Designing Strategic Authorities: culture, capability and a compelling story

Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) have never truly been designed; they’ve evolved. Greater Manchester — the starter culture for all MCAs — looked like a reasonably recognisable set of shared functional teams until the Mayoralty was ‘craned on’ in return for the 2014 Devolution Deals. The arrival of Andy Burnham a few years later prompted further evolution, as have more recent developments such as the introduction of an Integrated Settlement.

Elsewhere, MCAs have evolved into new functional spaces and organisational forms — often in innovative ways, and only occasionally in response to a clear blueprint.

That’s why the most important capability a strategic authority can develop is not a single organisational structure or plan, but the ability to design and redesign itself as conditions change. The evolution of strategic authorities should anticipate and enable the changes to national policy, government agencies, and local leadership ambition that will naturally occur over time. 

This adaptive capability is especially critical now, as many of the newest strategic authorities are being formed alongside Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

These are major institutional transformations — often complex, sometimes fraught, and rarely tidy. They bring real risks: disruption to core services, blurred accountabilities, and overlapping political mandates. There will be tension, and a focus on what is being lost.

But LGR also briefly opens a door to ask: what kind of system do we want to lead — and how do we want to lead it? The answer won’t come in one big move, but it might come through shared vision and a series of incremental evolutions.

At New Local’s recent event, How to Design a Strategic Authority, I shared three thoughts to help navigate this confusing landscape:

1. Culture eats everything

The most important factor in shaping an effective strategic authority is the culture shared by its leadership — not just within the formal CA, but across the whole system. When leaders model openness, curiosity and shared ambition, the rest of the organisation and its partners can follow.

That means investing early in relationships between new mayors, chief executives, council leaders, and anchor institutions to generate alignment. It also means wiring the system properly — if we’re asking for bold leadership, we should at least get the papers out on time (avoiding the bureaucratic version of tripping over our own shoelaces).

Culture can’t be mandated, but it can be shaped. And in a system built on collaboration, it’s the first thing to get right.

2. Capability is systemic

There’s often pressure to “build the team” within the new strategic authority as quickly as possible. But not all capability needs to sit within the CA.

The more important question is: what does the system need in order to think, act, and learn together? Some roles may live in the CA; others in local authorities, universities, business networks or the VCS.

Spend time agreeing the maturity route map for the system. Consider where and how teams create value, and what organisational setting best enables them to do that. Be wary of hierarchy and organisational form acting as proxies for effective communication infrastructure.

And don’t delegate this work to consultants and ask Chief Execs to sign it off. Change must be owned by Heads of Service, Assistant Directors and Directors of core functions — they need to understand what it means for their own careers and teams. Otherwise, you’re just deferring the bun fights.

Making conscious choices about where functions sit, how they connect, and how capability is developed over time is vital. It takes honesty about strengths, gaps and maturity — and the courage not to centralise everything.

3. Urgency and ambition need space away from each other

In the first 12–18 months, there’s a clear list of urgent tasks: preparing for a mayoral election, ensuring compliance with statutory functions, establishing basic governance.

But if that’s all you focus on, the strategic authority risks becoming a shell — technically functional, but directionless.

Leaders must carve out space for ambition: to shape the 3–5 year story of change they want to tell. What are the big bets? What does progress look like by the end of the first Mayoral term? How will residents experience the difference? A new Mayor will, of course, bring their own ideas — but being unclear about what other system leaders view as success will only get in the way of delivery. 

The most effective authorities will be those that can manage the urgent work and invest in a longer-term story that mobilises energy and confidence.

In closing…

Strategic authorities don’t start with a blank page, and they will continue to be shaped by external forces. That’s all the more reason to value the hard work of designing and redesigning them with intent.

By focusing on culture, capability, and a compelling story, local leaders can create more than a new institution. They can build a system that’s fit for the future.

Image Credit: Mylo Kaye on Unsplash

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