A pioneering leadership programme – hailed as the best idea to come out of local government in the past decade - has been launched with the ambitious aim of taking good leaders and turning them into great ones.

The Leeds Castle Leadership Programme is the brainchild of Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of the LGA, and the work of the Leadership Centre for Local Government which was set up to two years ago to transform our towns, cities, counties and districts by dramatically improving the calibre of our leaders.

Barry Quirke, chief executive of Lewisham Council and former president of SOLACE, said: “The Leeds Castle Leadership Programme is the best idea on local government leadership to emerge in the past decade.”

Chair of the Leadership Centre, Kate Priestley, said: “Nothing like this has ever been tried in local government before. We hope and expect this experience will be so potent, it will have a seminal effect on local authority leaders, giving them the springboard to make the extraordinary jump from good leaders to those that will be remembered for being great.

“The role of local government has never been so exciting or so relevant to the lives of its citizens – the time is ripe for great leaders to flourish.

“And with great leaders come better communities and improved lives for their citizens.”

The Leeds Castle Leadership Programme is a unique skills development opportunity that breaks local government convention by targeting both chief executives and political leaders.

The initiative customises the learning so those taking part can apply the knowledge when they return to their authorities to their real-life issues.

Designed to compete on the world stage, the faculty delivering the nine-day programme is made up of the very best minds in the world: including Adam Kahane whose achievements include facilitating high-stakes problem-solving efforts in South Africa during the transitional period when the Apartheid system was breaking down, in Columbia during the Civil War, in Argentina during the collapse, in Guatemala after the genocide, in Israel and Palestine, Northern Ireland, Cyprus and the Basque country.

Adam will work with the cohort of 20, split equally between chief executives and leaders, to tackle their toughest of problems, focussing on community cohesion, selected by the participants as the hottest of topic in English local government.

The programme, developed by the Leadership Centre’s director of leadership Tom Irvine and Cranfield University’s professor of defence leadership Keith Grint, will take place at Leeds Castle in Kent, and is split into three parts over three days between March and July 2007.

Tom, who is leading the programme, said: “This is a one-off opportunity for local government leaders. They will be exposed to people at the very peak of their profession working on the major issues of the day and scenarios of the future. They will gain personal insights.

“I’m confident this experience will have a resounding effect on the sort of leaders the participants become. Not least the graduates of this programme will collectively raise the bar for the entire sector, within their local authorities, and across their localities, creating great places that in turn improves the lives of local people.”

The cohort was suggested by Lord Bruce-Lockhart, SOLACE director general David Clarke, and IDeA executive director Lucy de Groot.

Participants will get the chance to discuss major global concerns such as climate change with the foremost experts in the field. They’ll discuss how to effectively influence the policy agenda, discuss future policy options, the future of local government, explore leading major change, and consider how to remake political parties as great civic institutions.

The cohort will improve their personal effectiveness as leaders with a session taken by specialists from RADA that will illicit how to get the very best out of their voice, body language and presence to enhance leadership impact.

Other well-known names contributing include: director of the Young Foundation and former head of policy to the Prime Minster Geof Mulgan, former chief advisor to the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit Sir Michael Barber, author of Building Jerusalem: the Rise and Fall of the Victorian City Dr Tristram Hunt, the Bishop of Southwark the Rt Rev Dr Tom Butler, president of the European think tank European Muslim Network professor of Islamic studies Tariq Ramadan, Ipsos MORI public affairs managing director Ben Page.

The Leadership Centre is planning two more programmes for a further 40 participants.

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For more information please contact Hana Fazal at the Leadership Centre on 020 7630 2184, or 07921 604237.