Local authorities' ambitions to forge ahead with radical new public health programmes from April 2013 are being hindered by delays in resolving pay and pensions issues for transferred NHS staff, experts warned this week.

Amid growing calls for clarity over how the remuneration of soon-to-be-transferred NHS staff would operate under the devolved public health regime, HR professionals warned the ongoing log-jam threatened to derail the effective integration of health staff into the vastly-different local government culture.