Draft Budget

What is the Draft Budget?

The Budget says where Northamptonshire County Council plans to spend money. The council want to know what you think about their budget.

Remember...

The Government has less money to give to councils. This means the council has less money to spend.

There is not enough money for everything, so cuts will have to be made

What is happening now?

The council has already saved £171 million over the past 4 years.

The council has to save another £141 million over the next 5 years.

Remember...

We don’t have enough time today to talk about all of the things in the budget.

We will be talking about the things we think members of the LDPB will be interested in.

The council has decided to:

• Spend 13 million on making Children’s Services better

• Not closing any libraries

• Not closing any country parks

• No cuts to mending the roads, and spending money to make them better.

Here are some of the ways the council thinks it might be able to save money.

Some changes might happen next year. Others are over the next 5 years.

Council Tax

The Council wants to ask people to pay more Council tax. For every £1 you pay, they want you to pay just under 2p extra. This would raise £2.2 million.

If we keep the council tax the same as it is now, £2.2 million needs to be saved somewhere else.

PreventionPrevention is about working with people

before they need lots of support. It includes things like housing related support and help with paying bills.

The council wants to join up these services in local centres called “hubs”. Lots of different services will be in one place.

This will save the council £4.5 million next year.

Adult Care Charges

The Council wants charges for people using social care services to go up by the same amount that benefits go up.

This will give the council an extra £280,000 next year. Over the next 5 years it will raise £1.4 million

In your Groups...

Please talk about each of the things. Do you agree or disagree?

What could the council do to help?

Do you have any other ideas about how the Council could save money?

Adult CareThe Council wants to look at how people

are supported to meet their eligible needs.

They will look at different ways to give people the support they need. They will also make sure that people are getting the right help from the right organisations so that the council isn’t paying for things it shouldn’t be.

Saving: £2.7 million next year, and £2 million the year after.

Special Needs School Transport

The council wants to review the rules around transport from home to school.

This will save the council £200,000 in 2015-16.

Reviews

The council wants to change the way it reviews people’s care packages. Reviews will focus more on making changes in your life and this could lead to changes to your support.

This will save the council £900,000 in 2015-16. It will save £6 million over 5 years.

In your Groups...

Please talk about each of the things. Do you agree or disagree?

What could the council do to help?

Do you have any other ideas about how the Council could save money?

Fairer Contributions

The council wants to change the way it works out how much people need to pay towards their care and transport.

Saving: £1.25 million next year. £2.4 million over the next 5 years.

How to have your say:

You can visit the website.

You can email us.

You can write to us.

You can post your comments on Facebook.

How to have your say:

You can tweet @ mycountycouncil

You can write or sign a petition.

You can speak at a special meeting about the budget. This is called a budget scrutiny meeting.

How to have your say:

You can come to a special meeting the Learning Disability Partnership Board is holding.

It will be on 29th of January at The Henley Centre.

Call (01536) 532 884 to book on.