In England’s education sector, the rise of the Multi-Academy Trust has created a new layer of public leader: the MAT CEO. Part school improver, part diplomat, part fundraiser and part political interpreter, the role has evolved rapidly over the past decade — and one I never expected to hold. Yet over the past four years, I have, on the whole, relished the challenges and opportunities the responsibility brings.  This piece is not set out due any to personal disgruntlement, but as a personal reflection of my own experience and the observation of some shifts of dynamic in the sector. I have been in education for nearly 35 years – it was all I ever wanted to do and I am immensely proud of my career.

So, when a MAT CEO announces early retirement, the response is usually polite, warm and carefully worded. Tributes focus on “years of dedicated service”, “transformational leadership” and “the opportunity to spend more time with family”. But beneath the cacophony lies a more interesting — and uncomfortable — question: does the role itself now have a built-in shelf life?

The evidence increasingly suggests that it does, with reports indicating that many new MAT CEOs remain in post for only three to five years.

From School Leader to System Buffer?

The original promise of the MAT model was compelling. Strong schools would support weaker ones through shared expertise, aligned systems and economies of scale. Leadership would become more strategic and less isolated. CEOs would shape culture, improve outcomes and build resilient institutions. But the role has steadily expanded beyond just educational leadership into system leadership.

Today, as trust leaders, we operate in a permanent state of translation. We interpret government policy for anxious headteachers, explain school realities to trustees, reassure parents, negotiate with unions, manage reputational risk, oversee estates, monitor safeguarding, absorb financial shocks and respond to relentless, ever-changing accountability pressures and even deal with thwarted cyber-attacks!

We also serve as emotional shock absorbers for the organisation: the rock the waves crash against — and rightfully so. However, the role can sometimes become less about leading schools and more about containing or attempting to rebalance instability.

An Impossible Balancing Act?

One reason the shelf life potentially appears shorter, is that the contradictions and demands within the role are becoming harder to reconcile.

We are expected to think long-term while surviving short-term political cycles. We must champion collaboration while operating within competitive accountability structures. We are asked to deliver financial efficiency while maintaining morale and inclusion. We are expected to innovate while simultaneously avoiding too much risk.

Most significantly, we are held personally responsible for problems we often cannot fully control.

Attendance challenges, recruitment shortages, SEND pressures, parental complaints, estate sustainability, budget constraints and rising mental health needs, all land somewhere on the CEO’s desk. Even where operational responsibility sits elsewhere, strategic accountability rises upwards. That is the job; that is what we are paid for. In education, there remains an almost vocational expectation that leaders absorb extraordinary levels of pressure because the work is morally important, which can result, in my personal experience, in often putting career before family. Not OK.  That sense of mission sustained me for years — but it can also quietly burn some people out before they fully realise it.

Early Retirement as a Quiet Signal?

When experienced MAT CEOs step away earlier than expected, it is tempting to frame it as a personal lifestyle decision. Sometimes it is. But across the sector, repeated examples suggest something broader.

Early retirement may increasingly function as a quiet signal that the cost-benefit equation of the role has changed.

Unlike dramatic resignations, early retirement allows leaders to leave with their dignity intact — but does still cause shock waves when the ‘mic drop’ moment happens!  It does hopefully, however, avoid public conflict, protect institutional stability and preserve relationships. It is a respectable exit, even when it is tough to let go.

But the pattern matters.

Many MAT CEOs entered the profession during a period when school improvement still felt achievable through leadership energy, cultural clarity, professional trust and generosity. They now lead in an environment defined more by volatility than agency.

The emotional contract has shifted.

There is also a generational dimension. As someone who once thrived on relentless pace, I have increasingly found myself questioning whether perpetual crisis management represents a meaningful and sustainable career path? The Sunday evening “ick” and lack of sleep — anticipating the next operational emergency — becomes all too familiar.  Yes, we should learn to say ‘Let Them’ but it is sometimes easier said than done.

The Loneliness of Executive Leadership?

I have a great network of peers and one of the discussed aspects of the MAT CEO role is its potential for isolation, which can arrive in waves of varying intensity depending on the organisation’s direction of travel at the time.

While it is right and proper that CEOs project calm confidence and always ‘set the weather’  there can be relatively few spaces where leaders can openly express uncertainty or fatigue. Public vulnerability carries reputational consequences. Trustees may become nervous. Principals may become unsettled. External partners may interpret honesty as weakness.

As a result, many leaders carry pressure privately.

That is why having the right people around the table matters enormously: solution-focused teams who support and challenge in equal measure. Having a Chair of the Board who truly “gets it” is pivotal — someone who understands the sector, its pressures and the impact the role can have on the individual leading it. Personally, I could not have done what needed to be done without the care, wisdom and support of many fabulous people around me, even if it sometimes took time to build the right team and relationships.

Is the Role Becoming Unsustainable?

Trusts can and do create strong professional cultures, improve consistency and provide operational resilience. But there is growing reason to question whether the CEO role has become unrealistically expansive.

The danger is not simply burnout. It is strategic exhaustion.

When leadership becomes dominated by compliance, firefighting and reputational defence, organisations risk losing the imagination required for genuine improvement. CEOs can become custodians of pressure rather than architects of possibility. At that point, succession becomes harder too.

Ambitious leaders observing the role may begin to ask a rational question: why would I want that job?  It is a question I have been asked many times throughout my fabulous 35-year career in education.

A Different Future for the Role?

The sector may eventually need to rethink what successful executive leadership in education actually looks like. That may require abandoning the mythology of the endlessly resilient education leader, acknowledging that there needs to be a difference between commitment and self-erasure.

Some of the strongest leaders may ultimately be those who recognise when the role no longer allows them to lead in ways consistent with their values, energy or health.

In that sense, early retirement is not always a retreat. Sometimes it is a final act of realism: a time to let go, feel proud and allow the organisation to continue growing and thriving without you.

As a headteacher, I always reminded myself that I was merely the custodian of the schools I loved and led for how long that continued to be the case. Life would continue when the next leader arrives. If you no longer feel able to give a role the level of energy it requires, then perhaps it is time to adjust and make the decision to alter your personal dial.

The MAT CEO is still often imagined as a figure capable of infinite adaptation: financially astute, emotionally available, politically agile and relentlessly optimistic. But no role can absorb expanding expectations indefinitely without consequence. I fear too many trusts may be inadvertently in a constant cycle of firefighting without a hose – trying to balance the workload expectations and the space to do the strategic thinking which is taken up with measuring the intangible to keep the DfE and trustees satisfied

I am eternally grateful for the opportunities I have had with the privilege afforded to me over my long career, but perhaps the more important question is not why are CEOs retiring early – it is why the sector still seems surprised when they do?

The increasing visibility of early exits may therefore tell us less about individual resilience and more about sector design.

So to finish on a positive note:

So what has sustained me as a CEO?

• Maintaining a positive, solution-focused mindset, even during the most challenging times.
• Building and nurturing networks of like-minded peers to share ideas, gain perspective, and stay grounded.
• Staying connected to my ‘why’ by visiting our schools and seeing the incredible achievements and potential of our pupils, students and staff.
• Maintaining a sense of gratitude for the privilege and responsibility of leading an organisation that has a positive impact on the lives of others.
• Making space for humour and laughter whenever appropriate, helping to keep challenges in perspective.
• Having the unwavering support and patience of my husband throughout the entire journey!