Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council: local authority assessment

A stable adult social care leadership team was now in place at Sandwell with clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. Senior leaders had faced a number of challenges since they had been in their roles. Previously the council had been placed under government intervention in relation to concerns about governance and leadership. Commissioners had left in March 2024 after 2 years at Sandwell overseeing improvements. A number of achievements and improvements had been made in adult social care by the local authority and were continuing to be made, driven by a strong leadership team and committed staff. However, these improvements needed to continue to embed further for this impact to be felt by people who use services and partners in Sandwell.

The Director of Adult Social Services (DASS) had been in post since 2021 and told us the culture had steadily changed since then for the better and continued to do so. It had taken time to move it forward, so people felt safe to raise issues. Now staff would come and raise concerns say if something had not gone well and consider what they could do differently. Currently leaders felt that progress had improved the local authority beyond recognition. Since the Covid-19 pandemic there had been numerous leadership changes but it was felt senior staff had gained resilience and learned about themselves and the abilities of others in the process. Leaders said they now needed to continue the pace for change and one of the next changes was the arrival of the Principal OT and planned improvements to the front door of the local authority. The Principal OT was described as the heart of future prevention, intervention and support with OT’s which heralded a different way of working for them.

Further leadership changes took place in November 2022 when the Chief Executive came into post. He told us Sandwell was an authentic place that cared, and that adult social care was good, with the potential to improve further. They were ambitious and well-resourced with a good transformation programme underway. There had been a number of challenges faced and there were originally 9 directors but now only 1 director remained, who was the DASS. They acknowledged the local authority were still on a journey to make some improvements but on the right trajectory. They were a learning organisation and for them meeting and speaking with people was key to understanding the work.

The PSW had been in their role since 2020 and told us more staff now raised concerns, brought ideas and that these were listened to. They could draw on staff knowledge and experiences. They had monthly one to one meetings with the DASS and weekly managers meetings. They reviewed reports and were able to influence the staff practice approach. They attended a number of leadership meetings such as transformation and the Safeguarding Adults Board which enabled them to apply a practice lens to conversations and decisions. There had been challenges in terms of the previous culture, a lack of supervision and large caseloads, with the service predominantly run by agency staff. It had been about building trust with the teams and collectively working together. Now with the positive changes many agency staff had stayed permanently and felt like part of the team which they had redesigned.

The PSW was supported professionally in the PSW network in the West Midlands where they had good relationships and could share ideas and training. They completed peer reviews of each other's work, audited each other's cases and shared learning, including with the involvement of people with lived experience.

Workforce challenges had been an ongoing concern for the local authority. In 2024 to 2025 social work staff comprised of 64% permanent employees, 25% agency workers and 11% vacancies. Short term grant funding had been used to increase capacity of staff to assist with the management of waiting lists. In 2025 to 2026 staffing comprised of 76% permanent employees and 24% agency staff with a small number of short-term agency posts to support transformation work. Senior staff told us they were working towards increasing the numbers of permanent staff by carrying out targeted recruitment approaches for specific social work specialisms. There was a previous review of pay arrangements for Social Workers which identified inequity with comparable neighbours, which now addressed, had further helped with recruitment.

Clear and effective governance, management and accountability arrangements provided visibility and assurance on delivery of Care Act duties, quality and sustainability, and risks to delivery of people’s care and support experiences and outcomes. Risks were documented in strategic and directorate risk registers and included internal and external escalation routes. The Adult Social Care Commissioning Board and Practice Governance Boards provided assurance to the Sandwell senior leadership team and people of Sandwell on service quality and safety in relation to adult social care. There were clear quality assurance processes in place with a range of practice and performance monitoring audit tools used. Performance meetings were held to maintain oversight of activity, identify themes and trends and monitor actions. Monitoring considered learning from the audits including concerns arising, training needs and good practice.

Political and executive leaders were kept informed about the potential risks facing adult social care which were considered in decisions across the wider council. Feedback from senior staff was the scrutiny function had been on a journey and was now a good function, however it could still be better, for example, involving subject matter experts from outside of the organisation to bring another aspect. Some partners felt scrutiny could be stronger still and used more as a mechanism of challenge. All board meetings started with a person's story delivered by different partners which grounded members by reminding them of the person at the heart of the decisions they were making.

Visible leadership and engagement with staff took place through a range of activities. Successes were celebrated in a number of ways such as employee of the year. In 2024 the local authority launched their new ‘Team of the Year' award and were finalists in a ‘Most Improved Council’ category at a national awards in 2025 with a number of awards given to staff to celebrate their work and achievements. Staff fed back feeling well supported with manageable workloads and that Sandwell were a progressive council who were very customer focused and keen to offer the best possible support. The DASS led staff in displaying the right values about care and staff told us there was increasing stability in management who were very human rights focused, which meant they understood how important the work was and making staff feel valued. There had been a huge pace of change in Sandwell and feedback from staff was it did still feel like ‘the paint was wet on everything’ however there was a clear passion for providing high quality support.

Partners told us the local authority had come a long way in terms of change and positive direction. Although significant deprivation existed across the 6 towns in the borough, people did not feel deprived, and this has been captured in celebrating and promoting Sandwell as an attractive prospect, in meeting diverse needs and strengthening the adult social care workforce. The senior leadership team now seemed stable and in a state of consolidation. They had a shared commitment and vision and were working well together. Leaders were considered to be visible and transparent about their current position and future plans, which in turn gave partners confidence.

Some partners fed back having to escalate concerns to senior level for action to be taken and concerns addressed. The majority of other feedback from partners was good however, citing positive and constructive engagement with senior leaders who demonstrated a genuine openness to learning and a commitment to ensuring that assessment processes and wider local authority services were accessible, with regular meetings held to offer assurances.

The local authority used information about risks, performance, inequalities and outcomes to inform its adult social strategy and plans, allocate resources and deliver the actions needed to improve care and support outcomes for people and local communities. A range of corporate strategies were in place, which were data driven and co-produced with staff, people, and partners. The Adult Social Care Strategy 2024 to 2028 highlighted a programme of service improvement in relation to areas such as direct payments, Preparing for Adulthood (transitions) and supporting the customer journey. The local authorities adult social care vision was, ‘The right support, at the right time and the right place, to maximise independence and empower people to remain safe and healthy’.

A transformation programme was underway with improvements already reported in areas. The 4 key workstreams were the front door, intermediate care, embedding strength-based practice, and digital and technology. The improvement priorities highlighted the local authority needed to change the way in which it operated in order to meet the many challenges that lay ahead.

The Adult Social Care Workforce Development Strategy had led to new ways of recruiting staff, including values-based recruitment and with a more innovative marketing of a career in Sandwell’s Adult Social Care service. This included goals for staff employed to better reflect the cultural diversity of the population by encouraging inclusive recruitment. The result had meant vacancy rates, retention and sickness absence were all improving.

The Chief Executive told us about challenges they had faced such as funding, investment, transformation and around demand. In transformation they wanted to achieve capacity and skills, having the right workforce. The DASS was described as strong and they had confidence in them and their new leadership team. Prevention was seen as critical in the transformation and although there had been year on year improvements, they still wanted to build on these. They told us adult social care was not in a good place about 2 years ago and they wanted it to be front and centre now, so had been laying a lot of foundation blocks to move this forward. Relationships were much improved with people and partners, however with challenges still in place. Improvement work was continuing in relation to the workforce, for example, approximately a quarter of social work staff were agency workers. They needed to do more training around culture, involvement and engagement, building on what they had done and looking at the leadership structure.

Feedback from the local authority was that further work had been undertaken so agency staff reliance had reduced significantly as targeted recruitment has stabilised key service areas. Attendance at recruitment events had strengthened Sandwell’s visibility and attracted new permanent staff. Sandwell had also invested in an ‘Allyship Programme’ aimed at leaders and senior managers with 30 places secured.  The programme was designed to offer a safe and supportive space where senior leaders could grow their inclusive leadership skills through the lens of allyship with the aim to assist in improving the retention of staff.

In 2023 the DASS commissioned a diagnostic exercise at the front door to the local authority where there were several issues identified including the referral route for safeguarding and DoLs. They considered what they could learn from other local authorities and now ensured staff contact details were provided to people directly. The front door remained the current focus for improvement work. For example, a new telephone service and a digitalised option would become live in October 2025, which would reduce a further 15% of the calls coming in.

A large amount of work had been led by the PSW and other practice leads to improve practice. As part of a wider strength-based transformation programme, the PSW sought external input from a specialist social care organisation alongside introducing a Quality Assurance Framework. Assessments, support planning and the application of the eligibility criteria were reviewed to support enhanced practice. Amended Mental Capacity Act 2005 guidance was produced and a case load waiting tool put in place.

The lead member for adult social care told us they would still like to see direct payments used more, intelligence and IT, however they felt they had come a long way as a local authority. Since the commissioners came, they had learnt, investing more in staff and communities. The cabinet was described as close and supportive, the leader always available, scrutiny was utilised and the Chief Executive was near and engaged. They knew what their relationships should be and were proud of these.

In relation to Overview and Scrutiny, senior staff told us the work of the committee was planned for the next 12 months, councillors put forward issues and the key focus was established collectively but this was also flexible if required. Detailed safeguarding reporting and data was given to committee members. Risk strategy reporting formed part of regular information given before quarterly meetings. Other data such as for waiting lists was provided. If further information was requested by committee members, leaders were described as very responsive in supplying and explaining this. For example, the committee had requested a review of the impact of the refreshed Autism strategy and expected to see the recommendation that the committee put forward included before the strategy was finalised.

Information sharing protocols supported safe, secure and timely sharing of personal information in ways that protected people’s rights and privacy. The local authority had arrangements to maintain the security, availability, integrity and confidentiality of data, records and data management systems. The local authority told us they had information governance arrangements in place overseen and managed by their Governance Team. There was a range of information sharing agreements and memorandums of understanding with system partners and other relevant organisations. They also had clear arrangements for audit, fraud and risk management.

Staff told us governance arrangements for information security included the use of security in data systems, data sharing agreements and protocols, passwords, encryption, and secure email practices. Systems allowed the data team to apply security measures and manage the distribution of data to the appropriate people. There were instances where the data team had made reports available to external people and partners, providing them with restricted views of data without revealing personal information. This approach ensured the local authority and partners were looking at one version of a record whilst maintaining data confidentiality.

One person who was moving from children to adult services told us the IT systems did not talk to each other which meant they had to phone and retell their history to adult social staff. Staff told us they had access to the children’s services system records, once cases were referred to them, but the children's system was very different from their one and difficult to navigate. Consequently, the team had carried out their own training on this and had established sessions with children's team partners to provide a regular forum for information exchange and learning.

Staff told us the use of digital services had improved over time with the introduction of tools to support this. For example, staff now used bespoke dashboards where they could effectively monitor data stating they would like to share this with partners eventually but at present there was no data protection information sharing agreement in place. Other staff told us about the use of electronic systems which did not always align with each other or with the adult social care system. However, there were early discussions around ways to merge systems better which would cut down on the time taken to update information. Staff undertook data protection training each year. There was a secure email used to share information with partners such as health.

Feedback from partners was sharing operational data was a ‘work in progress’. In the integrated hospital discharge hub, health and adult social care staff had access to each other's systems but this was not seamless and could be slow. Local authority staff had been given access to several devices and the local authority reablement service used different hardware to that of the hub. Partners told us that barriers related more to their own systems than the local authority ones, and work was underway to establish an improved network.