Yesterday I heard the Cabinet member responsible for children’s services on Walsall Council seeming completely at a loss to explain why 87% of parents requests to have their child assessed for special needs were refused in Walsall, whilst in Wolverhampton the figure was close to 0%.

I could understand this if the relevant Cabinet member had only been on post for a couple of months, but after 7 months in post and several years chairing the Children’ Services Scrutiny Panel, you would have thought she would have all the answers. She would have done if the scrutiny system worked.

The fact is the scrutiny system doesn’t work, and this is proven by one survey being able to find out a crucial piece of information that several years of scrutiny did not.

I don’t believe that Walsall Council has the resources to make the scrutiny system anything like the Commons Select Committee system, which is the only way it can work alongside the powerful and secretive Cabinet system.

What is needed is a new committee system through which all councillors can find out more about what goes on in Walsall. Until such a system is brought into place, I’m afraid most of Walsall’s elected representatives (and apparently some Walsall Cabinet members) are going to be just like the rest of Walsall’s citizens upon a whole range of crucial issues – in the dark!