Labour party conference: amplifying ambition
Researcher
Missions: ambitious goals which require a cross-cutting delivery approach. And the new(ish) Labour Government won the election promising to deliver on five missions. The approach needed to deliver missions — joint-working and joint-delivery, has been a holy grail in political delivery for a long time. And yet, successive governments have failed to deliver on policy agendas which require joined-up work.
At Labour Party Conference, Re:State were delighted to host Dame Meg Hillier MP, Professor Anand Menon, and former permanent secretary Jonathan Slater for an exciting and thought-provoking panel discussion on missions.
Here are the top 3 takeaways from the panel:
No mission success without fundamental devolution
All three panellists agreed that more powers should be devolved. Currently, the piecemeal approach to devolution has resulted in fragmented powers, with citizens not knowing who is accountable for what. Anand Menon even joked that devolution settlements have been “written on the back of an envelope, by someone under the influence”. But, if missions are to be achieved, then the overly centralised nature of the State needs to change so that local areas have more powers to set policy that can help to achieve missions. Greater Manchester was heralded as a good example of how devolved powers have enabled a cross cutting policy approach to deliver on wider goals. More of this is needed.
Missions as political storytelling
This panel covered it all — from intricate machinery details to the art of politking. And one point that was made was the use of missions to tell a narrative. The panellists specifically praised Ed Miliband’s ability to do this. They highlighted how, with the Net Zero Mission, he and his Department are telling a story of where we are, where we’re going, and how we are going to arrive there. Creating and honing-in on the storytelling side of missions is necessary. Missions can promise people a brighter future, and it is important that this is not lost sight of.
Tensions between risk-taking and poor public finances
We know the state of the public finances, and they are not good. We also know that to achieve ambitious high-level goals, some risk taking will be necessary. Spending already stretched public finances on risky policies will probably not go down well. But, as the panellist noted, the only way to achieve missions will be to experiment. Jonathan Slater spoke of one such experiment he took as permanent secretary of DfE, and how successful it turned out to be. Obviously, this does not mean that all policy and money invested in achieving missions should be focused on higher risk activity, but it will be important that the Government doesn’t shy away from it either.