9 May 2025
Last week, in partnership with The Institute for Turnaround (The IFT), AQ hosted our Annual Interim Management Event at the King’s Fund. It was great to see so many of our interim candidates to catch up, reconnect in person, introduce new members of the AQ team, and share personal experiences and insights into the state of the interim market.
A big thank you to Milly Camley, CEO of The Institute for Turnaround (The IFT), for being our guest speaker and providing a short introduction of The IFT and share what they are seeing in the market in terms of demand for turnaround skills across sectors and job roles, the value provided by turnaround directors, and what skills are required for becoming an interim in the current market. If you’re interested to hear more about the research Milly shared, or would like more information on how to be a member of the IFT, please click here, or connect with Milly on LinkedIn.
Claire Launder provided a short update about the state of the interim market in the sectors we supported on the night, below we have summarised these into some short sector updates.
Higher Education Market
The Higher Education sector continues to face significant pressures, particularly around financial sustainability, organisational redesign, and evolving student experience. Many institutions are grappling with the aftermath of voluntary severance and redundancy programmes, creating capability gaps and a real need to ‘do more with less’. This is driving a continued demand for experienced interim professionals who can demonstrate impact and support delivery in time-critical situations.
There is a notable shift towards using interim resource not just to ‘hold the fort’, but to deliver real impact. Roles in highest demand include transformation leads (both professional services and academic services), programme and project managers, strategic planners, HR and change specialists, senior academic leaders i.e. Deans and PVCs, and finance and operations leaders. Institutions are especially interested in individuals who bring a track record of navigating ambiguity, working across boundaries, and delivering change in complex environments.
While some activity has paused as universities manage cost and restructure, others are investing now to build capacity and capability where it’s most needed – particularly ahead of the next academic year. As such, we anticipate continued interim demand aligned to institutional transformation, professional services and academic department redesign, digital change, and improvements in all areas to do with student experience and student attraction.
Schools, Further Education & Skills Market
Overall reduced budgets, particularly in the primary sector, and the increasing growth of MAT internal resourcing capacity, means there are fewer interim roles coming on the market; schools and academies are more likely to move someone into an acting role, or else have someone from within their MAT act in an executive capacity if possible. There is an increasing number of underperforming MATs merging or being taken over, which does mean there is some opportunity and need for consultants with relevant M&A experience.
We are seeing movement at CEO level, and to some extent COO level also. There are many MATs with acting or interims in place which does provide opportunity both from an interim and permanent perspective. There continues to be opportunities for talented finance leaders within the system, particularly those with commercial nous who can tap into new funding or revenue streams.
With the movement of CEO/Heads, there are a number of first-time headteachers, who are needing more support in their first 100 days. There seems to be a growing disconnect between what is promised on appointment, and what actually occurs on the ground, with many headteacher placements not working out. Engaging a coach or mentor to support in the early days may be seen as another financial outlay, but the savings this generates when compared with repeat recruitment costs can be significant.
Finally, as we just had Headteacher resignation dates and will have all other SLT resignation dates at the end of the month, opportunities will present themselves on the interim front for late resignations while providing opportunities on the search side for these perm appointments, most now with January 2026 start dates.
Digital & Technology Market
The charity sector is still striving to enhance its digital capabilities. According to the 2024 Charity Digital Skills Report, 80% of charities now view digital as an organisational priority. However, financial constraints are a significant hurdle. According to the report approximately 68% of charities cite squeezed finances as the biggest barrier to digital progress, and only 10% are actively recruiting for digital roles.
However, despite these challenges, there are positive signs. The charities we are working with do feel they’ve made digital progress this year and are embracing AI in their day-to-day operations. Larger charities have a digital strategy in place, but are still experiencing financial issues, particularly in the NGO sector. The focus remains on building online presence, increasing digital fundraising, and developing staff digital skills. They are using trusted recruitment advisors like AQ, and especially specific networks with Women in Tech being a priority across those organisations.
The public sector is also adding to their digital capabilities with key jobs in AI and Data being advertised.
Health Market
There is a huge amount of change and transformation within the NHS. On a local level, ICBs are set to merge, and on a national level, NHS England is set to be abolished over 2 years, and the government are developing a 10 year plan which aims to transform the health system to meet future challenges.
Due to all the system changes, restructures and pressures on finances, the interim market is currently challenged until some clarity is provided from the government. The 10 year plan is expected to land Spring 2025, but no formal date has been released, which has meant there are quite a few pauses on projects and uncertainty. There is no crystal ball answer to when this clarity may be provided, however, as organisations move through the changes, there is a real anticipation across the NHS that these changes will create talent vacuums, and there will be significant skills gaps. As such external expertise will be required to support the implementation of the changes, and the delivery of the 10 year plan.
We expect the interim demand to be around programme and change management capabilities, financial recovery and transformation, people and culture change, pathway and service redesign and wider corporate transformation professionals. More imminently, on a local level, the mergers of ICBs could mean restructuring and talent gaps, both on a short- and long-term level.
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