Redundancies in senior leadership teams

Particularly when they are involved in school or college planning, members of leadership teams can find it hard to believe that they may be at risk from staff reductions. Members should be alert to the possibility in the context of the current reduction of funding and restructuring.

When redundancies are contemplated the two key issues are the identification of the 'pool' from which the reductions will come and the criteria to decide which staff will be dismissed. By law both of these must be subject to consultation. It is important that ASCL members in a school or college where redundancies are a possibility should seek advice on this as soon as the possibility arises.

Once the process begins, it is also important that the criteria should be applied to the totality of leadership team members' experience and skills and not simply to the role that they are filling at the time of the redundancy.

Please refer to the Managing Staffing Reductions book in the July mailing for more information. Additional copies are available to order from the ASCL website.