Insights from the nEdEx Advisory Board on what 2026 demands of education leaders

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As we enter 2026, education leaders are doing so against a backdrop of renewed uncertainty and heightened expectation. As the Secretary of State for Education reflected in her recent letter to the sector, this new term calls for optimism about childhood, confidence in what education can do, and a shared determination to focus on what truly matters for children and communities.

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Yet that optimism sits alongside a system under sustained pressure. Recruitment and retention challenges, workload and wellbeing concerns, increasingly complex pupil needs, tight funding and ongoing behaviour and attendance issues are now everyday realities for schools and trusts. These pressures are not abstract; they are felt by staff, pupils and families in every community.

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It is with this lived reality in mind that the nEdEx Advisory Board has begun 2026. Bringing together leaders working across different roles in education, the Board is united by a shared belief that resilience and improvement must be built deliberately and collectively. Taken together, their insights point to a defining narrative for the year ahead - one where financial discipline, workforce wellbeing, intelligent use of resources and partnership working are not separate priorities, but essential and interconnected foundations for long-term success.

 

Contributions to this piece come from Carla Whelan, CEO of Empower MAT; Sash Hamidi, CEO of Pegasus Partnership Trust; Colette Firth, Executive Head of Spirit Federation; Howard Nelson, CFOO of Keys Academies Trust; and Nick Osborne, CEO of Maritime Academy Trust - each bringing a distinct system, trust or school-level perspective on the challenges and opportunities of 2026.

 

A System Under Pressure but Full of Possibility

Carla Whelan, CEO, Empower MAT

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Carla describes education as being in one of the most significant periods of change in decades. She outlines a system under pressure from recruitment and retention challenges, workload and wellbeing concerns, increasingly complex pupil needs, tight funding and ongoing behaviour and attendance issues following the pandemic.

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Alongside these challenges, Carla identifies a strong sense of possibility. She highlights deep professional commitment across the sector, growing collaboration between trusts, increased sharing of expertise and innovation in teaching and learning through evidence-informed practice and technology. Strong community connections, she argues, remain one of education’s greatest strengths, anchoring schools at the heart of their local contexts.

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Financial Sustainability as the Foundation

Sash Hamidi, CEO, Pegasus Partnership Trust

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Sash frames long-term financial sustainability as the defining challenge facing trusts in 2026. Operating within a national context of flat real-terms funding, rising operational costs and increasingly complex pupil needs, he argues that reliance on core funding alone is no longer sufficient to guarantee resilience or improvement at scale.

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Rather than viewing this solely as a constraint, Sash positions sustainability as a catalyst for more strategic, outward-facing leadership. Strong, values-led trusts, he argues, must increasingly act as system partners, supporting other schools, developing leaders and contributing capacity beyond their own organisational boundaries. Disciplined growth, intelligent collaboration and responsible diversification of income are essential to maintaining both financial resilience and educational quality.

 

Finance as a Strategic Enabler

By Howard Nelson, CFOO, Keys Academies Trust

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From a multi-academy trust finance leadership perspective, Howard reinforces the importance of positioning finance as a strategic enabler rather than a purely operational function. He highlights sustained cost pressures across staffing, estates, energy and SEND provision, alongside rising expectations around governance, cyber security and compliance.

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Strong financial intelligence, Howard argues, enables better strategic decision-making. Aligning staffing and curriculum models more closely to pupil need, investing in digital systems to improve productivity, and using scale and partnerships to secure better value for money allow trusts to focus resources where they have the greatest impact. In this way, finance becomes a driver of educational priorities rather than a constraint upon them.

 

Workforce Pressures and Retention in a Tight Financial Context

Colette Firth, Executive Head, Spirit Federation

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Colette explains how financial constraints and workforce pressure intersect at school and federation levels. Rising costs across staffing, energy and specialist services continue to place significant strain on budgets, directly affecting the ability to recruit and retain high-quality staff.

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With workload increasing, workforce shortages persisting, and pupil need becoming more complex, traditional financial incentives are increasingly difficult to sustain. In this context, Colette highlights the importance of leadership decisions around culture, workload management and professional trust as critical levers for maintaining morale, wellbeing and stability.

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Federation working, she argues, offers a powerful opportunity. Through the Spirit Federation, schools can share expertise, collaborate more effectively, and offer wider professional pathways. A deliberate focus on workload-aware leadership, high-quality professional development and cross-school collaboration enables investment in people through culture, flexibility and shared purpose - even in challenging circumstances.

 

Demographic Change and the Power of Relationships

Nick Osborne, CEO, Maritime Academy Trust

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Nick highlights that many of the most pressing challenges facing trusts in 2026 are being shaped less by internal decision-making and more by forces beyond schools’ direct control - particularly the falling national birth rate, felt most sharply across London schools.

 

Declining pupil numbers, he explains, are not simply a planning or financial issue, but one that fundamentally reshapes how trusts think about relationships, reputation and relevance. In this landscape, pupil numbers follow relationships, not the other way around.

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As a result, Maritime MAT is investing more time and capacity before school age than at any point in Nick’s career, building relationships with families, being visible in communities, listening carefully and demonstrating that schools are partners from the very start. Community ambassadors play a growing role in this work, acting as a bridge between school and community and building trust long before any application form is completed.

 

Opportunities for 2026 and Beyond

 

Looking ahead, Carla Whelan points to opportunities to reimagine workforce models through greater trust-to-trust collaboration, shared services and more open approaches to resource sharing. She also highlights the potential of technology, including AI, to reduce workload, personalise learning, and expand professional development - provided it is adopted thoughtfully, equitably, and with safeguarding firmly in mind. She emphasises the importance of strengthening early intervention through better coordination between education, health and social care, enabling schools and trusts to support vulnerable pupils earlier and more effectively.

 

Closing Reflections

By Jen Elliott, Chair of the NedEx Board

 

As 2026 begins, these contributions offer both reassurance and challenge. The pressures facing education are real, structural and unlikely to ease quickly. However, they also bring clarity. This is a year that calls for deliberate choices, disciplined leadership and a renewed focus on what truly makes a difference.

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Financial sustainability, workforce wellbeing, collaboration and intelligent use of data and technology are not competing agendas - they are deeply interconnected. When approached with clarity, confidence and moral purpose, they become sources of strength rather than constraint.

 

At nEdEx, we believe 2026 must be a year of purposeful action: outward-facing leadership, shared capacity and collective learning across trusts, schools and partners. By doing so, the sector can turn today’s challenges into a platform for long-term resilience, improvement and, most importantly, better outcomes for children.

 

Join the conversation

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The National Education Leaders Conference – 26 February
📍 DoubleTree by Hilton, Milton Keynes

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Many of the themes explored in this article will be taken further at the National Education Leaders Conference on 26 February. The day will follow the same flexible format as last year, allowing you to choose sessions aligned to your priorities, plus you’ll hear from 30+ inspiring speakers, and connect with peers from across the sector.

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🎟️ Tickets are completely free for school and trust leaders
👉 Book your place now and join the conversation shaping education in 2026.

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