I recently attended an event combining design practice and mission-driven government. It was interesting with interesting people, but felt separate from the experience of local and central government right now. So, it is welcome to see a focus on civil service reform but, as with local government reorganisation, there is a big risk we spend a lot of energy reinforcing an out-of-date orthodoxy.

There is a tangible shift in the way Whitehall wants to work with local government, but this still has the awkwardness of ‘dad at the disco' rather than the smooth moves we all need to tango together. Making either more agile risks a faster dance. We need a stronger shared purpose and approach to getting stuff done, always a strength of local government.