Patricia Collarbone

Dame Patricia "Pat" Collarbone, DBE, FRSA (born July 1947) is an education advisor. She advises public bodies in England, including the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

She taught for 28 years in Inner London and established a reputation for innovation and achievement during her headship at Haggerston School in Hackney.

In 1996 she established the London Leadership Centre at the University of London's Institute of Education. In May 1999 she was appointed to lead the development of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) now a mandatory qualification for all new headteachers in England.

In 2002-03, she directed the London Leadership Centre Consortium, which managed the Transforming the School Workforce Pathfinder on behalf of the DfES (now DCSF). In 2003, she was responsible for setting up the Leadership Strategy of the London Challenge and directed the Financial Management in Schools Project.

In September 2002, Pat Collarbone was seconded from the Institute of Education as Director of Leadership Development Programmes at NCSL, a post she held until December 2005. During her tenure she oversaw the development of a number of leadership programmes. She was a Director of NCSL and the Director of the National Remodelling Team (NRT) within NCSL, and later, TDA until August 2006.

In October 2006 she set up Education Change Associates Ltd, a private consultancy firm, but remained as a principal advisor to the TDA until March 2007. In July 2008 she co-founded Creating Tomorrow Ltd a consultancy specialising in the leadership of change in schools. In 2011 she wrote the Australian National Professional Standard for Principals.

She completed her MBA in September 1995, and her doctorate on educational leadership in November 1999. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has been a visiting professor at Canterbury Christ Church University and is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education.

She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1998 New Years Honours for "services to education".

Understanding Systems Leadership: Securing excellence and equity in education (2008) London: Network Continuum, co-authored with John West-Burnham.

Creating tomorrow: Planning, developing and sustaining change in education and other public services (2009) London: Network Continuum.