Fifty practitioners from Birmingham are currently on a training programme to discover how they can extend the boundaries of their existing leadership roles. With an emphasis on children's centre workers, participants in the city council's seven-day leadership programme are learning some of the secrets of successful leadership.
'Freer-thinking leaders released from the confines of the now-moment can do what is necessary to enable their setting to improve outcomes for children,' says Martin Hawthorne, early years training advisor for Birmingham City Council. 'We encourage leaders to listen to what their environment and the people in it are telling them, and to use their judgement to decide the best way forward.'
Encouraging participants to see themselves as agents for change is a top priority, and Mr Hawthorne emphasises the need for more early years practitioners to see themselves as leaders. This year he has opened up the course to a wide range of professionals, including teachers and nursery managers attached to children's centres. 'It is not only the centre or nursery manager who is a leader - at every level there is a need for leadership,' he says.
The course underlines the need for children's centre staff to be pro-active in reaching out to the local community and develop ways to encourage local families to use services.
It also prioritises moving towards a multi-agency services model. Every Child Matters insists it is not possible for a child to reach their potential if settings focus solely on education, without regard to the child's holistic needs and the context within which they live. Practioners are given advice on how settings can work together with other service providers to minimise the impact of negative external factors on children's learning and development.
A broader vision
Since finishing her course earlier this year, Nilmini Perera, senior family support worker at St Thomas Children's Centre, has come to realise her team can have a much greater influence on the well-being of children if she as a leader maintains a broader vision of what the centre is trying to achieve.
'You have to come away from a "need to know" basis when sharing information about children with other professionals,' she says.
Ms Perera now has regular meetings with the head of her nursery to raise awareness of the needs of children from the families she is supporting. Collaboration at senior leadership level also means nursery workers know which member of the family team to come to if there is a problem with a particular child. 'We've also set up a liaison between the creche and nursery staff so any issues of concern about a particular child can be raised in advance of them joining the nursery,' she adds.
Seven training days are spread over a period of six months. Led by Professors Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram from the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC), the local authority delivery team take practitioners through a range of workshop and networking scenarios based around key leadership issues. 'To lead effectively within such a rapidly changing context, you need to know yourself well - what type of leader you are - and to be able to reflect on your own value system,' Professor Pascal says. 'Leadership today is more about confidence, emotional intelligence, possessing the inter- and intra-personal skills to lead a group of people to places they have never been before.'
The course has several areas of focus. First, practitioners look at how to clarify children's centre policy and the organisational change agenda, before moving on to consider the skills and competencies of effective leadership.
'Leaders are constantly dealing with change,' Mr Hawthorne says. 'Practitioners come and go, local authority and government policies must be implemented, so it's important to have strategies to implement and gain support for new measures they introduce.'
The Birmingham leaders address these issues in the third session on how to manage organisational change creatively and successfully, before exploring how the individual and not the group sits at the centre of an accurate understanding of equality, diversity and inclusive practice. 'It's about true inclusion,' says Mr Hawthorne. 'Every person must be made welcome and feel part of the setting.'
In the next part of the course, learning how to implement performance management and self-evaluation helps leaders become more aware of whether their settings are providing the right sort of support for local people. The final session provides an evidence-based evaluation of assessing outcomes for children and families.
A recent graduate, Becky Hiscock, made a lot of new contacts during the networking sessions that are a central part of each day. Her new colleagues have proved useful in helping her deal with changing requirements of her role as teacher and her new position on the senior leadership team at Weoley Castle Nursery School. 'It's great to be able to pick the phone up and find out how others are dealing with similar issues,' she says.
For Ms Hiscock, the difference between being a teacher and a leader is about promoting what you do to a wider audience and utilising the skills of a wider range of professionals to enhance your provision. 'The course gave me enough time to step back from the daily routine and reflect on what I want to achieve and to think about who I need to work with to achieve it,' she says.
Ms Perera always makes sure she has time set aside to reflect on her team's practice and how it can contribute to the success of her centre's services. 'The course has given me the confidence to view myself more as a leader. I now know that what I do has an impact beyond my own immediate remit,' she says.
Professor Pascal believes courses like this are essential to embed the leadership principle within children's centres and wider settings, and to equip leaders with the knowledge to make a new and better vision of early years education.
Integrated Study
After completing their course, many Birmingham practioners have taken the National Professional Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) qualification. This enables early years leaders to further their skills within the rapidly developing multi-agency environment. With its new emphasis on early years education as a part of its more holistic approach to education leadership, the National College for Leadership of Schools and Colleges is also piloting an integrated systems project where successful children's centre leaders are supporting other settings across their locality. A research project looking at the long-term outcomes of NPQICL is also being planned.
- http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/index/professionaldevelopment/profes sionaldevelopment-earlyyears.htm