Understanding Systems Leadership : Securing Excellence and Equity in Education

The focus of this book is one of the most significant changes ever in the understanding of the nature and purpose of educational leadership.

For a generation educational leadership has been understood in terms of institutional leadership: responsibility for the success and effectiveness of a specific school or college. A primary component of effective leadership was the implementation of national and local education authority policies at school level.

A range of forces are now challenging this model. There is increasing emphasis on the development of policy at ‘local' level and recognition of the need for local solutions to local problems. At the same time there is a growing emphasis on ‘leadership beyond the school', with school leaders becoming increasingly active across the system. System leadership is not yet ‘bedded' as a concept but it would appear at present to have the following dimensions: School Leaders:advising on the formulation of national policies and projects; working with local authorities; collaborating and cooperating with leaders of other public services; leading a cluster or federation of schools; leading extended services;working on community initiatives; acting as executive headteachers.This book will be the first to explore in detail the rationale for, and the implications of, systems leadership.

Pat Collarbone taught for 28 years in inner London and established a reputation for innovation and achievement during her headship at Haggerston School in Hackney. In 1996 she established the London Leadership Centre at the Institute of Education, University of London. In 2002 she was seconded from the IoE as Director of Leadership Development Programmes at the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), a post she held until December 2004. She was a Director of NCSL and the Director of the National Remodelling Team within NCSL until March 2005, continuing in this role when the NRT transferred to the Training and Development Agency (TDA).

In 2006, she set up Education Change Associates Limited, a private consultancy firm, but is also a principal advisor to the TDA, and is involved with work for NCSL on the ECM agenda, and with the Innovation Unit and the DfES.