United Kingdom: designing a national strategy for next generations
- Jul 20
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
What the UK did
The UK's policymaking is being tested by converging pressures, from environmental and technological change to shifting demography, evolving values and a changing security landscape, alongside growing recognition that the social contract between citizens and the state is deteriorating. Against this backdrop, the 2024–25 Heywood Fellowship – held by senior civil servant Lucy Smith, based at Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government with support from the Cabinet Office – set out to design a new approach to national strategy, working in response to a Parliamentary Liaison Committee inquiry on strategic thinking in Whitehall. It was the first civil service-led attempt in recent history to develop whole-of-government proposals for national strategy.
How it Delivered
The Fellowship published its National Strategy Playbook in October 2025. Its proposals include a 15-year strategic horizon reviewed on five-year cycles linked to fiscal planning, a national conversation in which the public debates competing pathways and their trade-offs, an intergenerational impacts toolkit, and stronger institutional mechanisms for foresight, including a proposed National Office for Foresight and Strategy. Its scope spans the Treasury, foreign and domestic policy, local government, public services and business.
What Made it Work?
The initiative came from inside the system. Smith brought the credibility of a career leading strategy in government, including as Director General for Strategy at Defra, and the Fellowship's Cabinet Office backing gave the work standing across departments. Its connection to parliamentary scrutiny of national strategy tied it to democratic accountability, and the breadth of scope acknowledges that the long term cannot be delegated to a single department.
Future Generations Takeaway
The UK's challenges cannot be met by short-term focus alone, and its institutions are beginning to say so themselves. A coherent national vision of what matters for future generations, backed by structures able to deliver it, is essential if public institutions are to stay relevant and resilient in an uncertain world. Keeping the future open is becoming part of the machinery of state.
This case study is based on one kindly shared with us by the us by School of International Futures (SOIF) and can be found in their digital implementation handbook: 'One Year in Practice: Stories of Global Action for Future Generations'. We have updated and expanded some case studies with more recent developments and additional sources where relevant.
