2025 was tough, as many recent years have been for those working in education. We did not enjoy the clarity and certainty that we had all hoped for.
Nevertheless, great things were still achieved. As my colleague and friend Dr Paul Armstrong often suggests, the answers are amongst us; there is huge institutional knowledge we just need to get better at sharing.
We should also look to the fantastic role models that we have:
- Russell Hobby, recently appointed as a Labour peer
- Steve Taylor, knighted for services to education
- The great work of Professor Becky Francis and Tom Rees
And from the school business leadership community, those who have received honours over the years, including: - Stephen Lester
- Matt Smith
- Lee Miller
- Jo Marchant
- Carla Bradshaw
There are many more that I could mention.
Let’s also not forget the impact of School Resource Management Advisers acting as important system leaders.
So as we look ahead to 2026, it would be easy to frame the conversation around constraint: funding pressures, workforce shortages, rising costs, and increasing complexity. These challenges are real, and they deserve our attention. But they do not define us, and they certainly should not limit our ambition.
Education has never been a sector that has benefited from long-term policy clarity or certainty over future challenges as prevailing political winds twist and turn. Our strength has always come from those within it: leaders, educators, and school business professionals who turn uncertainty into opportunity and ambition into action.
From pressure to purpose
The year ahead will again test our resolve, but it will also sharpen our thinking. Constraint has a way of forcing clarity – about what truly matters, how we use our resources, and where we can innovate rather than simply endure.
School business professionals sit at the heart of this moment. More than ever, their work is not just about stewardship – it is about strategy. SBPs and ops leaders are helping shape sustainable organisations, enabling the best educational outcomes, and ensuring that values drive decisions, not just balance sheets.
In 2026, the opportunity is not simply to “get through" but to design better education provision with the optimal environment.
- Schools that are financially resilient
- Schools that invest wisely in people
- Schools that use data intelligently, not defensively
- Schools that collaborate, rather than compete, where it makes sense
Leadership beyond policy
Government policy will continue to evolve and sometimes surprise us, but our direction does not need to be dictated by it. The most effective organisations in education are already setting their own course:
- Building long-term financial strategies, not short-term fixes
- Investing in capability, not just compliance
- Embracing technology and automation to free people for higher-value work
- Redefining value for money to include wellbeing, sustainability, and impact
This is not about resisting change; it is about leading it.
The power of the profession
Operations leaders are no longer working behind the scenes. They are now trusted advisors, system leaders, and change-makers. In 2026, their voice will matter more than ever, not just in finance meetings, but by innovating, shaping culture, priorities, and vision.
The opportunity ahead is to continue professionalising, connecting, and lifting one another by sharing insight, building networks, and modelling strong, ethical leadership in complex environments.
Looking forward with confidence
Optimism is not naïve. It is a choice grounded in experience. Education has navigated disruption before, and each time it has emerged stronger because of the people within it.
So let us step into 2026 with confidence:
- Confident in our expertise
- Confident in our collective leadership
- Confident that the future of education is shaped not only by policy, but by practice
The year ahead is not one to wait through. It is one to shape.
As a response to this environment, in 2026, ISBL will continue to enhance and improve the core ISBL offer, but we will also launch three new distinct hubs in the spring: a Solutions Hub designed to support organisational level strategy, a Research Hub designed to ensure evidence underpins innovation and improvement and an International Hub from which we will export our intellectual property but also seek to learn more about other global education systems.
Together, we will prevail.
Stephen Morales
