Some years ago, few would have thought that public services would be described as ‘exciting and dangerous’. However, this year our annual survey, ‘Pioneers – the 2015 Senior Managers’ Risk Report’, found just that. Huge changes to the structure and delivery of our public services are being made right across the country, from new sources of finance to new ways of working and beyond.

This is a shift from the blue-sky thinking that dominated the way senior council chiefs approached their work in 2014. ‘The Transformers’, as we called them then, were leading the conversation in how public services could be delivered differently.