2025 workload survey highlights chronic underinvestment in ASN
The AHDS annual workload survey ran for the tenth time in 2025. It has been completed by over 1000 school leaders in each year 1252 members in 2025, over 40% of our membership.
The 2025 report flowing from this survey highlights that:
The lack of proper support for pupils with additional needs is by far the number one workload concern for AHDS members.
The demand for additional support has increased substantially in recent years while the resources available to support pupils have reduced and the bureaucracy associated with accessing additional support has increased.
The proportion of Head Teachers who recommend headship has reduced to an all time low.
The trend over ten years regarding the employment aspirations of Deputes and Principal Teachers has shown a steep decline in the proportion who want to become a headteacher. Only 15.4% of DHTs and PTs who responded this year expressed an interest in headship.
The mandatory training required before becoming a Head Teacher is highly valued but is seen as another disincentive to seeking headship as the additional study required comes on top of already high average working hours.
The Scottish Government’s standardised assessments (SNSAs) are valued by members for primary 4 & 7 pupils but are seen to lack value, divert resources and to be unreliable for primary 1.
AHDS makes the following recommendations in this report: 2016 25 Workload National final
Recommendation 1:
Following the gaps in funding highlighted by the Audit Scotland report on this theme, urgent and significant investment is required to enable schools to effectively support pupils with additional needs. A consistent national funding formula should be adopted to address the current variability of provision.
Recommendation 2:
To address the excessive working hours of school leaders and the continual decline in desirability of headship, the Scottish Government and local authorities must increase and protect management capacity in schools. This must include action to ensure that any extension to class teacher non-contact time is not delivered at the expense of management time nor in ways which offer pupils lower quality learning time.
Recommendation 3:
Candidates undertaking Into Headship should be released from school 1 day per week for the duration of the programme.
Recommendation 4:
P1 SNSAs should be discontinued or, at least, the decision whether or not to administer them should be at the discretion of school leaders.