‘W e are what we repeatedly do' – an observation made over two millennia ago by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, is one of the most succinct and accurate descriptions in the notoriously ambiguous study of organisational culture.

Culture matters, especially in relation to the long-mooted plans for the introduction of a National Care Service (NCS). After all, the working relationship between central and local government has been so often defined not by the poetic rhetoric of incoming administrations, but by the harsh prose of governing reality.