Hertfordshire County Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 17 May 2024

About Hertfordshire County Council

Demographics

Hertfordshire County Council is a large County Council in a county with a population of 1.2 million people. There are 10 District and Borough Councils across the county. The county is a mix of rural areas with centres of population in the towns across the county. The population is mostly affluent with an Index of Multiple Deprivation score of 2 (1 being the most affluent) but there are areas of deprivation across the county with the additional challenges of transport networks in the rural areas. 

The demographics of the population are that approximately 22% are aged 0-17 years, approximately 60% are of working age 18-64 years and approximately 18% aged over 65 years. The projections are for the increase in people over the age of 65 years over the next 10 years. The diversity of the population is that it is mostly White British with 28.2% of people non White British. 

Hertfordshire County Council is located within the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System. 

The council is Conservative led and has a stable leadership team, including the Members and local authority staff.

Financial facts

The Financial facts for Hertfordshire County Council are:

• The local authority estimated that in 2022/23, its total budget would be £1,722,303,000. Its actual spend for that year was £1,777,950,000 which was £55,647,000 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £446,605,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2022/23. Its actual spend was £456,287,000 which is £9,682,000 more than estimated.
• In 2022/2023, 26% 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 14,325 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 3015 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2022/23. 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.