Darlington Borough Council: local authority assessment
How we assess local authorities
Assessment published: 30 May 2025
About Darlington Borough Council
Demographics
Darlington Borough Council is a unitary authority in the northeast of England. There is a population of 110,562 which is centred around Darlington town. Darlington has an index of multiple deprivation of 6 and is ranked 73rd out of 153 local authorities, this places it very slightly less deprived than average. The proportion of people in the general population aged between 18 and 64 (58.73%) is slightly lower than the national average (60.51%). The proportion of people over 65 years of age (21%) is slightly higher than average (18.69%). 81.05% of the population is white and the largest non-white ethnic group is Asian, representing 9.61% of the population.
Darlington is the third smallest authority in England and is located within the geographically large North-East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB). Darlington works closely with Hartlepool, Stockton on Tees, Redcar and Cleveland and Middlesbrough local authorities in a ‘five-borough’ partnership and also has its own place arrangements.
It has a leader and cabinet model of government, with a coalition between the Labour group and the Liberal Democrat group. The director of adult social services (DASS) is also the director of children’s services.
Financial facts
The Financial facts for Darlington Borough Council are:
- The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £169,571,000. Its actual spend for that year was £174,084,000, which was £4,513,000 more than estimated.
- The local authority estimated that it would spend £45,795,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24 Its actual spend was £44,677,000 which was £1,118,000 less than estimated.
- In 2023/24, 25.66% 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 1655 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 690 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.