I can't help but think there may be a huge bucket of sand somewhere deep in the heart of the Treasury buildings, where the chancellor and his cabinet chums bury their heads whenever someone from local government – or indeed the health sector – turns up.

The collective public sector voice has issued stark warnings over adult social care, all of which seem to have gone shamefully unheeded. Local government funding is on the brink of collapse and the impact on the health service will be huge, yet the chancellor has failed to act. And that is before warnings over sharply rising children's services costs start to rise up the agenda – but they are coming.