The Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education) and the National College for School Leadership (now the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services) have been active participants in framing and shaping discourse in relation to leadership in schools in England. This paper is based upon findings from research funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-3610) as part of the Distributed Leadership and the Social Practices of School Organisation in England (SPSO) project. It examines how educational practitioners have engaged with these discursive framing and shaping activities. This is conducted through a particular focus upon how distributed leadership has been talked into being as part of a wider regime which seeks to manage the performance of educational practitioners and designated educational leaders. (Contains 2 notes.)