One of the clusters – Leeds – looked specifically at how to take forward the training and development of the city’s cluster co-ordinators, but for headteachers and other school or setting leaders, the journey appears to be one they have largely carved out for themselves.
Some clusters, like Aylsham, are offering training opportunities to parents, childcare workers and others within their communities, but little attention seems to have been given across the clusters to considering development needs for those leading the initiatives. This may well be an area for further enquiry.
The critical missing piece of the jigsaw would therefore seem to be the training and development of leaders of schools and settings. Most leaders have become engaged in collaborative work through their own practice and have crafted it as they have gone along.
Whilst there may be some focus on collaborative approaches to leadership and the implications of the requirements around the core offer in some leadership development programmes, including National College programmes, this is clearly an area for further growth.
Leadership development opportunities often focus on the leader as individual, even where team development is considered. A broader perspective could be developed: one that would enable leaders of schools and settings to grasp, more readily and more systematically, the opportunities collaboration offers, for them, for their institutions and for their core clients – the children and families they serve.