Rewiring the State: Why Stronger Places Require Stronger Leadership
Martin Tucker, Managing Partner at Faerfield, discusses the leadership implications of the Government proposals for reshaping the State.
The Cabinet Office's recently published Rewiring the State paper represents one of the most significant statements of public sector reform for a generation. Its central premise is straightforward but ambitious: power, funding, accountability and decision-making should move closer to places and communities, with local leaders playing a much greater role in driving growth, integrating services and improving outcomes.
Much of the commentary I have read thus far has understandably focused on the governance implications of devolution. Yet the success or failure of these reforms is likely to depend on something less frequently discussed: leadership capacity.
For much of the last fifteen years or more, local government has been asked to do more with less. Councils have faced significant financial pressures, management structures have become leaner, and leadership capacity in many areas has reduced even as organisational complexity has increased. The Government's reforms signal a different future. Stronger places require stronger institutions. Stronger institutions require stronger leadership. For local government, strategic authorities and the wider public sector, perhaps the key challenge is no longer simply whether powers can be devolved. It is whether sufficient leadership capacity exists to exercise those powers effectively.
A New Settlement Between Whitehall and Place
The Government's vision is clear. The future state will be less centralised and more place based. Greater responsibility is expected to sit with Mayors, strategic authorities and local government. Powers over economic growth, transport, skills, employment support, housing and elements of public service integration will increasingly be exercised closer to communities and local economies. This represents more than another phase of devolution. It signals a fundamental shift in where decisions are made and how public services are organised. Local leaders are expected not simply to deliver services, but to shape places, drive growth and coordinate complex systems. The implications for leadership are not to underestimated.
Reversing Fifteen Years of Institutional Hollowing-Out
Perhaps an underappreciated aspect of the Government's agenda is that it implicitly reverses a trend that has characterised much of public administration since the financial crisis. Over the past fifteen years or more, local government has frequently been required to absorb reductions in funding whilst simultaneously responding to rising demand, particularly in adult social care, children's services and housing. The consequence has often been leaner leadership structures, reduced organisational capacity, smaller corporate centres, fewer opportunities for leadership development and increasing pressure on succession pipelines.
The Rewiring the State agenda points in a different direction. Implicit in its ultimate success is the existence of capable local institutions with sufficient leadership capacity to manage larger budgets, exercise greater responsibility and deliver more integrated public services. This is not simply about devolving power. It is about rebuilding local state capacity, and that distinction matters. If policy responsibility moves from Whitehall to places, leadership capability must move with it.
The Rise of Place-Based Leadership
For many years, senior public sector leadership has often been organised around institutions and service boundaries. The future envisaged by Rewiring the State demands something different. More so than now, successful leaders will need to operate across organisations, partnerships, sectors, communities and political systems. The leaders who thrive are likely to be those who can connect economic growth, service reform and community outcomes rather than viewing them as separate objectives.
Strategic Authorities Will Need Strong Leadership Capacity
The Government's ambition for nationwide strategic authorities by 2028 means a substantial expansion of institutional capacity across England. As these organisations assume greater responsibilities, demand is likely to increase for critical leadership roles. Many of these roles could combine responsibilities that have historically sat across multiple institutions. The result is likely to be larger leadership portfolios, increased accountability and greater competition for experienced talent.
Building the Leadership Pipeline for a Rewired State
Among the most encouraging aspects of the Government's proposals is its recognition that stronger institutions require stronger leadership capability. The paper describes an opportunity for the Civil Service to adapt and learn through greater interchange with regional and local government, becoming more porous and working together to deliver better outcomes for citizens. It further commits to actively building new career paths between central government and the wider public sector, supported by the National School for Government.
Faerfield strongly welcomes this ambition. For too long, leadership development across the public sector has often operated within separate institutional ecosystems. Local government, central government, health and other sectors have developed talent through largely independent pathways despite facing increasingly interconnected challenges. The case for greater movement between systems has always been there and indeed, we have seen a steady flow of Whitehall talent making its way into local government and, perhaps more sporadically, a smaller flow in the opposite direction. But the case for greater movement is now compelling.
Local government would benefit from increased access to policy, strategy and delivery expertise developed within Whitehall. Equally, central government would benefit from a deeper appreciation of place, operational delivery and the realities of implementation within communities. A more porous public sector leadership market would strengthen both.
Turning Ambition into Reality
However, serious thought must now be given to how this ambition is delivered in practice.
The coming years will already be characterised by significant organisational change.
Local Government Reorganisation programmes are expected to create substantial disruption across many parts of England during 2027 and 2028. Shadow authorities will be established, governance arrangements redesigned and entirely new institutions brought into existence.
Many dozens of senior appointments are likely to be required as new councils and strategic authorities emerge.
This raises important questions. What do these new career pathways actually look like?
How can talented civil servants be exposed to local leadership before moving into senior roles?
How can local government leaders gain experience of national policymaking and delivery?
How should secondments, exchange programmes and leadership development initiatives be structured? Who should sponsor and coordinate these pathways across the public sector? And, of course, how can we fund this in a meaningful way? These questions deserve attention now, not after reform programmes are already underway.
Towards a National Public Sector Leadership Strategy
If Rewiring the State is to succeed, a parallel conversation is required about leadership capacity.
In many respects, the reforms assume the existence of a sufficiently large, capable and mobile leadership population able to move between institutions, sectors and places. That cannot be taken for granted. There is an opportunity to create a genuinely integrated public sector leadership ecosystem through structured interchange between Whitehall and local government, Joint leadership development programmes, cross-sector talent pools, expanded secondments, shared succession planning initiatives and new pathways into chief executive and system leadership roles. The goal should not simply be movement between organisations.
It should be the creation of stronger leaders and stronger institutions across the entire public sector.
Implications for Recruitment and Talent
Taken together, devolution, Local Government Reorganisation, public service integration and leadership interchange are likely to reshape the public sector talent market over the coming decade. We anticipate, increased demand for senior leaders, greater competition for experienced talent, a growing emphasis on succession planning, higher expectations of system leadership capability and an increased focus on leadership assessment and development.
Organisations will need to think carefully about how they identify, attract and retain future leaders. In many cases, investment in leadership capacity may become as important as investment in infrastructure, technology or organisational design.
Final thoughts
The most significant message emerging from Rewiring the State may not be that power is moving out of Whitehall. It is that power is moving to places. That shift assumes the existence of strong local institutions capable of exercising greater responsibility, driving economic growth and integrating services around the needs of communities. The challenge for government over the coming decade is therefore twofold: devolving power and rebuilding local capacity.
The ambition to create new career pathways between central and local government is an important and welcome contribution to that challenge. But it must now be translated into practical action that strengthens leadership pipelines across the public sector. For local government, strategic authorities and the wider public sector, leadership capacity may prove to be one of the defining issues of the next decade.
Faerfield stands ready to contribute to that debate. Having supported leadership appointments through previous generations of local government reform, we believe that the organisations which invest in leadership capacity today will be best placed to realise the opportunities that a rewired state seeks to create tomorrow.
Martin Tucker is Managing Partner at Faerfield.
Share this page: