School leaders' views on the state of education

Ipsos has worked with The Key to survey The Key’s membership of school leaders across England. The Key’s school leaders are unconvinced by the current Government’s performance on education – just 10% are satisfied with the Government’s education record, while 77% are dissatisfied. Ipsos’s historical polling data shows that this has always been the case, although school leaders are much more dissatisfied now than they were a decade ago.

When asked which political party has the best policies on education, over half of The Key’s school leaders (58%) were unable to name a party. This may reflect leaders’ views about the role of politicians in education policy, however: school leaders’ responses consistently indicate that many would welcome less political involvement in the education system. For example, when asked which of a range of initiatives would do most to improve education quality in England, the most commonly cited answer (by 45% of leaders) was ‘fewer in-year statutory changes’. 

Despite dissatisfaction with the Government, leaders consider that the quality of education in England’s schools is good (91%) and around half feel that it has improved over the past 12 months (47%).

• Download the full report from The Key website (PDF)

Technical Note

• A sample of 14,507 school leaders was selected from The Key’s membership database to complete an online survey in February 2015. 1,180 school leaders completed the full survey. 
• The questionnaire for this study was designed by The Key with guidance from Ipsos and conducted online using Survey Monkey.
• The profile of The Key’s membership database is similar to the profile of schools across England. The data has been weighted to match the population profile of schools in England in terms of region, school phase and school type. 
• The survey was designed, administered and analysed by The Key. Ipsos provided advice on sampling, questionnaire design and weighting.