The profile, status and funding of leadership development has risen dramatically both in the UK and internationally over the last decade. This article draws on a decade of study of leadership development programmes in order argue that school leadership training in England has received unprecedented levels of funding but that until very recently leadership development programmes contained only an implicit, rather than an overt, commitment to the enhancement of social justice. The paper concludes that recent government legislation in education has set in train fundamental adjustments to the education system, through the medium of such initiatives as the Every Child Matters agenda, which will require a much more explicit articulation of the role of school leaders in promoting social justice during their training. However, the article goes on to suggest that dangers exist that the increasing challenge of finding sufficient candidates to take up leadership roles in schools will subvert such attempts at societal reconstruction unless the systemic enhancement of leadership capacity itself becomes a key focus for leadership development.