YOU can shift the blame, but changing the way that local government works is no easy task, Local Government Chronicle (April 26) reports.

First up: Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire county councils have withdrawn from the Department of Health’s (DoH) shared services project — NHS Shared Business Services — fearful of breaking EU procurement laws.

The two county councils were to have joined 100 health trusts that share finance, human resources (HR) and procurement systems but have scaled down their plans. Cambridgeshire will now allow Northamptonshire to use its finance and HR systems.

“It is a bit of a balancing act about whether we go for that kind of large-scale project that others could buy into or a smaller agreement just between the two councils,” says Stephen Moir, the director of people and policy for Cambridgeshire. “The former would obviously need a lot of guidance from central government.”

A DoH spokesperson says that it had not examined European legislation and it was up to each council to seek its own legal advice.

Attempts to transform the way that citizens access local services are failing, ambushed by middle-managers aka “organisational terrorists”, LGC reports. “The vast majority come to work to do a good job but 1 or 2 per cent are so resistant to change that they will try to sabotage projects,” says Alan Jones, chief executive of Somerset County Council.

Not that senior managers are doing such a swell job. The lack of leadership from top brass can be a “project killer”, says a senior aide from the Communities and Local Government department.

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