Initiating Relational Public Sector Reform Through Micro- and Macro-initiatives in the Early Years System in Greater Manchester

In this chapter, we outline how we worked as embedded collaborators through academic membership of Greater Manchester Combined Authority's (GMCA) School Readiness Board, as evaluators and leaders in a large UK Government-funded project on early outcomes and as consultants, delivering a strengths-based coaching programme for early years leaders across GM’s 10 local authorities. As such, we were able to become embedded academic collaborators working with the system leadership rather than on it. Our coaching programme was delivered to leaders in the early years field where these strategies feed through into the Early Years Delivery Model and the GM School Readiness Programme. The findings show how a reflective approach to the challenges of leadership helped embed personal development through real-world relational encounters that maintained motivation and then created advocacy for the leadership programme across the lengthy timespan of its implementation. The participants eventually stopped asking for expert models and manuals of leadership development when they realized that they were engaged in an experiential leadership programme.