Just before the British Parliament was dissolved, ahead of our forthcoming General Election, a bipartisan Scrutiny Committee of senior MPs squeezed out a report on improving the quality of strategic thinking in government and the civil service. It had been a year in the making. The report is called ‘Promoting National Strategy’, and recommends – among other things – improving long-term thinking in government through an annual, published long-term trends analysis, intergenerational impact assessments and a new Committee for the Future. It should be essential reading for all planning to stand as candidates in the election.
Future strategy is vital
This is the first time that any part of the UK government has had a holistic discussion on how to safeguard the wellbeing of current and next generations. Cat Tully, managing director of the School of International Futures (SOIF) was one of two Specialist Advisers to the Liaison Committee’s inquiry, and is passionate about governance in times of uncertainty and the protection of democracy for future generations. The other was Major General Jonathan Shaw, former head of British army cybersecurity.
As Sir Bernard Jenkin, the committee’s chair succinctly put it:
Getting Parliament and government to be more strategic than they have been over the past 20 or 30 years is vital to restoring public confidence in our entire democratic system, particularly among younger generations who will inherit the consequences of what governments do now. The next government should seize this offer from Parliament to support and scrutinise strategic thinking for the future.
An essential report
The report emphasises parliament’s central role in linking voters with government priorities as part of combating voter disillusionment, especially among younger generations. It highlights the role of long-term thinking to engage the public and ensure popular consent, again essential for younger voters who will bear the consequences of today’s decisions.
The Liaison Committee is a senior UK parliamentary committee made up of the chairs of Commons’ Select Committees, which both review policy issues and focus on areas neglected by the government of the day. It plays a critical role in scrutinising policy, including questioning the Prime Minister several times per year. This work by the Liaison Committee Chair Sir Bernard Jenkin, the committee members, and the specialist advisors, heroically supported by a spectacular team of parliamentary officials, has come at a vital time.
The report proposes strengthening Whitehall capacity to support strategy (including a new National School for Government), makes proposals for strengthening the role of the cabinet office and Treasury, offers a rich series of recommendations around governing for the future, and a focus on the role of Parliament – especially select committees – in supporting this change.
Also, the specialist advisors were able to bring insights that were included in the report on embedding long-term thinking, to connect to global experts and, crucially, link to coalitions of young, diverse people who are doing strategy differently.
Key recommendations
Recommendations include:
- a single cross-government ‘Trends Report’ that looks at the long-term, published every year, which sets out long-term trends and policies vital for national wellbeing
- a process for engaging citizens on upcoming issues and how they might be resolved
- an institution at the centre of government for discussing the implications and consequences of change
- a way in which strategic-thinkers beyond government can be networked together – this might be a new Committee for the Future.
The Committee observed that if the long-term trends report was published at the same time as Britain’s annual King’s Speech, which sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the coming year, it would be likely to improve the coherence of overall government strategy.
Looking to the future
The question addressed here isn’t new, of course. It’s been moving up the UK policy agenda slowly for more than 15 years as Britain’s policy infrastructure is failing to address the challenges we face.
Whether these challenges are low productivity and economic performance, the persistence of child poverty, health and social care delivery, an ageing population, housing or the delivery of basic services, we would benefit from better engagement and a more coherent, longer-term approach to national strategy. The current governance system isn’t working. And it seems that all parties agree that it needs to change.
Author Cat Tully: leads the School of International Futures (SOIF), a not-for-profit international collective of practitioners based in the UK who use futures thinking to inspire change at the local, national and global levels. SOIF has worked with organisations like the UN, the Omidyar Network, NATO, the Royal Society and national governments, to make the world fairer for current and future generations. SOIF also supports a growing network of Next Generation Foresight Practitioners.
