Sandwell's September Paper Trail – A Few Things Worth Watching Before the Reports Land
There is an old habit in local government of waiting until a 300-page committee pack lands on the internet, usually accompanied by enough appendices to stun a medium-sized badger, before anyone starts asking what is actually going on.
So I'm trying something different.
Let's look at what is coming before the paperwork arrives.
Sandwell Council has published another Forward Plan, this one dated 4 August 2026, giving advance notice of decisions expected to come before Cabinet.
And there are already several items where I think residents, councillors and particularly those sitting on scrutiny committees should be sharpening their pencils.
Most are currently expected at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday 9 September 2026.
This isn't an accusation that something is wrong.
It is something far more dangerous in Sandwell:
asking questions before the decision is made.
First up – how are the finances looking?
One of the big documents coming forward is the:
Q1 Budget Monitoring Report 2026/27
This is classed as a Key Decision.
Budget monitoring reports can appear mind-numbingly dull.
Forecast.
Variance.
Reprofiling.
Reserves.
Capital programme.
Another spreadsheet.
Another cup of tea.
But buried amongst those phrases is the answer to a much simpler question:
Is Sandwell actually spending taxpayers' money where it said it would, and is it delivering what it promised?
That matters particularly because previous financial reports have already highlighted substantial pressures involving SEND/high-needs funding, the Housing Revenue Account and Sandwell Children's Trust.
Earlier monitoring during 2025/26 showed significant pressure within the Dedicated Schools Grant and HRA, alongside the continuing financial implications surrounding the Children's Trust.
So when the new Q1 figures arrive, some fairly basic questions need answering.
Has the position improved?
Have new overspends appeared?
Are savings actually being delivered?
How much money is being taken from reserves?
And perhaps one of my favourites:
How much of the capital programme has actually been delivered?
Because there is a difference between:
"We have allocated £20 million to something"
and
"We actually built the thing."
Sandwell has previously had substantial capital budgets reprofiled into later years.
"Reprofiled", incidentally, is one of those wonderful council words.
In ordinary English it frequently means:
We didn't spend it when we said we were going to.
Let's see what September brings.
Treasury Management Outturn 2025/26
Another Key Decision is the Treasury Management Outturn for the last financial year.
Don't switch off.
Treasury management sounds like something conducted by three accountants in a locked cupboard beneath Oldbury Council House.
It isn't.
It deals with things including borrowing, investments, debt, interest and how the authority manages enormous amounts of public money.
I want to see:
- total borrowing;
- cost of borrowing;
- investment returns;
- compliance with prudential indicators;
- changes in debt;
- borrowing connected with the capital programme;
- and whether assumptions made when the budget was approved actually turned out to be correct.
If interest costs have increased, let's see them.
If borrowing has increased, explain why.
If investments performed better than expected, wonderful – tell us.
Transparency shouldn't only apply when the numbers are bad.
Housing Compliance Policies
Now this one immediately gets my attention.
Cabinet is expected to consider Compliance Policies, again as a Key Decision.
And there is some important history here.
Sandwell's Housing Improvement and Transformation Programme was developed following the Regulator of Social Housing's C3 regulatory judgement, which identified serious failings in the landlord service.
Previous scrutiny papers recorded issues including extremely poor historic asbestos survey compliance, electrical safety work, a repairs backlog and inadequate information about the condition of the housing stock.
The improvement programme itself specifically included:
reviewing compliance policies and procedures;
improving systems and data;
external and internal assurance;
staff competence;
and better controls to identify non-compliance risks.
So this isn't administrative housekeeping.
It goes directly to the question:
Has Sandwell now got proper control of housing safety and compliance?
When the papers appear I want to know exactly which policies are being approved.
I also want to know:
What remains outstanding?
What is still red or amber?
Are statutory inspections genuinely up to date?
Have historical gaps been completely resolved?
What does external assurance say?
And crucially:
Can Sandwell now evidence compliance properly rather than simply saying that it believes properties are compliant?
There is an important difference.
Community Safety Strategy 2026–2030
Another significant item is the proposed Sandwell Community Safety Strategy 2026–2030, also identified as a Key Decision and expected at Cabinet on 9 September.
This should be interesting.
Because residents don't experience "community safety strategies".
They experience:
antisocial behaviour;
drug dealing;
illegal motorcycles;
shoplifting;
town-centre disorder;
fly-tipping;
criminal damage;
street drinking;
car crime;
and neighbourhood problems that sometimes seem to bounce endlessly between organisations.
So when the strategy appears, I hope we don't receive 70 pages of worthy aspirations accompanied by photographs of people pointing at flipcharts.
I want measurable outcomes.
What are the baseline figures?
What are the targets?
Who is responsible for delivering them?
Where are the hotspots?
What happens when targets aren't met?
How will councillors see ward-level performance?
How are West Midlands Police, Sandwell Council and other partners actually going to be held accountable?
And perhaps most importantly:
Will residents be able to tell whether the strategy has worked?
Because publishing another strategy is easy.
Making Great Bridge, West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Smethwick, Oldbury, Tipton and our neighbourhoods demonstrably safer is the difficult bit.
West Midlands Regional Care Cooperative
Another September item seeks approval for Sandwell to accept Department for Education funding on behalf of the West Midlands Regional Care Cooperative and lead on elements of that work.
It too is designated a Key Decision.
This one deserves careful reading when the report arrives.
There may be very good reasons for Sandwell taking the lead.
But any time Sandwell Council becomes accountable for funding or activity being delivered across a wider regional partnership, I want clarity over:
who controls the money;
who carries the financial risk;
what Sandwell's liabilities are;
what happens if another partner doesn't deliver;
how performance is monitored;
and whether the Council is simply acting as an accountable body or taking on wider responsibilities.
Regional partnerships can achieve things individual councils cannot.
They can also create accountability arrangements resembling a plate of spaghetti.
Let's see the report.
Funeral Services Contract
Cabinet is also expected to consider a Funeral Services Contract, another Key Decision.
Again, this may prove completely straightforward.
But funeral and bereavement services are sensitive public services and contracts need proper scrutiny.
I'd want to know:
what is being procured;
the contract value and length;
whether there are extension provisions;
how quality will be measured;
whether prices or charges to residents could be affected;
what previous contract performance has been like;
and what safeguards exist should the contractor fail.
Procurement reports have an unfortunate tendency to concentrate heavily on procurement.
Residents are generally more interested in the service they actually receive.
And Then There's The Fully Exempt One...
One item on the Forward Plan concerns approval to write off legacy arrears relating to premises.
The Council identifies it as a Key Decision, and Modern.Gov presently indicates that the matter is anticipated to be fully exempt.
Now let's be very clear.
The fact that something is considered in private does not mean there is anything improper about it.
Councils legitimately have to protect commercially confidential information and other information falling within statutory exemptions.
But secrecy does create a corresponding responsibility for particularly robust internal governance.
If the public cannot see the details, elected members need to be absolutely satisfied about:
the amount being written off;
why the debt became irrecoverable;
how old it is;
what recovery action was undertaken;
whether mistakes contributed;
whether officers followed the correct debt-recovery procedures;
and whether there are lessons preventing the same situation occurring again.
"Legacy arrears" could describe a perfectly sensible accounting clean-up.
It could also describe money that should have been collected years ago.
Until we see whatever information can lawfully be made public, we simply don't know.
And that is precisely why questions matter.
Now Comes My Bigger Concern – Scrutiny
This is where the diary becomes interesting.
Cabinet is scheduled to meet on:
Wednesday 9 September 2026.
Budget and Corporate Scrutiny meets on:
Thursday 10 September.
Children's Services and Education Scrutiny meets:
Monday 14 September.
Safer Neighbourhoods and Active Communities Scrutiny meets:
Thursday 17 September.
See the potential problem?
Most of the main scrutiny meetings take place after Cabinet.
That doesn't automatically mean these matters haven't been or won't be scrutinised beforehand.
Some policies go through earlier scrutiny meetings, working groups and consultation.
But it does reinforce something I have raised previously.
Scrutiny is most useful BEFORE a decision.
The Council's own scrutiny arrangements recognise that boards should regularly consider the Cabinet Forward Plan and adjust their programmes when important new matters emerge. Previous Sandwell scrutiny reports explicitly describe scrutiny as member-led and say work programmes should remain fluid so emerging issues can be examined in a timely manner.
That is exactly what should happen now.
There is little point in holding a magnificent scrutiny meeting on Thursday explaining everything that Cabinet approved on Wednesday.
That's not scrutiny.
That's a post-match discussion.
The Forward Plan Should Be An Alarm Bell
This is why I intend to pay far more attention to Sandwell's Forward Plan.
Not because every item represents a scandal.
Most won't.
But because this is where we get an early indication of what is coming.
And that's when residents, opposition councillors, backbench councillors and scrutiny members can start asking questions.
Before decisions.
Before contracts.
Before millions are committed.
Before the press release announcing that everything is marvellous.
The Council has recently been through Government intervention, regulatory problems in housing and a lengthy process of rebuilding governance and assurance.
That means scrutiny should not be regarded as an irritating obstacle to getting things done.
Good scrutiny helps stop things going wrong.
And good councillors shouldn't be frightened of it.
Whether they're Reform, Labour, Green or Independent.
What I'll Be Watching For
When September's reports are finally published, I'll be looking particularly at:
Q1 FINANCES
Are pressures worsening? Are savings real? Are reserves being used? Is capital delivery slipping?
TREASURY MANAGEMENT
What happened to borrowing, debt, investments and interest costs?
HOUSING COMPLIANCE
Has Sandwell genuinely fixed the weaknesses exposed by the regulator, and can it prove it?
COMMUNITY SAFETY
Are there measurable targets rather than another collection of ambitions?
REGIONAL CHILDREN'S SERVICES FUNDING
Who carries the money, risk and accountability?
FUNERAL SERVICES
What does the contract cost and what protections exist for service quality?
LEGACY ARREARS
What information can legally be released and how did the debt arise?
And underneath all of them:
Who scrutinised it before Cabinet?
That's the question I think we should begin asking every time.
A Different Way Of Watching Sandwell
I'll continue following the Forward Plans and forthcoming committee papers and highlighting anything I think deserves closer examination.
Sometimes I'll find a genuine red flag.
Sometimes the report will answer the questions perfectly adequately.
And occasionally – I live in hope – we may even discover something Sandwell Council has done rather well.
I'll report that too.
But the important thing is that residents should not need to discover major decisions several weeks after councillors have approved them.
The information is there.
The trick is knowing where to look.
So consider this the advance warning.
September could be interesting.
And somewhere inside Sandwell Council House, I suspect somebody is already preparing the appendices.
Lots and lots of appendices.
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