That's the question a group of council leaders and chief executives will be working on at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park at the end of this month. 

It's the fourth in a series of events organised by the Local Government Association (LGA) to take forward Rewiring Public Services, its campaign for a new ball game: a radical transformation of the way local government operates and its relationship with Westminster and Whitehall.

In total some 60 of the best political and managerial minds in local government will have explored together tough questions about coping with extreme financial pressure, making the case for independent local government and - toughest of all - how the sector itself must change to make rewiring credible. 

These four events will also help lay the foundation for core messages at the LGA Annual Conference at Bournemouth this July.

Some would argue that we must wait and see what the new government looks like before deciding what the sector should be seeking.  The outcome of the 2015 general election is the least predictable for many years. 

We don't know what colour – or colours – the next government will be, much less who will be minister for what.  And in any case the sceptics might say, the sector will never speak with one voice except at a level of abstraction which cuts no ice.

But it's no good waiting.  All parties are localist in opposition, centralist in power.  History demonstrates that the ideas being pursued by, for example, Jon Cruddas – in essence, get power in order to give it away – wilt and die in the heat of office. 

If it doesn't happen in the first 100 days it never will.  There will always be apparently good reasons to put off a grinding dialogue about money and functions. 

Fresh-faced ministers will want to make their mark by showing they can get a grip and make things happen.  Letting go of budgets and decisions will feel instinctively wrong, even an abdication of responsibility.

By the time the hard lessons have been learnt for the umpteenth time - that control is a mirage, that the levers you pull are made of rubber, that you can't make people do what you want by decreeing targets and that places are deeply different - it's too late. 

We'll be approaching the next parliament and the miserable cycle will begin again.  In any case power, or at least the illusion of it, is pleasing.  Why let go?

So the sector needs a compelling story - and needs to start telling it right now if it is to have any chance of being absorbed and acted upon in time. 

Three stories have been tried hitherto:  Oliver Twist's ‘Please sir, I want some more', The Boy Who Cried Wolf's ‘The sheep are going to be eaten' and Don Quixote's ‘You pot are calling me kettle black?'   None of them have convinced the listener.

The story which might be heard is closer to The Emperor's New Clothes.  The innocent child blurts out as the grand parade passes that the emperor is bare.  The story will need to begin ‘Once upon a time there was a system which everyone, when they all finally faced up to it, agreed was broken'.  And of course it needs to end ‘And they all lived happily ever after'. 

We need now to write the missing chapters, with potential ministers, MPs and senior officials as good guys in it who come out well at the end.  Perhaps chapter two goes along the lines: ‘At first people thought the problem was about who got what money and how they were allowed to use it.  It was pretty clear that money to help people with big problems and to make places better off got more results if it was mostly spent at local level to fit local circumstances.  So the task was simply to agree where the line should be drawn.  But then someone said the issue ran deeper: that the relationship that had evolved between citizen and state led to expectations which could now never be met however cleverly the money was spent.  So they began to think hard about how to change that too.'

Our new Secretary of State might quite enjoy all this as a fairy tale. 

But, like any inquisitive young listener, she will have questions and doubts about whether it could happen in the real world.  If it all goes wrong, who has egg on their face?  Could councils as they exist - 353 of them no less - cope with such challenges?  

Are there enough wise and far-seeing councillors to take on the task?  Would councils look for the best answers for everyone or just protect their own perceived interests?  Can we get to this better place by natural evolution or does it require a big bang?  What would the relationship be between the council and other public services?  Can we really stop problems in their tracks rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards?  How far can families and communities be helped to help themselves?

‘Well', said the chairman of the LGA, putting aside his picture book, ‘let me tell you what we in local government are going to do to make this a true story.  You'll be quite surprised.  But I should add that we will need a little help from you.'

The Secretary of State decided she wouldn't turn over and go to sleep just yet.  What the chairman was saying was actually rather interesting.  No, she wasn't about to start believing in the tooth fairy again.  But there was something refreshing about this idea that if they were all willing to change they could do things together which would help everyone. 

She began to get excited about next morning.

Stephen Taylor is the director of Blakesley Associates and facilitates the Cumberland Lodge events.  This article expresses his personal views.