By Kathryn Morgan, ASCL Leadership and Workforce Specialist

"Everything rolls downhill to schools."

Few phrases better captured the ASCL People and Culture Conference on 8 July than this observation from the Sustainable School Leadership research.

When we began planning the conference, we wanted to move beyond discussing recruitment and ask a more fundamental question: what would it take to make education a profession people can sustain throughout an entire career?

There are reasons for optimism. Teacher leaving rates have improved, with around 6,000 fewer teachers leaving the profession each year than previously. But, as Jack Worth argues in Workforce warning signs, there is no room for complacency. James Zuccolo at the Education Policy Institute describes the current position as a "borrowed recovery"; welcome progress, but not yet a secure one.

The conference reflected that shift in thinking. The conversation deliberately moved beyond teacher supply to consider the whole education workforce, including business leaders, support staff and colleagues across further education. Because if schools and colleges are to thrive, every part of the workforce matters.

Professor Toby Greany's research argues that education is not facing a pipeline crisis, at least not yet, but a sustainability crisis. Schools and colleges continue to absorb responsibilities once carried elsewhere. Safeguarding, SEND, attendance, mental health, and family support increasingly sit alongside teaching and learning, leaving leaders to navigate roles that are broader and more complex than ever.

There were too many thought-provoking contributions to summarise every session, but four themes stood out.

Professional learning should be part of everyday work
Beryce Nixon challenged delegates to stop viewing professional learning as something confined to INSET days or twilight sessions. Sustainable organisations are learning organisations, where people continue to develop expertise, grow professionally, and experience genuine belonging throughout their careers.

People strategy and flexibility go hand in hand
Amy Whittall challenged leaders to think more strategically about their people. Workforce sustainability cannot be left to chance or reduced to individual initiatives; it requires a clear people strategy that aligns recruitment, development, wellbeing, leadership and organisational culture. Looking after people is not separate from school improvement, it is central to it.

Antonia Spinks brought that strategy to life through her keynote and case study on flexible working. Flexibility is often viewed as a compromise, but she demonstrated how, when implemented thoughtfully, it can become a powerful tool for recruitment, retention, and inclusion. Creating flexible career pathways enables talented staff to remain in the profession through different stages of their lives and careers, helping schools retain valuable expertise rather than lose it.

These messages felt particularly timely when viewed alongside ASCL's Road to 2030 policy timeline. Curriculum reform, accountability changes, SEND reform, employment legislation, children's services, inclusion, funding and school improvement are all arriving alongside the everyday work of educating children and young people. The challenge is no longer managing one significant reform, but implementing multiple reforms well, at the same time.

Workforce means the whole workforce
One of the strongest messages came from Taryn Edge, who reminded us that conversations about workforce sustainability cannot focus solely on teachers and leaders. Business teams, finance teams, HR professionals, estates staff, technicians, and support staff are fundamental to educational success. If we are serious about sustainability, we need to mean the whole workforce.

Culture is the strategy
Jagdeep Pabla reminded delegates that "an educator's working environment is a child's learning environment." Katie Tyson reflected on the growing recognition within the Department for Education that implementation and workforce impact must shape policy. Gemma Scotcher from Education Support brought the discussion back to the lived experience of educators, describing the constant "gear shifts" required as professionals balance teaching, safeguarding, pastoral care, and leadership every day. Her point resonated deeply: people don't enter education because they lack purpose or commitment, they care enormously. But purpose and care can only carry a profession so far if the conditions in which people work are not themselves sustainable. 

Together, these contributions pointed to a simple conclusion: sustainability is about far more than workload. It is about creating organisations where people feel valued, trusted and able to do their best work. That brought me back to a quote from Brené Brown:

"Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind."

As schools and colleges prepare for one of the most ambitious periods of policy reform in recent memory, those words feel particularly relevant. Clear expectations, clear priorities and clear implementation are not simply good leadership, they are the foundations of sustainable organisations.

Throughout the day we talked about recruitment, retention and leadership supply. But perhaps the biggest shift was recognising that resilience alone is not the answer. Sustainable organisations are designed, not wished for. People don't leave education because they stop caring; they leave when the conditions make caring unsustainable. Recruitment remains vital, but it is no longer enough. The future of education depends on creating education settings where every member of the workforce can build a long and fulfilling career.

Ultimately, culture is not simply part of the workforce strategy; it is the workforce strategy.

We began the day with the observation that "everything rolls downhill to schools." Perhaps it always will. The real question is whether the cultures we create stop that pressure rolling downhill onto individuals. If we get people and culture right, schools and colleges won't simply cope with change, they will sustain the people who make change possible.

Further information
If you attended the ASCL People and Culture Conference, links to all the resources will have been shared with you via email.

If you weren't able to attend but would like access to the resources, these are available to purchase from ASCL PD. Please contact pd@ascl.org.uk for more details.