he Chancellor didn’t have many surprises. Almost all the key messages of the Spending Review had been well and truly leaked and most public agencies watching his speech did so, not to find out what would happen to their budgets, but just to check that it wasn’t going to be worse than forecast.

Although the aftermath has been a predictable discussion about ‘fairness’, forward-looking public sector Managers are just getting on with it. Restructuring departments and reducing headcount is pretty unpleasant especially if loyal staff have to lose their jobs, but there’s a creative side to it too. Re-structuring or re-aligning services may be tedious and unglamorous, but it does afford scope for imagination, for fresh thinking and collaborative effort.