Broadening the Definition of Leadership: Active Citizens as Leaders of Change
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| Pages | 15-17 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200200034 |
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| Author | Anne Connor |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
The Mental Health Review Volume 7 Issue 4 December 2002 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2002 15
Broadening the Definition of Leadership:
Active Citizens as Leaders of Change
Based on an interview with Anne Connor
Programme Manager, Allies in Change
Viewpoint
ince the mid 1980s, the impact of
globalisation, the transformation to larger complex
organisations and the rapid pace of technological
development and change has led contemporary
leadership theory to shift its focus from charismatic
and transactional leadership (management) to a focus
on change. Likewise, the trend in personal
development programmes has shifted from
‘management’ development to ‘leadership’
development to meet the growing demand to find the
next generation of leaders, in the belief that
leadership is the key organisational development
intervention that will bring about transformational
change.
The term ‘leadership’ has been defined primarily
within the work domain, and these development
programmes are aimed at managers and those who
lead organisations. However, the government has
recognised that change in public services is a process
that requires the collaboration of many stakeholders
working together in partnership, and has placed at the
core of its policies the need to include service users
and carers.
The Scottish Human Services Trust (SHS) is a not-
for-profit organisation that has taken this concept
forward. They believe that people who are at risk of
exclusion must be at the heart of the movement for
change and have developed a leadership training and
development programme called Allies in Change to
promote the involvement, participation and inclusion
of people who use mental health services and their
friends and families who care for them.
Allies in Change followed the SHS Partners in
Policymaking programme which is an internationally
recognised leadership development programme for
disabled adults and parents of disabled children.
S
The background
Partners in Policymaking was developed in Minnesota
in 1986 in response to the lack of an effective
consumer voice in the policymaking process and an
ageing family leadership. Families who had pioneered
the first round of community services in the 1960s and
1970s were becoming less able and less willing to
think innovatively and to push for continuing change
towards the inclusion of disabled people in society.
There was a need for a new generation of families
with young children to take up the challenge of
change. There was also a need to develop a cadre of
young disabled adults who could become activists and
change agents in their own right.
The course gives people the skills, knowledge and
confidence they need to work more effectively for a
more inclusive society and more responsive services.
The Partners in Policymaking programme changes the
interaction of service users with those who provide
and plan services, from people feeling powerless and
complaining about service deficiencies to more
confident people working as partners for change.
Allies in Change
When the first Partners in Policymaking course was
launched in March 1998, joint planning was in its
formative stages in many parts of Scotland. In some
places mental health service users and carers had been
involved in the community care planning
arrangements, but in other places they were just
beginning to get involved in the follow up to the
Framework for Mental Health Services issued in late 1997
by the Scottish Office. SHS explored whether there
was a possibility to develop an equivalent programme
for people with an interest in mental health services.
Many mental health service users and carers felt they
did not have a voice within service planning and
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