Read: Purpose-led businesses - speaking with one voice
One of the biggest challenges as a Secretary of State is juggling the competing priorities on your time - policy development and delivery, strategy, outreach to wider stakeholders and, of course, your local role as a Member of Parliament. It’s almost impossible to overstate just how many requests for meetings ministers receive. It’s also impossible to take every meeting, so somehow you have to work your way through to the ones that matter the most, in the limited time that you have. As Secretary of State at the Departments of Transport, International Development and Education, investing my time through strong prioritisation into the right meetings with worthwhile stakeholders was crucial to success.
For me, as for many ministers, the best interactions with external groups were with those with a real sense of mission and purpose, not just those being a voice for the sake of being a voice. I knew that to drive change I had to build coalitions of people working inside and outside Government, so it made sense to hook up with external groups that were focused on a clear purpose - especially when that purpose aligned to my own. Even when it didn’t, it was crucial to understanding where those groups were coming from and why. Clarity of purpose really helped to steer me to engage with the right people.
In my experience, the benefit of investing time with more mission-driven groups was that they would not just have views on the issues they cared about, they’d also have views on innovative solutions to the problems. It was much more than a conversation about what I needed to do as Secretary of State to make things better. Instead it was more about our partnership so that the different levers of change worked together. I found I tended to spend less time with policy thinktanks, often staffed by career policy people, and more time with these practitioners acting on the ground, with all the insight that their experience brought.
It’s why our work as a Purpose Coalition has an ever-growing resonance with policy makers. It’s a unique body, offering solutions and insights and responding to very real challenges in our country - and that’s what makes our work so interesting across political parties. Policymaking is going through a sea change, with those at the centre recognising their one-size-fits-all levers aren’t enough in the complex, real world we actually live in. The pandemic and the cost of living have had such a significant effect on so many people, impacting wider issues such as recruitment and retention, the skills shortage, reaching net zero, financial inclusion and good health and wellbeing, that it’s clear that it’s as much about people effecting change outside of conventional government policy as it is about having the right policies in place.
It’s increasingly recognised that the Purpose Coalition is a group of organisations truly rising to those challenges. It’s full of authentic voices that can contribute constructively and meaningfully to today’s challenges, with a wider sense of purpose. It’s not just a talking shop, it’s all about real impact. We’re not just talking about what might be done but getting on and doing it on the ground and then sharing our insights about best practice with others in the same sector, industry or region and beyond. Our organisations include leading businesses but also universities, health and local authorities which bring that same mission, that sense of purpose, focused on improving social mobility. It's a coalition like no other.
Our spirit of collaboration, and the strength that engenders, brings people together around the common goal of social mobility. It also feeds helpfully into the government’s increasing shift towards a more holistic, place based policy approach. This past week alone, we’ve had two excellent events with Mims Davies, DWP Minister for Social Mobility, and Victoria Atkins, Financial Secretary to the Treasury. We’ve also hosted other events to bring together policy makers with business leaders to exchange views, share experiences and discuss solutions. Some will be sector specific, others will address broader issues. But they all have equality of opportunity and positive social impact at their heart, driven by leaders who have proven track records of making a difference. Both sides are keen to be involved because there is absolute clarity on our vision and what we stand for. A voice talking for the sake of it is no real voice at all. The voice of purpose-led business speaks much more powerfully because of its authenticity and credibility, and will be heard more clearly as a result. That’s why I’m so proud of what the Purpose Coalition is achieving and I know we can go much further still on our collective impact.
