Places on a Mission: Pioneering Local Statecraft in an Era of Uncertainty
Introduction and background
In Places on a Mission we, in partnership with New Local, explore how councils and strategic authorities are going further and faster in tackling complex societal challenges by using missions and mission-led approaches.
The paper, by Grace Pollard and Isadora Schappell which is accompanied by a practical toolkit and case study collection, explores an emerging form of ‘local statecraft’, where a growing movement of councils and strategic authorities are demonstrating the potential of organising around shared ambitious goals to change the way we ‘do’ government.
These missions are not a silver bullet, but they are acting as a catalyst to institutional and place-based public service reform to both tackle the most entrenched problems of today and to rebuild trust in the way we govern.
Insights in the paper are drawn from workshops and in-depth interviews with senior local government officers and thought leaders. The work moves beyond academic theory to document the practical application of missions in English local government.
Why is this approach needed now?
Our work highlights a moment of opportunity driven by necessity. Councils and strategic authorities are operating in an era of uncertainty defined by complex challenges, resource scarcity, erosion of trust and short-termism. Despite these challenges, missions are acting as a catalyst to move forward on big societal goals, in the following ways:
Giving permission to learn: missions encourage councils to adopt experimental, iterative, and learning-centred approaches.
Building collective courage: adopting a mission-based approach fosters the bravery needed to prioritise a small number of audacious, long-term challenges.
Providing system mobilisation: missions galvanise energy beyond local government, driving a shift in the council or strategic authority’s role from service deliverer to system convenor and market shaper.
Building community power: missions provide a unifying narrative to reshape the relationship between citizens and the state.
Delivering impact in uncertainty: missions serve as an organising principle for organisational redesign, helping councils adapt to complexity.
Recommendations
Councils and strategic authorities should:
Use mission-led statecraft as a principle for organisational design and place-based working.
Grow their role as missions stewards and system convenors in local areas and regions.
Seek opportunities to experiment more deeply in their role as market shapers.
National government should:
Use missions working as the foundations for a shift towards place-based outcomes and accountability.
Continue to simplify funding flows and investment to make it easier for councils and strategic authorities to align funding with big, long-term local and regional priorities.
Support a culture of experimentation and learning across central and local governments, closing the gap between policy and delivery.
Read the full report here.
Read our toolkit and case studies here.