Revisiting the Route Map to an Enabling State: Guiding Principles for Recovery

Carnegie UK has been exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the relationship between government, public services and citizens. As attention starts to shift to how we can ‘Build Back Better’, we have taken the opportunity to update our influential 2014 Route Map to an Enabling State with some guiding principles for recovery. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift to a more agile model of the delivery of public services that supports people and communities to achieve positive change for themselves in many places, with the immediate responses from public services and from communities demonstrating that there is a different way of working together.

In this updated Route Map we articulate the seven steps that public services should take as they move into recovery mode. We believe that these steps could ‘bank’ positive changes in relationships where these have occurred, and accelerate progress towards an Enabling State model.