// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
'Mindset shift' needed within government on No10 North, says deputy
Prime Minister Andy Burnham opened Number 10 North in July
A "mindset shift" is needed across the UK's central government to help Number 10 North deliver its objectives, its deputy director has said.
Duncan Parish told a conference in Lincolnshire on Wednesday there were "institutional challenges" within government that needed to be overcome to deliver change.
The Manchester office of Number 10 North - sister to London's Downing Street - was set up by Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July.
Burnham's political opponents have called the office a "gimmick" and raised transparency concerns about the costs involved.
Speaking to the Great Exhibition conference of local political and business leaders, Parish said his career in the civil service to date had "not been without its frustrations" and there can be "friction" between different parts of government which have "similar but ever so slightly competing objectives".
Parish, a civil servant in Whitehall before moving to Manchester four years ago, said Number 10 North staff were "delivering outcomes at a national level across a huge range of areas" including health, transport, education and social care.
"But we continually need to work to overcome those institutional challenges," he added.
He said one priority of Number 10 North was to "shift power and accountability" closer to local areas, but acknowledged "that means reforming the civil service as well" - by not viewing national, regional and local government as separate.
Duncan Parish spoke to local political and business leaders in Lincolnshire, in an event chaired by regional mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns