2025: A rush to deliver

The Devolution White Paper set out a move to put some much needed structure and coherence around a devolution agenda that has until now been based on an unclear patchwork of closed door dealmaking. In what has received the most political attention, it proposes a consolidation of local and subregional government: fewer, larger councils, more aligned boundaries of services, consolidated budgets, and a clearer mandate for mayors and strategic authorities to deliver. There have inevitably been credible challenges raised around reorganisation taking place in the context of strained capacity, the risk of consolidated budgets leading to the familiar story of non-statutory budgets being eaten up by all-encompassing social care demand, and potential impacts on democratic accountability and responsiveness to communities. Embedding community power and investment for neighbourhood renewal are the natural next steps for coordinated policy action, where our own work with Local Trust  has shown the importance of working with communities, supporting the development of local social infrastructure to turn the dial on deep rooted inequalities. 

But we should see this White Paper as the first step in sketching out a roadmap, not the final product. Given the extent of public mistrust in the ability of the state to make positive change, offering greater clarity on where decision making power lies with a clear regional figurehead and source of accountability in the form of a mayor, is an important start. As is addressing the policy siloes that don’t reflect the realities of people’s lives, by making public services such as health provision geographically coterminous with strategic authorities. The rollout of integrated funding settlements will also enable more strategic decision making at the regional level – joining up skills with employment support, and housing with transport and other infrastructure developments. However, the urgency of ensuring this provides a framework for more meaningful engagement and participation in the decisions that matter to people’s lives when it comes to policymaking shouldn’t be underplayed. 

This makes the second key intervention – the Cabinet Office’s commitment to a culture of “Test and Learn” in public policy and delivery – all the more important. This signals a key culture shift in moving away from a ‘Whitehall knows best’ model of public policy, and towards one of partnership and experimentation, starting out with the premise that central government doesn’t  hold all the answers. This will require a type of cross-tier collaboration the Devolution White Paper begins setting out the framework for.

Starting with a £100m Public Services and Innovation Fund to invest in pilots for family support and temporary accommodation, the Cabinet Office will bring together teams from across the civil service, technology, and public service frontline delivery sectors to take this lens to some of the thorniest challenges facing society and “empower them to experiment, innovate and try new things”. If mission driven growth and reform are to be achieved in this context, this mentality of creativity, innovation and experimentation must extend across all tiers of government and hold true even where the learning comes from what hasn’t worked. The operational expertise of local government should also be valued just as much as the big ideas when it comes to problem solving, as should the lived experience of communities. In a world in which new funding is highly unlikely to materialise, working across siloes to experiment and develop creative approaches is the only way the local government sector will survive. 

A culture of experimentation and adaptation and fostering truly open dialogue around what is and isn’t working and why across geographies, is one we have championed through our Inclusive Growth Network of places at the forefront of innovating for growth and reform. With partners Metro Dynamics and the Future Governance Forum we will continue to evolve and expand on this to prototype approaches and innovations collaboratively across places. We hope to continue to play a role in this important shift through bringing together a coalition of places committed to innovation to test ideas and act as a policy testbed. Doing things differently with places isn’t simply a nice to have, but an imperative if we are to face off the headwinds of 2025 and come  through the other side.

Article originally published by The MJ, available here.