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So, we will soon have a new prime minister and, while a contest may need to take place, all roads point to Andy Burnham being the next occupant of 10 Downing Street. I have no doubt he will already be building his Cabinet in his head.

At this stage, no one knows whether he is considering keeping Bridget Phillipson in post as education secretary, or if he has a plan to clear the Cabinet of former Starmer loyalists.

We also don’t know if Bridget Phillipson wants to hang on to her brief or serve in a Burnham Cabinet.

Stay the course

But here is my appeal to both: don’t allow internal politics and past loyalties to jeopardise the progress being made in education.

It may be frustratingly slow for many of us, but it’s the most I have seen in nine years as general secretary of the NAHT.

In those nine years, Bridget Phillipson is the ninth secretary of state for education that I have worked with, and the longest-serving, bar Gavin Williamson (the former has lasted just under two years; the latter just over).

The two shared a common problem: an embattled and beleaguered boss in the shape of the PM. The extent to which that hindered the progress they could make is known only to them, but it can’t have helped.

A plan we should stick to

However, under this administration, we have a vision for education clearly expressed in the education White Paper . Previous incumbents have not been able or prepared to set out the government’s plans in a coherent way.

While not perfect, this plan has the support of education leaders. It grasps the nettle of special educational needs and disabilities reform, curriculum modernisation, inclusion, white working-class attainment and child poverty.

The delivery of the vision is not without controversy. Among other things, the NAHT has frustration over continuing high-stakes accountability, funding, workload issues and pay.

But a genuine, if imperfect, dialogue with the profession (the real experts in the delivery of education) now exists. I am convinced this will be successful if the new prime minister can steady his ship.

You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone

In my experience, every new secretary of state, even if wedded to the manifesto, will bring new ambitions to the sector that may well serve to bust a system already under strain.

Our children’s education lasts the best part of three parliaments, and the children now coming to the end of their school career have seen nothing but change for the sake of politics rather than stability for the sake of their future.

So, to both Andy and Bridget, I say that now is the time to establish whether working together could build on and accelerate the progress already made.

And to those writing Phillipson’s political obituary, I say take care. I have seen the failure caused by constant change. You never really know what you have until it’s gone.

Paul Whiteman is general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union

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