National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership

London Metropolitan University are the lead organisation for the London Consortium for the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership. Other partners in the Consortium are Middlesex University, Rowland Hill Centre For Childhood and Robert Owen Early Years Centre.

Overview

The National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) is the first national programme to address the needs of leaders within multi-agency, early years settings. NPQICL is recognised as a qualification in working in multi-agency and multi-disciplinary environments across education, health and social services.

This qualification seeks to provide leaders/managers and emerging leaders/managers of integrated centres with the opportunity to create an ethos of community partnership working, by co-ordinating coherent and seamless high quality services for children and families.

Eligibility

Applicants must be:

a leader, deputy or deputy equivalent of a designated children's centre
a leader, deputy or deputy equivalent of an approved children's centre
a member of a senior management team
capable of being assessed in the children's centre for which they have day-to-day leadership responsibility

The programme is not designated for strategic leaders or local education authority advisers.

Please note that the qualificaiton is for practising leaders who will be delivering integrated services in a setting during the year that they undertake the qualification. You must be in a position where your leadership can be assessed (see assessment section). The programme is not designated for strategic leaders or local authority education advisers.

Programme structure and Assessment

The programme gives participants the opportunity to reflect in depth on their leadership as they follow a course based on a blended learning approach incorporating face-to-fact learning, online learning and collaborative reflection. The course includes access to a mentor for one visit per term, to support, guide and challenge participants, both as students and as leaders in their own organisations.

Participants are required to keep a leadership learning journal to record thoughts and reflections about key incidents, providing a focus for mentoring sessions and assignment writing.

The course is delivered in blocks across the year totalling 12 days in total. Assessment is carried out through two assignments of 6,000 words. There is also a centre-based assessment visit towards the end of the programme.

Benefits to integrated centre leaders

Builds on participants' own experiences to deepen their understanding of learning about leadership.
Increases their awareness of practical challenges faced in leading an integrated setting.
Creates an opportunity to relate theories about leadership to their own practice.
Enables lifelong learning skills for integrated centre leaders.
Builds greater self-awareness, personal and professional integration in a setting which requires complex management of conflicting roles and responsibilities.
The qualification is equivalent to 60 Master's level CAT points
Benefits to the centre
Increases self confidence of all staff and builds on effective leadership roles within the centre.
Provides a deeper understanding of the skills needed to lead and manage a children's centre.
Develops the ability to engage and apply the values, principles and vision of the centre in order to enhance professional practice.
Builds an effective leadership environment in order to share and support a professional learning community within the centre.

How to apply

There is only one application period each year which is organised online by the National College For School Leadership. The next application round will open in Spring 2012 and further information will be available shortly.