Northamptonshire County Council

Northamptonshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire in England. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county is divided into 57 electoral divisions, which return a total of 57 councillors. The council has been controlled by the Conservative Party since 2005. The headquarters of the council is County Hall in Northampton.

Northamptonshire County Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan county council of Northamptonshire
Leadership
Chair of the Council	Cllr Stephen Legg, Conservative since 22 May 2019
Leader of the Council	Cllr Matt Golby, Conservative since 2018
Chief executive	Theresa Grant since 17 July 2018
Structure
Seats	57 councillors
Political groups	Administration      Conservative (42)      Labour (11)      Liberal Democrat (2)      Independent (2)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	4 May 2017
Meeting place
County Hall, Northampton
Website
www.northamptonshire.gov.uk

As a non-metropolitan county council, the council is responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport policy and fire services, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning.

In early 2018, the Council announced it was effectively insolvent. Subsequently, a report by Government Inspectors concluded that problems at the council were so deep-rooted that it should be abolished and replaced by two smaller authorities.

In February 2020, the Northamptonshire (Structural Changes) Order 2020 was enacted,[1] which will as of 1 April 2021 abolish Northamptonshire County Council and the district councils and create two unitary district councils, to be known as 'North Northamptonshire Council' and 'West Northamptonshire Council'.

History

Northamptonshire County Council was first formed in 1889 as a result of the Local Government Act 1888, covering Northamptonshire, with the exceptions of the borough of Northampton, which became a county borough, and the Soke of Peterborough, which was made its own administrative county. This arrangement changed in 1974 when, following the Local Government Act 1972, a newly constituted Northamptonshire County Council was formed for the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire. First elections to the new authority were in April 1973, and the council took office on 1 April 1974.

From its recreation in 1974, the county council has administered the entire ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, including Northampton. This does not include the area of the Soke of Peterborough, which has been included in the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire since 1974. During 1990s local government reform, Northampton tried to obtain unitary authority status, but failed. Northamptonshire now has three tiers of local government: the county council; seven lower-tier councils, comprising four borough councils (Corby, Kettering, Northampton, Wellingborough) and three district councils (Daventry, East Northamptonshire, South Northamptonshire); and more than 250 parish councils.

Governance

Northamptonshire County Council has operated executive arrangements in the form of a Leader and Cabinet system since 2001. In December 2008, the council chose to adopt the revised Executive Leader and Cabinet arrangement.

The Council is currently composed of 57 councillors, each representing a single-member division. Elections were held every four years; the last in 2017.

Cabinet

Northamptonshire County Council's cabinet is composed of seven Conservative councillors and the Conservative Leader of the council. Cabinet members work closely with the directors and professional officers of the council to ensure the successful implementation of the decisions they make.[2]

Title	Councillor
Leader of the Council	Cllr Matt Golby
Deputy Leader of the Council	Cllr Lizzy Bowen
Finance	Cllr Malcolm Longley
Adult Social Care & Public Health	Cllr Ian Morris
CorporateServices	Cllr Sandra E. Naden-Horley
Place, Highways and Environment	Cllr Jason Smithers
Children's Services, Families and Education	Cllr Fiona Baker

Districts and Boroughs

Northamptonshire has three tiers of local government: the county council, seven district or borough councils, and over 200 parish councils. In urban areas, the work of the parish council is likely to be undertaken by the county or district council. The seven district councils in Northamptonshire are:

• Corby Borough Council
• Daventry District Council
• East Northamptonshire District Council
• Kettering Borough Council
• Northampton Borough Council
• South Northamptonshire District Council
• Borough Council of Wellingborough

These district councils are responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.

Political control

Political control of the non-metropolitan county has been held by the following groups:

Election		Party
	1973	Labour
	1977	Conservative
	1981	No overall control
	1985	No overall control
	1989	No overall control
	1993	Labour
	1997	Labour
	2001	Labour
	2005	Conservative
	2009	Conservative
	2013	Conservative
	2017	Conservative

The council comprised 57 councillors representing the county. Each councillor typically served for a four-year term, representing an electoral division. Each electoral division elects one councillor by the first past the post system of election. The composition of the county council, following the 2017 election, was 43 Conservative councillors, 12 Labour councillors, and 2 Liberal Democrat councillors.

District	Ward		Party	Councillor
Corby
		Corby Rural	Conservative	Sandra Naden-Horley
		Corby West	Labour	Julie Brookfield
		Kingswood	Labour	John McGhee
		Lloyds	Labour	Bob Scott
		Oakley	Liberal Democrat	Chris Stanbra
Daventry
		Braunston And Crick	Conservative	Malcolm Longley
		Brixworth	Conservative	Cecile Irving-Swift
		Daventry East	Conservative	Amy Howard
		Daventry West	Conservative	Richard Auger
		Long Buckby	Conservative	Steve Osborne
		Moulton	Conservative	Judith Shephard
		Woodford And Weedon	Conservative	Robin Brown
East Northamptonshire
		Higham Ferrers / Rushden North	Conservative	Jason Smithers
		Irthlingborough	Conservative	Sylvia Hughes
		Oundle	Conservative	Heather Smith
		Raunds	Conservative	Dudley Hughes
		Rushden Pemberton West	Conservative	Michael Tye
		Rushden South	Conservative	Andy Mercer
		Thrapston	Conservative	Wendy Brackenbury
Kettering
		Burton And Broughton	Conservative	Chris Smith-Haynes
		Clover Hill	Conservative	Bill Parker
		Desborough	Conservative	Allan Matthews
		Ise	Conservative	Victoria Perry
		Northall	Labour	Mick Scrimshaw
		Rothwell And Mawsley	Conservative	James Hakewill
		Wicksteed	Conservative	Scott Edwards
		Windmill	Labour	Eileen Hales
Northampton
		Abington And Phippsville	Labour	Danielle Stone
		Billing And Rectory Farm	Conservative	Andrew Kilbride
		Boothville And Parklands	Conservative	Mike Hallam
		Castle	Labour	Winston Strachan
		Dallington Spencer	Labour	Gareth Eales
		Delapre And Rushmere	Independent	Julie Davenport
		Duston East	Conservative	Suresh Patel
		Duston West And St Crispin	Conservative	Matthew Golby
		East Hunsbury And Shelfleys	Conservative	Andre Gonzalez de Savage
		Headlands	Labour	Arthur McCutcheon
		Kingsthorpe North	Conservative	Sam Rumens
		Kingsthorpe South	Labour	Jane Birch
		Nene Valley	Conservative	Lizzy Bowen
		Riverside Park	Conservative	Stephen Legg
		Sixfields	Conservative	Pinder Chauhan
		St George	Labour	Rachel Cooley
		Talavera	Liberal Democrat	Dennis Meredith
South Northamptonshire
		Brackley	Conservative	Fiona Baker
		Bugbrooke	Conservative	Adam Brown
		Deanshanger	Conservative	Allen Walker
		Hackleton And Grange Park	Conservative	Michael Clarke
		Middleton Cheney	Conservative	Rebecca Breese
		Silverstone	Conservative	Ian Morris
		Towcester And Roade	Conservative	Adil Sadygov
Wellingborough
		Brickhill And Queensway	Conservative	Jonathan Ekins
		Croyland And Swanspool	Conservative	Graham Lawman
		Earls Barton	Conservative	Rob Gough
		Finedon	Conservative	Gill Mercer
		Hatton Park	Conservative	Malcolm Waters
		Irchester	Conservative	Martin Griffiths

Insolvency

Early in 2018 the county council announced that it "was effectively insolvent."[3]

In March 2018, a government-appointed investigator's report into financial and management failures at the authority recommended the council be broken up. It said the problems at the council were so deep-rooted that it was impossible to rescue it in its current form, and to do so "would be a reward for failure". It recommended that ministers send in a team of external commissioners to take over the day-to-day running of the council until it can be broken up and replaced with two new smaller authorities. The report rejected the council leadership's claim that it had been disadvantaged by government funding cuts and underfunded. It condemned the council's attempt to restructure services by outsourcing them to private companies and charities (the Next Generation Programme). It described the council's budgeting as "an exercise of hope rather than expectation".[4]

Subsequently, the council's Leader, Heather Smith, resigned.[4] Robin Brown, Councillor with the finance brief was later sacked.[5]

To save money, Northamptonshire Council was planning to cut services even for vulnerable people including vulnerable children.[6] Austerity measures are blamed for the insolvency, as is the council's refusal to raise council tax despite the rising costs of providing social services. For half a decade the council used 'accounting ruses' and used financial services inappropriately. In future the council is to provide the legal minimum of services, focused on the most vulnerable—though it is unclear what the minimum will be, or how vulnerable people will be required to be to receive services. The council must find savings of £70m out of its £441m budget during the coming few months, and further savings of £54m during 2019-20.[7]

Cuts are being considered for children's services, adult services (investigating learning difficulties, fees, charges and NHS contributions), road maintenance and transport (including school buses), waste management, and culture; staff redundancies are also being considered.[8] There are to be planned widespread cuts to jobs and services, owing to a funding shortfall of £70m.[9] Proposed cuts to Northamptonshire's library service were challenged in court. A judge reminded the councillors that they have a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. The judge ruled that the council had not put enough time and effort into establishing whether the reduced service would meet their statutory duties, and ruled the cuts could not currently go ahead as proposed.[10] The cuts are causing hardship to some families with special needs.[11]

Ofsted has severely criticised what it sees as inadequate protection for at risk children, 267 young people are waiting up to four months for assessment and for a social worker. Remedial action by management did not have 'sufficient urgency or rigour'. Social workers responsible for child protection maintained they were, "overwhelmed" and "drowning" from pressure of increasing demand. Some professionals were struggling with caseloads of between 30 and 50 children. The council is not in a well placed to invest heavily in turning child protection services round as preventing bankruptcy is a major priority.[12]

The budget cuts proposed in August 2018 are intended to save £70m from the £441m budget in 2018 and an additional £54m savings in 2019-20. As a result, the council expected to be able to provide only the "bare legal minimum of service, focused only on the most vulnerable residents ... No services will go unscathed, even in priority areas like child protection".[7]

Some of the responsibility for the de facto bankruptcy (Section 114) of Northamptonshire must be accepted by the council, according to The Guardian which described "a reckless half-decade in which it refused to raise council tax to pay for the soaring costs of social care, preferring to patch up budget holes with accounting ruses and inappropriate use of financial reserves".[7] Some observers, such as Simon Edwards of the County Councils Network, added another perspective on the cause of the financial crisis, discussing the United Kingdom government austerity programme. "It is clear that, partly due to past failings, the council is now having to make some drastic decisions to reduce services to a core offer. However, we can’t ignore that some of the underlying causes of the challenges facing Northamptonshire, such as dramatic reductions to council budgets and severe demand for services, mean county authorities across the country face funding pressures of £3.2bn over the next two years." Andrew Gwynne, the shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, provided this comment. "Government cuts are pushing our councils into crisis, and the crisis in Northamptonshire is the canary in the coal mine. Despite one of their own councils effectively declaring themselves bankrupt twice this year, we have yet to see [the] government recognise the appalling consequences of their austerity programme for people up and down the country". [13]

In January 2019 the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government gave the council permission to raise its council tax by 5% in 2019–20 without the requirement for a local referendum.[14][15]

Children's Services

Between 2013 and 2016, the County's children's services were in special measures after being rated as inadequate by Ofsted. In 2016, the service was updated to "requires improvement" and it was taken out of special measures.[16]

In June 2019, the County's children's services were rated "inadequate" by Ofsted inspectors. The report found that there were "highly vulnerable children in care who are living in unregulated placements that are unsafe and unsuitable". Earlier in the same month, two serious case reviews found that council's child protection services had failed to protect two murdered children.[17]

See also

• 2019 structural changes to local government in England

References

1. The Northamptonshire (Structural Changes) Order 2020
2. "New cabinet member for crisis-hit children's service is 'ready for challenge'". northamptonchron.co.uk.
3. Butler, Patrick (6 February 2018). "Northamptonshire's cash crisis is a taste of things to come for councils - Patrick Butler". the Guardian.
4. Butler, Patrick (15 March 2018). "Scrap Northamptonshire county council, inspectors say". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
5. Paul Lynch (15 March 2018). "Breaking News: Northamptonshire County Council's finance chief sacked after refusing to resign". Northampton Chronicle.
6. Patrick Butler (31 July 2018). "Fears cash-strapped council may cut services for vulnerable children". The Guardian.
7. Patrick Butler (1 August 2018). "Northamptonshire forced to pay the price of a reckless half-decade". The Guardian.
8. "Northamptonshire County Council: 'Radical' service cuts planned". BBC News. 2 August 2018.
9. "Northamptonshire council backs 'radical' cuts to services". BBC News. 9 August 2018.
10. Alison Flood (14 August 2018). "Family claims win in high court challenge to Northants library cuts". The Guardian.
11. Hannah Richardson (13 September 2018). "How children's services cuts are affecting one family". BBC News.
12. Ofsted criticises child protection services at crisis-hit council The Guardian
13. Butler, Patrick (1 August 2018). "Northamptonshire's cash crisis driven by ideological folly, councillors told". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 September 2018. Unless we rapidly see a change of direction, Northamptonshire will not be the last council in crisis, and the people of Northants will not be the last to have to bear the burden for Tory neglect.
14. "Northamptonshire County Council: Five per cent council tax rise considered". BBC News. 29 January 2019.
15. Patrick Butler (29 January 2019). "Northamptonshire's bankrupt council given OK for 2% tax hike". The Guardian.
16. editor, Patrick Butler Social policy (29 July 2019). "Northamptonshire social services failing to keep children safe, says Ofsted". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 July 2019.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
17. "Under-fire council 'failing to keep children safe'". 29 July 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.