How we started
The  Leadership Centre for Local Government is the result of two years of discussion between the main bodies involved in local government.
The starting point was the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) conference in 2002 where at the suggestion of the SOLACE president that year, Mike Pitt, chief executive of Kent County Council, delegates discussed the need for improving leadership skills in local government. After much debate, SOLACE's Mike Pitt floated the idea of a centre of leadership.

At about the same time, as part of the Capacity Building programme, Nick Raynsford, the minister for local government, set up the Leadership Development Commission (LDC) to review the current situation in leadership and leadership development and to develop a national strategy for local government.

In March 2003, the LDC recommended that a Leadership Centre be set up. The steering group, with members from the ODPM, Office of Public Sector Reform, the Cabinet Office, the Treasury, the Audit Commission, the Local Government Association, the Improvement and Development Agency, the Employers Organisation, SOLACE, and the Society of Personnel Officers (SOCPO), commissioned Ottaway Consultants to investigate whether there was a business case for the new centre.

As part of the business case assessment a survey was commissioned to get a clear picture of the current state of leadership development in local authorities in England. Find out more about this  research.

Ottaway's research showed that local government was keen to support a co-ordinated approach to leadership development and that a dedicated centre would be the best way of doing it. The centre would act as a gateway to the many excellent leadership programmes already being developed within the private and public sector.

The centre was announced in July 2004 with work in two pilot areas,   the Southwest and Yorkshire and Humberside, to help us refine our understanding of what authorities need, look at linking up with other public sector initiatives and see how we can ensure leadership development meets local needs. The centre has been fully operational since April 2005.

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