This guest paper makes the case for narrative as a governing tool. It argues that a growing consensus over public service reform that is preventative, more relational, and less shaped by the centralising instincts of Whitehall, is stalling for want of a story.
A political story, author Tom Webb argues, is more than a set of slogans. At its most powerful, it provides a shared diagnosis, a theory of change, and, perhaps most importantly, the legitimacy that those who administer the system need to reimagine it. He offers a new version of that story, an offer to voters and public servants to end the fight in public services that hampers delivery by making respect the driving principle for service design and implementation.
This paper is part of Demos’s Powering Public Service Reform programme which aims to understand and overcome the deep, systemic barriers that hold back genuine reform. Alongside this work on a new narrative for public service reform the programme combines research, convening and policy design across four other workstreams: culture, accountability, funding and, digital enablement. Public Service Reform is central to Demos’ wider work to upgrade democracy with a new deal to repair the broken relationship between state and citizen.