Norfolk County Council: local authority assessment

Demographics

Norfolk County Council, located in the East of England, is the fifth largest county in England covering approximately 2000 square miles. Norfolk is bordered by the North Sea to the north and east, Suffolk to the south, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire to the west and The Wash to the northwest, and with a coastline that runs for 90miles.  The county has distinct features, ranging from urban, to rural to coastline, more than half of Norfolk is classed as rural.  

Norfolk is home to just over 940,000 residents, 94% of Norfolk population is White, 2.1% Asian, 0.9% Black, 1.6% mixed ethnicity, and 0.7% other. The county has an ageing population, with 25% of people aged over 65. The number of people living in Norfolk who are aged over 85 is expected to double to 60,000 by 2040. The life expectancy at birth for women in Norfolk is 83.7 years, compared to 83.2 in England. For men it is 79.8 compared to 79.3 in England

Norfolk has an index of multiple deprivation (IMD) score of 5 (10 is the most deprived) and they ranked 82 out of 153 local authorities, (with 1 being the most deprived and 153 being the least deprived). There were variations to life expectancy for people depending on where people lived with difference between those in a deprived area or affluent area of the county. For example, the life expectancy gap between the most deprived area and the least deprived area is 4.4 years for women and 7.4 years for men.  

Norfolk County Council is an upper-tier local authority, and the county covers seven second-tier district councils. These are Breckland, Broadland, Great Yarmouth, North Norfolk, Norwich, King's Lynn and West Norfolk, and South Norfolk.  

Norfolk is a Conservative led County Council made up of 84 elected councillors. There are 53 Conservatives members, 10 Liberal Democrats, 9 Labour, 4 Green party, 3 Independent progressive group, 3 independent and 2 reform UK.  

Financial facts

The Financial facts for Norfolk County Council are: ​ 

• The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £1,333,271,000.00. Its actual spend for that year was £1,402,742,000.00, which was £69,471,000.00 more than estimated. 

• The local authority estimated that it would spend £383,648,000.00 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24. Its actual spend was £432,494,000.00, which is £48,846,000.00 more than estimated. 

• In 2023/24, 30.83% of the budget was spent on adult social care. 

• The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%. Please note that the amount raised through ASC precept varies from local authority to local authority.​ 

• Approximately 17705 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 6765 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2023/24. ​Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost. 

This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.