There is virtually no facet of local government and the wider public sector which does not involve workforce issues. Change programmes are meaningless without staff involvement. The much-quoted phrase ‘cultural obstacles' is a euphemism for employees not being on board with whatever change is being proposed by management. The word ‘transformation' is only another word for getting staff to do things differently. Even long-awaited health and social care integration stumbles on the different terms and conditions in the two sectors.

So one might imagine the people who run the workforces, the heads of human resources/organisational development, are at the top table in most local authorities. That they are not, has long been HR heads' source of irritation. Other disciplines, notably finance, policy and social services end up being represented frequently at chief executive level but there are very few former heads of HR, despite the fact that change and transformation are on every chief's CV.