The emergence of leadership as social triage: understanding the impact of the long shadows of austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic in English schools

In this article, we consider the long-term impact of policies and events which have emerged since the 2010s, and which have had serious consequences on the responsibilities of some school leaders in England. We trace the current issues within the system back to Every Child Matters, which heralded the beginning of a process of service integration, centred on the child and family to create coherent support for young people. However, before this approach to service provision was given the opportunity to mature, the incoming UK coalition government began a process of austerity, which started after their election in 2010. Over the subsequent 10 years many of the services allied to schools which were to form this integrated approach were severely cut back, often leaving schools as the sole remaining provider of essential services. Here we chart the impacts of austerity and the cuts to services meant to support children and families, particularly in the more deprived areas of England. We then consider the experiences of head teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic and the continued and intensifying difficulties they have faced since the official ‘return to normal’ in February 2022. We identify that schools are now often the only public service offering regular face-to-face engagement with their communities. This leaves them fulfilling a form of social triage as part of their ever-widening role, absorbing many of the social issues and attempting to find additional help where they can, while continuing to demonstrate educational progress in their core responsibility.