Insights Blog - Cross-Sector Collaboration ??

The inconceivable has become commonplace – pandemic, war in Europe, political and cultural polarisation, climate change threatening Armageddon and more.

That’s why so many conferences start with statements about living in a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

Many issues that have been intractable for decades have become more intractable. This is particularly true for some of the complex social, economic and environmental challenges where multiple actors across all sectors have a part to play - housing, NHS, social care, inequalities, access to the law, migration, and climate.

Science and technology combined with human ingenuity may save some of the day – but it won't be enough if we don’t get other things right.

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"Make do and mend" or missions?

However you look at it, “make-do and mend” will not work, and our institutions are stretched to the limit. No single organisation or sector can solve this scale of problem alone.

We will need a new approach that harnesses all the talents nationally, regionally, and locally across all three sectors, working in equal partnership and with enduring institutional arrangements that can adapt to the turbulence they operate in.

Labour has set five missions: kickstarting economic growth, developing Britain as a clean energy superpower, taking back the streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity, and building an NHS fit for the future.

Mariana Mazzucato has defined “missions as concrete goals that, if achieved, will help to tackle ‘grand challenges’ – important, systemic and society-wide problems that do not have obvious solutions”.

Irrespective of whether Labour’s missions are well chosen or meet the definition above, they all require cross-sector collaboration if we are to enable national renewal, which so many of us are excited about. And so do many other challenges.

But let’s face it: our track record on this scale of cross-sector collaboration that bridges locally, nationally and sometimes, internationally is mixed.

We had the success of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, which showed what is possible with decisive national leadership, good use of data, great communications, collaboration across government, private sector and civil society and a belief in local capacities. Locally, Camden has paved the way for cross-sector mission approaches across diversity, access to food, youth opportunity and neighbourhoods. Globally, I have been supporting former PM Theresa May, who is leading a global commission aiming to eliminate modern slavery and trafficking by working in integrated ways across governments, business supply chains and civil society organisations working in emergencies.

On the other hand, in the case of levelling up, a grand mission was developed. Still, cross-cutting institutional arrangements were never implemented sustainably to enable the institution to succeed. The Big Society never even got started.

At a local level, Hilary Cottam , in her book “Radical Help”, described the mixed success of the local cross-organisational experiments which she ran to reform health, social care, and access to employment. Her reflections included:

“The role of relationships in sustaining change seems absurdly obvious, yet relationships are never designed into our solutions.”

Read more from Mike on our blog page, including what needs to change.