The Staff College is pleased to announce the publication of a Think Piece by Meera Spillett entitled,
‘Cultural Competence. Promoting leadership & organisational change’, which is supported by the
Staff College. This paper suggests that there exists a uniting concept, that when effectively applied,
can become a powerful tool for whole organisational and individual change, potentially creating the
context for increased equity in the workplace and ultimately leading to improved service provision
for diverse communities.

The relationship between state and citizen is changing more rapidly now than for a generation.
Expectations and obligations long familiar to the UK’s citizens, policy makers and service providers
are being reassessed; and the UK is far from being alone.

The fifth in a suite of occasional reports. The views expressed in this publication, although personal, have been
informed by the sessional discussions and thinking generated amongst the participants who attended the Staff
College Summer Think Tank ‘Towards excellence and equity for all: educational innovation in changing times’ on
23rd – 24th August 2016. The Think Tank was attended by 23 senior leaders in children’s services, from local
authorities across England.

This publication proposes a whole systems approach to enhancing the leadership capacity across the
whole system from classroom to policy level as the means of achieving a lasting culture of school-led
self-improvement.