| Debate about the future of local education authorities (LEAs) needs to embrace wider issues than the merits of particular management structures. How will LEAs be able to add most value in the future circumstances in which they will be operating? This article explores from first principles the issue of local educational leadership, and suggests three broad purposes to which LEAs can make a positive contribution: the provision of high-quality education, the development of a learning society and the building of capacity at institutional level. The article concludes that local educational leadership is itself essentially an educational process. |