Friday brief: Council makes reserve raid plan to meet adult social care costs
Friday brief: Council makes reserve raid plan to meet adult social care costs
Plus our usual Friday digest of some news from the week
The North unitary has amended plans for next year’s budget, and will go into its reserves to plug the gap for the growing demand for adult social care budgets.
As reported by NN Journal recently, it was the rising cost of adult social care which led to the authority recently putting in spending controls, a tactic employed by the former county council when it hit the financial skids in 2018.
Now the authority has amended the budget it published in December for the coming 2024/25 financial year, adding in an extra £4.096m to the existing £142m adult social care budget.
The extra funds will come from a new government grant -which the authority estimates will be around £2.6m and it will take £1.4m from reserves. It is also forecasting its budget will be short by £41m in 2025/26; £61m the following year and £87m the year after. The costs are largely down to children’s and adults social care and the cost of placements - which are generally provided by private companies.
The authority is asking residents to pay an inflation busting 4.99% extra on their council tax to meet the rising costs of providing services. The overall budget being spent is £375m.
The authority will discuss the budget at the executive next week and then it will go to the full council for approval.
A report published by a cross party parliamentary committee this week said the financial crisis facing local government was ‘out of control’ and said government needed to plug a £4bn funding gap. It also has made recommendations for council tax reform.
Northants County Council was the first for 20 years to run out of cash, but since then a number of others have become bankrupt, with some having resorted to disastrous commercial activities to try and bring in more income.
The west unitary cabinet will discuss its budget £409m on February 13.
News in brief
A West Northants Labour unitary councillor has said she is ‘deeply disappointed’ about the scrutiny given to a review of the town’s Voi e-scooters.
The hireable scooters, which were introduced to the town in 2020, have been controversial and councillor Emma Roberts has for many months voiced her concerns about their safety.
A report before the council on Wednesday has recommended that the trial is extended until May 2026; a safety review is carried out, as well as a parking review. However a report about the number of incidents of the scooters - which the council sends regularly to the Department for Transport, was kept confidential.
In an issued statement Cllr Roberts said:
“I am deeply disappointed with the outcome of the council’s scrutiny review of Voi e-scooters and their safety that ended last night [Wednesday].
“The task and finish group was given just six weeks to conduct the review, which is nowhere near enough time to properly collect and analyse the evidence and advice we received. Scrutiny panels should set their own agenda and timings, not pander to the administration it is supposed to scrutinise. We absolutely could have had a little bit more time to do service to our concerned residents. Now we have a final report that is contradictory and doesn’t reflect the strength of feeling on the issue.”
She said she was concerned council leader Jonathan Nunn was allowed to address the panel as an ‘expert’ because he uses the scooters.
Cllr Roberts asked the panel to make a recommendation to the Conservative cabinet that they do a public consultation before any contract is renewed. The panel decided against the recommendation.
Preparation works will start soon on the multi-million pound project to replace the roof on Kettering library.
The failed roof has caused the hold up of the opening of the new Cornerstone cultural quarter, as water has been getting in.
In December the authority agreed a sum of as much as £6.8m to replace the Carnegie library roof which is Grade 2 listed and is made of expensive Collyweston slate.
The library has temporarily relocated to the upper floor of the modern Cornerstone extension.
Westminster Watch
A number of the candidates hoping to become the new MP for Welllingborough and Rushden took part in a panel discussion on BBC Radio Northampton yesterday talking about issues such as local health services, town centre decline and policing. You can listen back here to the Annabel Amos show here.
The byelection takes place on Thursday, February 15 with polling stations open from 7am to 10pm. (NN Journal will be among the media reporting from the election count and will run a blog throughout).
There’s also a great read here about the history of the parliamentary seat.
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Re; Voi Scooters.
Personally, I've had an incident that could so easily have been a fatal one for the scooter rider.
Hate to say it but the riders tend to be young, inexperienced and full of cockiness and attitude.
Add to that, no personal protection is required.
How can that be legal?
Also, why not do as Labour want?
A full review BEFORE renewing the contract.
Having a full conversation with the public is a responsible thing to do but it appears that the council have voted along party lines yet again
I work in local government, and the meteoric rise in clients presenting with problems with care providers is incomprehensibly alarming. The volume of enquiries and serious safeguarding complaints have increased by over 50% in the last 3-6 months alone in Northampton and surrounding areas.
The WNC and safeguarding teams need to recruit a full-time vetting team and stop outsourcing this to third parties at extortionate rates. WNC is paying far too many tick-box-checked 'limited liability' care companies that are nothing more than shells of operations registered with the Home Office designed to recruit in droves overseas untrained care staff who are not paid what their British counterparts are paid and, oftentimes, they are shackled to their sponsors (which are awarded lucrative contracts by WNC with little audit if any) and fear making complaints about their frequent exploitation. This is a huge loophole Westminster has conjured up with its Tier 2 key care worker visa schemes and they are alarmingly abused, and it goes more iimportantly to the other end as well. These workers are abusing and mistreating their elderly British patients across the board.
My name is "Scott L Pileckas" and I am based in Towcester and Oxfordshire covering the entire tri-county area and I will duly attest to the basis for everything I articulate herein. I have worked for youth and elderly outreach initiatives for over 25 years, and if the WNC isn't engaging people with my subject matter expertise, their strategy is going to fail and is indeed failing.