Could staff secondments improve UK governance? New research examines lessons from Japan’s collaborative public sector model.
Building Capability Between Governments: What the UK Can Learn from Japan’s Secondment System
A new report from the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub at the University of Birmingham explores a deceptively simple idea: what if moving staff between different levels of government was treated as a core part of how the state works, rather than an occasional professional development opportunity?
The report, Building Intergovernmental Capability Through Secondments: Lessons from Japan for the UK, argues that stronger intergovernmental relationships depend not only on structures and funding, but also on people, trust and shared experience. Drawing on the Japanese model, the authors suggest that systematic secondments between national, regional and local government can help improve policy delivery, institutional understanding and long-term collaboration.
For organisations such as ours this research highlights an important area of UK–Japan policy learning that often receives less attention than finance or constitutional reform: the human infrastructure of government.
A secondment is a temporary transfer of staff between organisations. In local government, this might involve a civil servant spending time working in a municipality, or a local authority officer joining a central ministry for a period.
In the UK, secondments do happen, but they are usually short-term, voluntary and unevenly distributed. The report argues that they are rarely embedded into the wider operating model of government.
Japan takes a more structured approach. Officials routinely move between ministries, prefectures, municipalities and public agencies over the course of their careers. These movements are not treated as exceptional; they are part of the institutional culture of governance itself.
The result is a system where officials often develop experience across multiple tiers of government, creating networks and relationships that continue long after a posting ends.
The report arrives at a time when the UK continues to debate devolution, regional growth and intergovernmental coordination. While institutional reform often focuses on powers and budgets, the research argues that capability and relationships matter just as much.
One of the recurring challenges in UK governance is fragmentation. Central government departments, devolved administrations, combined authorities and local councils can operate with different priorities, timelines and organisational cultures. Previous research on UK intergovernmental relations has often highlighted weak institutionalisation and inconsistent cooperation mechanisms.
Japan’s experience suggests that regular personnel exchange can help bridge these divides. Officials who have worked across multiple levels of government are often better able to understand operational realities, navigate institutional boundaries and build trust-based relationships.
The report argues that secondments can therefore support:
Japan’s local government system combines significant local responsibilities with a highly interconnected administrative culture. Ministries, prefectures and municipalities maintain close working relationships, supported by formal and informal personnel exchanges.
This reflects a broader feature of Japanese governance: long-term institutional continuity. Compared with the UK’s relatively frequent restructuring of local and regional governance arrangements, Japan’s systems often evolve incrementally over time.
That continuity allows relationships and expertise to accumulate. Staff mobility becomes part of how institutions learn collectively, rather than simply how individuals advance their careers.
The report does not argue that the UK should copy or emulate the Japanese system by cutting and pasting into its own. Cultural, political and administrative contexts differ significantly. However, it suggests that there are transferable lessons about how governments can deliberately cultivate institutional capability through shared experience and structured mobility.
The findings connect closely with wider debates around English devolution and regional governance.
Recent comparative work between Birmingham and Osaka has already highlighted how stable institutions, cross-tier collaboration and predictable governance arrangements support regional development. This report adds another layer to that discussion by focusing on the people who make systems work in practice.
If the UK is moving towards a more devolved model of governance, then relationships between institutions become increasingly important. Devolution is not only about transferring powers; it is also about building the capability to use them effectively.
The report therefore suggests that secondments should be viewed less as HR initiatives and more as governance infrastructure.
Possible lessons for the UK include:
One of the most interesting aspects of the research is its emphasis on international policy learning.
Japan is often discussed in the UK in relation to technology, transport or economic policy. Yet Japanese local government also offers valuable insights into institutional coordination, regional governance and administrative practice.
For JLGC, this reflects a wider mission: helping policymakers, practitioners and researchers better understand how Japanese local government works and what lessons may be relevant internationally.
As both Japan and the UK face ageing populations, regional inequality, fiscal pressure and growing expectations on local government, the question of how institutions cooperate effectively is becoming increasingly important.
This report suggests that one answer may lie not only in structures and legislation, but in something more human: creating opportunities for officials to work together, learn from one another and build lasting relationships across government boundaries.
