee either on site or for a coffee off site mid-way through their assignment.
In parallel, we visit the trust leadership team. At the end of the period of the appointment, we conduct an end of assignment review to learn how things have gone as well as seeking to understand how we could do better next time both from the interim and client’s perspective.
Is proper due diligence completed on interim managers?
Yes. For those going on fixed-term contracts, Anderson Quigley will carry out relevant reference checks as well as social media and right to work checks via Verifile. For those on day rate engagements, we carry out all the relevant compliance and safeguarding checks that you would do as an employer.
CASE STUDY
Recently, Anderson Quigley had a MAT client which had just appointed a principal who needed support as they were facing many challenges in their first headship in a demanding inner city school. The trust approached Paul to find someone to assist on an interim basis. The brief was to source a candidate who could coach and support the new principal while also leading the academy from the front. This would free up the MAT’s central team leaders, who were currently being pulled into supporting the particular academy at the expense of other trust-wide matters. From the delivery of the initial brief to appointing the interim took just two weeks.
Learn more about investing in interim talent here.
Paul has been recruiting senior leaders in education since 2005. His experience extends across all areas of education, most notably in the schools and academies arenas but also in higher and further education. With nearly 30 years’ experience recruiting in the education space as well as being a qualified secondary teacher, Paul has an in-depth knowledge of the sector, providing a professional, bespoke and honest service to both candidates and clients. You can email him at paul.horgan@andersonquigley.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.
