West Northamptonshire Council

Council Spending and Efficiency · drafted 2026-07-02 · accepted · 10 finding(s)

← council-level findings on this theme

16 Jun 2025The Place and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 16 June 2025 noted that DOGE had recently visited the Council but that no information had yet been provided to the team, and by autumn 2025 the Committee's work programme included scrutiny of DOGE activity (Councillor Jonathan Harris's request), timed to run alongside the budget process. [1][2]

26 Jun 2025At the 26 June 2025 Full Council meeting, the Leader (Reform UK) announced he had extended an invitation to the Reform Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to lay out the framework and legal basis for a comprehensive audit of Council spending, at no cost to the local taxpayer, aimed at identifying previously unidentified efficiencies to redirect toward frontline services such as SEND, social care and highway maintenance. [3]

26 Jun 2025Also at the 26 June 2025 Council meeting, the Leader confirmed meetings between the Leader, senior officers and the Reform DOGE team were underway and formative, centred on a data protection agreement; Councillor Slope said the DOGE team would likely use Council software and would be looking at investments as part of their review. [4][5]

16 Jul 2025At Cabinet on 16 July 2025, under item 'Provision of Financial Data', Councillor Andrew Last proposed and Councillor John Slope seconded, and Cabinet agreed and RESOLVED to approve sharing council financial information with the Reform DOGE team, subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence checks by the Chief Executive and completion of legal agreements, with delegated authority given to the Director of Governance and Monitoring Officer to conduct that due diligence and negotiate the agreements. [6]

16 Jul 2025At the same 16 July 2025 Cabinet meeting, the Chair confirmed the DOGE data-sharing initiative was part of a Reform campaign pledge to improve council efficiency, with concerns raised by councillors about non-elected DOGE members' lack of local government experience, procurement process, officer workload/cost, and the need for legal clarity and due diligence. [7][8]

25 Sep 2025West Northamptonshire Council (Full Council, 25 September 2025) operates a formal approval threshold requiring member-level sign-off for individual agency/interim-staff spend above £100,000: Council was asked to, and did, approve a remuneration package in excess of £100,000 for one interim worker engaged to lead the recommissioning of Drug and Alcohol Misuse Services, with officers noting overall agency costs were falling; this is a tightened-reporting/approval gate rather than a cut or cap, and no reduction target was set. [9][10][11]

24 Nov 2025The Adult Social Care, Health and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee (24 November 2025, followed up 20 January 2026) pressed officers on agency-staff use and a possible 'zero agency staff' position, but this was scrutiny questioning, not a Cabinet/budget decision: no cut or cap was adopted, and by January 2026 officers reported £1.86m spent on agency staff in Adult Social Care to Q3 2025-26 and explained a zero position was not achievable for specialist ad-hoc roles. [12][13][14]

16 Feb 2026West Northamptonshire Council's Reform administration's first full-year Budget, recommended by Cabinet on 16 February 2026 and approved by Full Council on 26 February 2026, identified efficiency and income-generation savings of over £8 million, alongside adopting the Medium-Term Financial Strategy for 2026-27 to 2030-31. [15][16][17]

26 Feb 2026Full Council formally approved the 2026-27 Budget as recommended by Cabinet on 16 February 2026, including the Medium-Term Financial Strategy from 2026-27 to 2030-31, at its meeting on 26 February 2026 — the first budget set under the new administration. [18][19]

27 Apr 2026A April 2026 Place and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee update reported that the 2025/26 budget (adopted by the previous administration in February 2025) carried a savings delivery requirement of £24.6m, of which £20.4m was delivered, with £4m of proposals undeliverable. [20]

References (20)
  1. Minutes, 16 June 2025 “It was noted that the Doge (Department of Government Efficiency) had recently visited the Council. So far no information has been provided to the team.”
  2. Minutes, 3 September 2025 “Councillor Harris’s request for the inclusion of scrutiny of the DOGE activity was noted, and agreed to run alongside the budget process, with further consideration at the November meeting of the committee.”
  3. Minutes, 26 June 2025 “He had extended an invitation to the Reform Department of Government Efficiency to lay out the framework and legal basis of a comprehensive audit of Council spending, at no cost to the local taxpayer, in order to identify previously unidentified efficiencies and redirect funds where they were needed most; in frontline services such as SEND provision, social care and highway maintenance.”
  4. Minutes, 26 June 2025 “Meetings between the Leader, senior officers and the Reform DOGE team were currently formative but one of the initial discussion points was around a data protection agreement to protect all of the information held by WNC.”
  5. Minutes, 26 June 2025 “the DOGE team would likely be using Council software to ensure maximum security, and they would be looking at investments as part of their review”
  6. Minutes, 16 July 2025 “Councillor Andrew Last proposed the recommendations Councillor John Slope seconded. The Cabinet agreed the recommendations. RESOLVED: a) Noted the information contained at Appendix A that reflects requests from Reform UK but is information that is already in the public domain and accessible to all interested parties. b) Subjected to the satisfactory completion of all due diligence checks considered necessary by the Chief Executive Officer and completion of the relevant legal agreements referred to in recommendation C, approve the sharing of information detailed within Appendix Two”
  7. Minutes, 16 July 2025 “The Chair introduced the report and explained the initiative had been part of a campaign pledge aimed at improving council efficiency.”
  8. Minutes, 16 July 2025 “The involvement of non-elected DOGE members was questioned, and it was suggested many would lack local government experience.”
  9. Minutes, 25 September 2025 “330. Approval of Agency Spend >£100k Councillor Last proposed and Councillor Slope seconded the report which sought approval for a proposed remuneration package in excess of £100,00 for one interim worker”
  10. Minutes, 25 September 2025 “It was noted that overall agency costs were falling”
  11. Minutes, 25 September 2025 “RESOLVED: Council approved the proposed remuneration over £100,00 for the Drug and Alcohol Misuse Commissioner interim role.”
  12. Minutes, 24 November 2025 “How the Council intends to target a position of zero agency staff use in its Adult Social Care function”
  13. Minutes, 20 January 2026 “the directorate had spent a total of £1.86m on agency staff”
  14. Minutes, 20 January 2026 “In response to questions from the Committee as to how the Council could achieve a position of zero use of agency staff, the Executive Director – People Services explained that seasonal fluctuations and short-term capacity requirements led to circumstances where employing agency staff was a more cost-effective solution”
  15. Minutes, 16 February 2026 “Efficiency and income generation totalling more than £8 million have been identified, with many cuts impacting services.”
  16. Decisions, 16 February 2026 “Approves the 2026-27 Budget for West Northamptonshire set out in this report, and recommends the Budget to the Full Council meeting on 26 February”
  17. Decisions, 16 February 2026 “the Medium-Term Financial Strategy from 2026-27 to 2030-31 as set out in Appendix D”
  18. Minutes, 26 February 2026 “Approved the 2026-27 Budget for West Northamptonshire set out in this report, as recommended by Cabinet at the meeting held on 16 February 2026”
  19. Minutes, 26 February 2026 “the Medium-Term Financial Strategy from 2026-27 to 2030-31 as set out in Appendix D”
  20. Minutes, 27 April 2026 “There was a savings delivery requirement for 2025/6 of £24.6m, with £20.4m delivered. £4m of proposals were not deliverable, though £2m had been funded by alternative means”