Sustaining the leaders of children's centres: the role of leadership mentoring

Leadership mentoring is a central component of the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL), which is designed to develop robust, creative and courageous children's centre leaders. Mentoring provides a safe, supportive and confidential space in which leaders can discuss the challenges of leading their centres. Like NPQICL tutors, mentors encourage programme participants to build teams, inspire leadership in others and collaborate in addressing the complexities of providing integrated services. But working with discouraged children, families and communities can be discouraging for staff and leaders - and undermine effective provision. Mentoring is meant to be an encouraging process where leaders learn that others have similar experiences and concerns, which helps to restore their confidence, sense of purpose and agency - and their ability to contain others' negative emotions. Concepts from Adlerian psychology, such as the 'courage to be imperfect', informed the mentoring approach, and findings from 23 NPQICL programme participants' feedback supported the efficacy of the methods used.