Friday brief: ‘Unprecedented’ rise in demand for services for the over 65s puts pressure on North unitary budgets
Our usual round up of some news from across the county
North Northamptonshire Council is facing an ‘unprecedented rise’ in demand for services for the over 65s, which is threatening to bust the budget.
The authority’s children’s services budget is already almost £10m over budget and now the authority is facing a £2.25m overspend in adult social care.
According to the latest in-year budget report for the authority:
“Client numbers have increased since April 2022 by 25% in the 65+ cohort and 15% in the 18-64 cohort with similar costs to existing cohorts. Previously there had been 14 years of stable demand in the 65+ cohort so this level of increase is unprecedented.
At yesterday’s executive council meeting, the executive member for adult social care Cllr Helen Harrison, said there was an ‘urgent’ need’ to understand what was happening and whether the increase in demand was permanent. She said the increase in demand was ‘mind boggling’ and would not be easy to deal with.
Councils have to balance their budgets, so the money will have to be found from somewhere - with cuts to other services or money taken from reserves.
The cost of services is a known issue in Northamptonshire, which has been through financial hard times before when the former county council collapsed in 2018.
Alongside the children’s services budget the education budget (the dedicated school grant which is £354m for the north of the county) is also facing going over budget by just under £5m. This is an increase of almost £1m from the last report and this is down to an overspend in the high needs budget.
News in brief
A Northamptonshire teacher who sent sexual messages and nude photos of herself to a student has been banned from the profession.
Georgie Worboys, 44, was an art teacher at Prince William School, Oundle, when she began acting inappropriately towards a female sixth form student there in early 2020.
A professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) convened last month to consider the case and found that Worboys had sent inappropriate messages and images on social media to a student, which were of a “sexual nature” and were “sexually motivated”.
Worboys, who had been employed by the school since 2015, contacted one of her students on Facebook Messenger in February 2020. She sent over 2000 messages over a five-month period and took part in conversations of an inappropriate and sexual nature.
Worboys stated in an email to the TRA that she did not admit the allegations. The panel found that there was no evidence that Worboys had shown any insight or remorse into her actions, and she was found to be “calculated and motivated”. She was also aware that the student, 18, was vulnerable during this time and was part of her safeguarding team for over a year.
Worboys, who was not present at the panel hearing, was banned from teaching indefinitely and cannot apply for the prohibition order to be lifted.
Report by Nadia Lincoln, Local Democracy reporter
The number of young people in Northamptonshire committing violent offences and found in possession of offensive weapons has increased, a new report shows.
Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Youth Offending Service (YOS) has published a report into crime and youth justice in the region, outlining its strategy to reduce the level of young offenders. While there are fewer young people in the criminal justice system in Northamptonshire than in previous years, those who remain present a higher level of complexity and require more intensive support.
Areas of concern include a slight increase in levels of serious youth violence from 3.6 offences to 4.5 offences per 10,000 of the general 10-17 population from 2021 to 2022. Serious youth violence is described by the Youth Justice Board as “any drug, robbery or violence against the person offence that has a gravity score of five or more”.
Despite levels of youth violence in Northamptonshire remaining below the national average, the average re-offences per re-offender is significantly higher than that of regional and national levels – with an average of 5.08 re-offences in Northamptonshire compared to 3.63 across England and Wales.
Drug and knife crime has also been creeping back up in Northamptonshire, with the number of young people found in possession of a blade or knife in the first half of the year at an all-time high since 2017-18. There has also been a marked increase in the amount of 10 to 15-year-olds as well as 17 plus serious youth violence incidents in recent years.
YOS has committed to “addressing the rising concerns of serious youth violence”.
The report also found correlations between youth offenders and exposure to wellbeing and care services. 31.5 per cent of young offenders have had contact with mental health services, 71.2 per cent have struggled with substance misuse, 52.8 per cent have had children’s services involved with the family and 58.9 per cent have been identified as a child in need.
By Nadia Lincoln
Part of a historic Northampton pub is set to be demolished to make way for a new block of apartments.
A reserved matters planning application has been approved by West Northamptonshire Council to begin work on the landscaping around the proposed apartment building on land next to The Plough Hotel, Bridge Street.
The new complex will comprise 35 serviced apartments in place of a two-storey brick outbuilding to the rear of The Plough. The pub and hotel has been welcoming visitors for over a hundred years and was originally built as a coaching inn in the 1890s.
During World War Two, it was used by the American Red Cross Society as a leave centre for American troops and a total of 174,000 servicemen stayed at the hotel. It still boasts a Victorian-style exterior with brick, stone masonry and mock beams.
The site has been the subject of many planning proposals since 2011, with developers New Life Hotels Ltd receiving outline approval for the apartment building in 2020. A previous proposal by New Life Hotels in 2016 to build 56 apartments in the same location was refused as the design of the development was “unacceptable due to its scale, design and choice of materials.”
By Nadia Lincoln
Read again
Yesterday we published the saddest story we have featured in our almost three years of publishing. But we think it is important that you read the words of Martin Woodcroft, whose son Callum took his own life aged 13 after suffering from school phobia.
NN Events
🎺 A concert of the brass music of Malcolm Arnold is being held at the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery in Guildhall Road, tomorrow from 2pm to 4.30pm.
🎭 Agatha Christie’s play And Then There Were None is being staged by the Wellingborough Technical Players from Tuesday until October 21 at the Castle Theatre. Here for performance times.
How is a 25% increase a ‘slight’ increase. This is serious and threffending rate is circa 50% higher than the national average
NN is at the forefront of essential reporting to our Northamptonshire Community which appears to be lacking from our Local Media and regional television.