Walsall Council

Council Spending and Efficiency · drafted 2026-07-02 · accepted · 6 finding(s)

← council-level findings on this theme

30 Jul 2025On 30 July 2025 Walsall Council formally approved (moved by Councillor Bird, seconded by Councillor Andrew) a restructured Pay and Grading structure tied to its Senior Management Review, which removed overlapping pay grades and created new Head of Service and Deputy Director grades; the decision does not state any number of senior/management posts deleted or a £ saving figure. [1][2]

30 Jul 2025The underlying Senior Management Restructure report -- setting out the changes to Walsall's senior officer structure -- was presented to full Council on 30 July 2025 for information only and was noted, not put to Council as a discrete vote to approve or reject it. [3]

25 Sep 2025Walsall's Appointments Panel (25 September 2025) was asked to authorise recruitment to new Director roles created by the Senior Management Review to add strategic capacity, indicating the review added senior posts rather than documenting a deletion of posts. [4]

15 Oct 2025Cabinet endorsed the underlying operational savings proposals for 2026/27-2029/30 (Appendix 1 to the budget report) at its meeting of 15 October 2025, instructing officers to implement them under delegated powers subject to consultation and impact assessments. [5]

2 Dec 2025The largest specific £ savings figure reported against the 2026/27-2029/30 MTFS in the corpus is £24.288m of budget savings proposals over 4 years for the Children's, Families and Education directorate remit, reported to that Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 2 December 2025 alongside £55.480m of growth/demand proposals over the same period; other committees reported smaller directorate-specific savings figures within the same MTFS (e.g. £6.9m over 4 years for Resources and Transformation, reported 12 March 2026), but no single consolidated whole-council £ total was found in the corpus. [6][7]

13 Apr 2026Walsall Council formally adopted the Corporate Budget Plan 2026/27 to 2029/30, including the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2026/27-2029/30, at the full Council meeting of 13 April 2026; the recommendation was moved by Councillor Bird and seconded by Councillor Andrew and approved by recorded vote. [8]

References (8)
  1. Minutes, 30 July 2025 “It was moved by Councillor Bird, seconded by Councillor Andrew and: Resolved: 3.1 That overlapping grades between Spinal Column Point (SCP) 002 Grade 1 and SCP 058 Grade 14 within the National Joint Council for Local Government Terms and Conditions (NJC) pay spine are removed.”
  2. Minutes, 30 July 2025 “The role of Deputy Director is a new role created as part of the Senior Management Review.”
  3. Minutes, 30 July 2025 “31. Senior Management Restructure A report was submitted [annexed]. Resolved That the changes to the senior structure, as set out in the report, be noted.”
  4. Minutes, 25 September 2025 “42 Recruitment to Director posts following Senior Management Review A report was submitted. (see annexed) The Chief Executive presented the report which sought authority to determine the arrangements to recruit to the new Director roles which had been created to provide the right strategic expertise and capacity”
  5. Minutes, 15 October 2025 “That Cabinet note and endorse the operational saving proposals for 2026/27 to 2029/30 in Appendix 1 and instruct officers to implement these under officer delegations, subject to any required consultation, equality and health impact assessments and any changes arising as a result of the latter two.”
  6. Minutes, 2 December 2025 “The Committee was informed that the current budget savings proposals totalled £24.288m over 4 years, and the growth and demand proposals totalled £55.480m over 4 years.”
  7. Minutes, 12 March 2026 “there were £49.94m of demand pressures over a 4-year period which included £6.9m of savings for the Resources directorate and central / capital financing area.”
  8. Minutes, 13 April 2026 “It was moved by Councillor Bird, seconded by Councillor Andrew: That the following be approved: 2.3.1 Revenue a) The financial envelope of resources for 2026/27 as set out in Appendix A Annex 2 – Medium Term Financial Strategy 2026/27 to 2029/30 (MTFS) and amended by Table 4 of this report.”