Background
Education Support (formerly the Education Support Partnership) is the UK charity dedicated to the mental health and wellbeing of teachers and education staff. It asked Maxwell Stephens to find an Interim Office Manager.
Founded in 1877 as a benevolent fund for teachers, the charity now supports the mental health and wellbeing of the whole education workforce, from trainees and teaching assistants to headteachers and staff in further and higher education. Its services include counselling, financial assistance and a 24/7 helpline.
The Challenge
An interim appointment has to land quickly. The office manager needed to step into a busy charity environment, take ownership of the workplace and its services without a long handover, and work well with colleagues across the organisation from the first week.
The Market for This Role
Interim appointments have become a mainstream way to cover a gap or carry a change. The Institute of Interim Management's 2026 survey puts the average assignment at 10 months, and found change or transformation to be the most common reason for bringing an interim in, at 37% of assignments.
For an interim office manager, the test is simple: can the person run the workplace properly from the first day, without a long induction? That is a narrower field than the job title suggests.
Our Approach
- We discussed the role in detail with Education Support to agree the background, the job and person specification and the target organisations.
- Our team then ran a campaign combining a direct headhunt with an advertised search, so that both candidates in post and those available immediately were considered.
- We approached and screened every relevant candidate and provided full CVs and interview notes.
- Shortlisted candidates were assessed with our weighted selection matrix against five criteria agreed with the client, giving the charity a clear, auditable basis for its decision.
The Outcome
Maxwell Stephens made the appointment.
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