In the latest of our How to make good things happen series, we looked at what we can learn about governance and public service leadership from Singapore.

At its Independence in 1965, Singapore was faced with high unemployment, poor infrastructure and political instability. But in the almost six decades since, the city-state has succeeded in becoming one of the world’s most competitive economies, ranking first in the 2020 World Bank Human Capital Index. The Singapore story - one of rags to riches - is highly compelling. And while the UK and Singapore are very different countries that exist within very different contexts, there are still some core principles that the UK can learn from the city state’s success.

In November 2024, Nesta CEO Ravi Gurumurthy and Dr Serene Koh from BIT Singapore discussed how BIT’s new report on how Singapore's experience can provide insight for governments - such as the UK - which are developing strategies to address the challenges their countries face now and in the future.

The Singapore civil service is encouraged to plan for failure and contingencies in its policy process; policymakers will actively consider what the worst-case scenarios are, what would happen if these came true, and to consider these scenarios explicitly in current policymaking. To be truly effective, these techniques cannot just be a thought experiment. Rather, resources, funds and efforts must be dedicated to putting policies in place that avert the outcomes of failure.

Dr Koh highlighted that there is a prevailing sense of vulnerability that pervades the Singapore psyche by virtue of its history. Yet, rather than let fear and insecurity paralyse development, the Singapore government has harnessed this mindset, using it as an energising force for its long-term planning and policymaking. While this might not be a core part of the UK’s psyche, we can distil some applicable principles from this broad approach.

For example, Singapore has formalised long-term scenario planning as a systematic practice within government, considering it to be a strategic practice. Dr Koh highlighted that for this practice to thrive within government, teams must be able to plan expansively, in timelines that outlive the lifespans of political and election cycles, that are separate from the interests of political parties. Here a separate agency - that, importantly, has regulatory teeth - can help ensure that civil servants have the headspace to engage with the future. There are close-to-home examples of embedding future thinking in policy process that the UK can borrow from too: Wales’ Future Generations Act and its Future Generations Commissioner- shows a way that future thinking can be prioritised and protected within the Westminster tradition.

Key to Singapore’s success is an almost exclusive focus on outcomes. Dr Koh spoke of an unapologetic - or pragmatic - practice of ‘borrowing’ ideas and practices from different political ideologies and disciplines, with the civil service focussed foremost on what tool might work best to achieve the outcome desired.

For the UK, we can still distil some key lessons from this approach. For example, committing to, and investing in, rigorous evaluation at the outset of a policy process, to measure the outcomes that matter. In addition, adopting a bold and adaptive approach to designing policy, and being prepared to change course when it becomes clear that things are not working. And finally, starting with a focus on the citizen, or the customer: Singapore adopts a citizen-first approach to policy design, trying to understand what people want and what their user journey might be. Some of this thinking is akin to a mission-driven approach to government, which this new Government has prioritised implementing.

Singapore invests in, trains, and nurtures its future civil service leaders through regular relevant training that is legitimised from the very top. Its fully integrated Singapore Civil Service College, which leads all civil service training in Singapore, is under the direct jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Office, with the Deputy Secretary of the Public Service Division as its Dean. At the same time, Singapore’s civil service is trained in adopting a whole-of-government approach to governance, which helps to break down siloes. Civil servants are formally trained in this philosophy, and it is intentionally inculcated as a mindset to be adopted across the civil service.

There are elements of this approach which could be adopted by the UK civil service. Akin to the Fast Stream programme, leadership training could be more formally organised in cohorts. At the same time, civil service training - professional development - could be brought more formally within the auspices of central Government, with a more rigorous focus on relevancy and cultivating collaboration between departments, given legitimacy from the very top of the civil service.

Find out more about our How to Make Good Things Happen series.