The new Labour government has put the concept of ‘missions’ at the heart of its programme for government. While we are excited by the missions agenda and its potential to address deficiencies in policy and achieve national goals, this paper argues that the current approach to mission-driven government falls short.
The government’s current strategy relies heavily on a ‘technological’ approach despite the missions themselves being ‘socioeconomic’ in nature – the kind which typically demand partnerships between many different actors across different sectors and institutions. Our analysis shows that the government cannot simply set a socioeconomic mission and expect everyone to mobilise around it; there are structural and institutional reasons why progress is held back.
This provocation paper explains why the UK government’s missions must be accompanied by what we call ‘enabling reforms’ which can unlock the mobilisation needed to achieve them, and sets out a framework for effective delivery.
This is the first report in a project, supported by Serco and NCVO, that is looking at what it would mean for the country to be ‘mission-ready’.