Medway Council: local authority assessment

Published: 10 January 2025 Page last updated: 10 January 2025

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Assessment published: 10 January 2025

About Medway Council

Demographics

Medway Council is a unitary authority in the County of Kent. It had a population of 279,730 in 2021. The population has grown by 15,800 since the last census in 2011 a rise of 6% and an increase of 24% of people aged 65 and over. Medway has an index of multiple deprivation score of 6 (with 10 being the highest and most deprived) and is ranked 70th out of 153 local authorities with responsibility for adult social care.

Approximately 23% of the population are aged 0-17 years, approximately 60% are aged 18-64 and 17% are aged over 65. Medway is not particularly ethnically diverse. The majority of the population (84%) are White. 6% Asian, Asian British. 5% Black, Black British, Caribbean, or African and 5% Mixed or Multiple or Other background.

Medway is part of the Kent and Medway Integrated Care System. Medway became a unitary authority in 1998 and has been under a Labour administration since 2023.

Financial facts

The Financial facts for Medway are:

  • The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £377,876,000. Its actual spend for that year was £409,856,000, which was £31,980,000 more than estimated.
  • The local authority estimated that it would spend £86,470,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2024/24 Its actual spend was £97,640,000, which was £11,170,000 more than estimated.
  • In 2023/2024, 23.82% 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 3570 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 1670 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.