FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Here you’ll find some of the questions we are asked by both those we work with, as well as those who want to find out more about the Leadership Centre and if our whole place approach to public services will assist them.
If you have any questions which aren’t here you can get it touch.
Is The Leadership Centre part of a government department, or a government agency?
No, the Leadership Centre is an independent charity registered in England and Wales, no. 1123234, and a company limited by guarantee, no. 05467557 (registered as the Leadership Centre for Local Government).
Who funds the Leadership Centre?
When the Leadership Centre was first set up in 2004, it was originally funded by a central grant from the Department of Communities and Local Government. Since then, having evolved into a registered charity, it has moved on to be financially self-sufficient, generating income from a variety of sources, including charitable grants, investments and sponsorship. However, the bulk of our income is derived from the design and delivery of leadership development programmes, with our investing that money in the Centre’s charitable objectives.
Can I look up the Leadership Centre’s accounts?
Yes, as a registered charity, you can find the Centre’s accounts filed with the Charity Commission here . And as a registered company, you can find the Centre’s accounts filed with Companies House here.
What (training) programmes does The Leadership Centre run?
The Leadership Centre acts as a broker, connecting places with experts who best suits their needs, and supporting them to achieve their goals for their place. We also design and deliver national leadership development opportunities for public sector leaders, and we develop initiatives with partners where we see there is a need not being met – for example, the 2013 launch of the Future Vision and Local Vision programmes.
What support is there to show the effectiveness of your work in places?
Internally, the Leadership Centre carries out evaluations of its work, and has seen extremely positive feedback from its programme participants. Average ratings on our key performance indicators vary from 9.29 out of 10 to 9.69 out of 10.
The Centre has also conducted external assessment exercises. In 2015, mindful of the reach of the Centre’s Local Vision project across the country, the University of the West of England was commissioned to look at the outcomes and effects of the Local Vision projects in different localities. The report that followed, ‘The Difference that makes the Difference’, considered how local context enables or constrains the potential for sustainable change, basing its analysis on case studies, interviews and secondary data from localities.
What can you do for individual managers or politicians?
The Leadership Centre is highly adaptable, providing bespoke leadership solutions to complex problems. If you are a public sector manager or politician, your leadership development requirements may tally with one of our existing programmes, or else you may have something more customised in mind, in which case we would be delighted to hear from you.
In addition to a bespoke leadership offer, the Centre runs multiple cohort-based leadership development programmes, reflecting the new interdependent world in which the public sector operates.
In 2013, our flagship programme, Future Vision was launched. The overarching aim of Future Vision is to help senior leaders address the leadership challenges they are facing, helping to inspire and create a better future for citizens by enabling systems change through leadership development.
The 2025 Leaders Programme was launched by the Leadership Centre in early 2016 for the next generation of Chief Executives and Director Generals in the health and care sector. Its key aim is to equip participants with the leadership capabilities to meet the challenges that the health and care systems will face in the future.
If you feel these programmes may be useful to you, please get in touch.
Can I order hard copies of your publications?
Many of the publications on this website are available in hard copy, although there may be limited supply of some of the more historic publications in our archive.
If you’d like to place an order, please get in touch and we’d be happy to help.
Does The Leadership Centre have a leadership framework?
We believe that every place is unique, with its own particular challenges and ambitions, and so there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will magically transform local leadership. Rather than a framework for leadership, we have created a Manifesto for leadership – which is a set of leadership principles developed from the real-life experiences of today’s leaders.