Most suggestions for reform come from Think Tanks and are incremental in spirit. The rare exceptions are those from NESTA such as Radical Visions of Future Government NESTA (2019) a visionary rethink of how government might be organised which destroys the thinking represented by Deloitte reports. Let me first give a taste of the more conventional crap - Mission-driven Government The Future Governance Forum paper sent to the UK PAR Select Committee (2025)
Mission-driven government is new and compelling – but it cannot gain traction, nor function properly, within the confines of old, unchanged systems. Barriers include:
● The concept of mission-driven government, as well as the missions themselves, being poorly framed and/or misconstrued
● A siloed approach within government, where officials and political advisers work first and foremost to ‘my Secretary of State’
● Rigid boundaries between central and local government, other parts of the state, other sectors of society and the economy, and between state and citizen
● Public finance allocations and processes working against ambitious cross-departmental working
● A risk-averse culture, where civil servants self-censor for fear of failure or political exposure
● Hollowed-out capacity at the centre of the state. The UK has lacked a purposeful centre of government for some time. Some necessary structures, skills and culture have lost effectiveness and those that are still in place are the products of a previous age and not fit for the current moment.
● Missions being seen as another word for ‘priorities’, leading to departments ‘mission-washing’ in order to gain prominence or secure funding for projects and initiatives.
Overcoming these barriers and moving to a mission-driven model will be difficult – and will not happen just by willing it into being. It requires sustained commitment from both political leaders (including the Prime Minister, Chancellor, Cabinet and senior advisers) and senior officials (Permanent Secretaries and Directors Generals). Without strong, visible leadership, missions are unlikely to take hold – tarnishing both the concept itself and wider efforts to modernise government.
Government must:
1. Lead with purpose. The centre should articulate an overarching vision that sits above its five missions, as well as clear, outcomes-focused ‘theories of change’ for each mission. If missions announced in early 2023 no longer reflect the current context, they should be repurposed. Missions should be backed by strong, personal commitment from both the Prime Minister and Chancellor, with a small Missions Leadership Group – consisting of the ‘quad’ of the PM, Chancellor, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Deputy PM – providing political leadership of missions. A more sophisticated and expansive set of strategic capabilities should be brought into No.10, enabling the Prime Minister to effectively drive forward the missions agenda.
2. Govern in partnership, orchestrating the collective efforts and resources of a wide array of actors – state and non-state – around shared missions. To enable this kind of partnership approach, Whitehall must ‘open up’ culturally and become a better partner – embedding external engagement into every stage of the policy cycle, professionalising relationship management and building a new culture of collaboration. Missions should be seen as a shared national endeavour involving every community and citizen, building the legitimacy needed to endure over the long-term.
3. Work collaboratively across government. Missions should sit above departmental silos and be collectively owned. A new model of shared accountability is needed to capture where an intervention by one department creates benefits or savings elsewhere. Governance should be focused on how well this system is learning, not just top-down targets.
4. Ensure the money follows the missions. Public finance should be aligned with mission goals at every stage – from how departmental budgets are set to how policy is appraised. That means embedding missions within the Treasury’s mandate and processes, including the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), Green Book guidance and procurement rules. A dedicated ‘preventative’ category of spending should be created, recognising the long-term value of early investment and reform. At the local level, place-based public service budgets should be introduced, enabling greater collaboration and preventative investment. The upcoming CSR in June 2025 represents a critical test of whether this new approach to public finance will be realised.
5. Rebuild state capacity in critical functions: Mission-driven government will only succeed if the state has the tools and capabilities to deliver it. That requires building up the civil service’s dynamic capabilities in mission-aligned areas – equipping the workforce to adapt to evolving needs and events, while investing in the tools, technology and infrastructure it relies on. This means both bringing in new expertise into government – through recruitment reforms and a high-profile ‘Missions Secondment Programme' – and building up capabilities among the existing workforce through investment in learning and development and a renewed focus on talent pipelines. Reducing reliance on external consultancies for core functions will also be a critical step here. Local government capacity must also be rebuilt, including by using digital and technology to modernise how councils work and deliver services.
6. Encourage a culture of test, learn and grow. The centre should be prescriptive about ends, but flexible about means, and provide the necessary political cover for officials to experiment and take risks. Whitehall’s deeply-ingrained aversion to uncertainty and risk should be swapped for a culture that tolerates experimentation and adaptability. Structural change is also needed for officials to work in this way – with significant focus needed on building greater flexibility into Whitehall processes, as well as updating the competency, reward and performance frameworks that govern organisational behaviour.
Dan Honig’s presentation about his book can be found here Mission-driven government – he seems a rather bumptious character.
The Radical How Anthony Greenway and Tom Loosemore (Nesta 2024) is a rather disappointing exception to my comment which started the post
There’s a different approach to public service organisation, one based on multidisciplinary teams, starting with citizen needs, and scaling iteratively by testing assumptions. We’ve been arguing in favour of it for years now, and the more it gets used, the more we see success and timely delivery.
We think taking a new approach makes it possible to shift government from an organisation of programmes and projects, to one of missions and services. It gives the next administration an opportunity to deliver better outcomes, reduce risk, save money, and rebuild public trust.
Making the Radical How a reality.
Make outcomes matter most; Ministers should see delivering outcomes as a path to accelerating their own ambitions
Let outcomes define accountability Hold senior officials accountable for delivering promises, not paperwork
Demand politicians set direction through missions; Empower civil servants to determine how to make them happen
Add more teams to get more done; Because multidisciplinary teams are the best unit of delivery, not individual generalists
Open up ; Mandate that teams work in the open, sharing their successes, failures and knowledge in public
Fund teams, not programmes; Invest public money incrementally, with oversight proportionate to financial risk
Reinvent procurement; Buy or rent services that support teams, not simply to whom outcomes are outsourced
Train civil servants for the internet era; Find, develop and keep the best, most skilled people; reward and incentivise them competitively
Invest in digital infrastructure; Open data, common platforms, clear design; the basic foundations for everything
Lead with courage; Accepting and committing to reform is the hardest, but essential first step
Recommended Reading
State of the State Deloitte/Reform (2025) A typical thinktank report, regurgitating the
conventional wisdom- Who is Government? The untold story of public service Michael Lewis (2025) Marvellous
account of government work which the author discusses here with Aaron BastaniFailed State – why nothing works and how to fix it Sam Freedman (2024) A disappointing
book from someone who advised Michael Grove in the UK Department of EducationThe Return of the State and why it is essential for our health, wealth and happinessGraeme Garrard (2022) a Canadian political writer working at a UK university. Historical
and a bit abstractThe Return of the State – restructuring Britain for the Common Good ed Patrick Allen
et al (2021) A collection of British essays on how progressives might reform the state
The Idea of the Labour Left; A du Cros (2021) a useful overview of some key thinkersThe Richer, The Poorer – how Britain enriched the few and failed the poor – a 200 yearhistory Stewart Lansley (2021) Fantastic readSuccessful Failure Matt Andrews (2021) the US (Harvard) guru who advises many governments on their reforms
Radical Visions of Future Government NESTA (2019) a visionary rethink of how
government might be organised which destroys the thinking represented by Deloitte reports
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