26th Annual General Meeting

Our 2022 AGM was held on Wednesday 16th November.

Chief Executive Christopher Duff opened our 26th Annual General Meeting with a reference to the John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert and then gave an informative presentation on the work of the charity over the past year.  He explained how we are often the first point of contact for people needing ever increasing levels of support, due to a number of topical factors.  A PDF of the 45-page Annual Report and Signed Accounts is available.

Watch our short film on Youtube 

We are grateful for the support of many local organisations, especially the parish councils and West Northamptonshire Council and North Northamptonshire Council.  Our AGM was attended in person by Cllr Dennis Meredith, Mayor of Northampton, and Cllr Nigel Brown, Mayor of Higham Ferrers Town Council.  Here is Janet Marchand, trustee of the Broadway Cottages Trust CIO in Kettering, with Cllr Larry Henson, Leader of North Northamptonshire Council.

Our AGM is an excellent opportunity to discuss matters of mutual concern and how we can work together to improve later life in Northamptonshire.  Paul Bertin and Christopher Duff are seen here with Giles West who is Project Director, Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust.  Giles said he was very interested to hear the presentation on Age Well by Amy Shelton.  The audience also heard comprehensive presentations from the managers of our Trading Department, Social Prescribing, Services and Appointeeship services.

Our Annual Report shows that the total number of active client accounts for Age UK Northamptonshire in the year April 2021 to March 2022 reduced from 15,451 at the start to 13,616 by the end. This is in line with the number of accounts that were deactivated, either because there was no activity over three years (the majority) or due to the client being deceased.  In contrast, the total of new clients was up substantially, with 3,244 new clients this year compared with 2,745 in the previous financial year. This is to be expected, given the greater difficulties caused by the coronavirus lockdowns in the previous year.

Most of our other services saw an increase in the numbers of new clients.  The services with the largest increase in new clients were the discharge support services for Kettering General Hospital (1,188 new clients), the Hospital Discharge & Community Service (1,079 new clients) , Collaborative Care Team (867new clients) and Information & Advice Service (1,003 new clients).

It is also positive to note that our services are accessed by people living across the county, with a good spread of client postcodes reflecting the centres of population as well as the more rural areas and villages. The relative number of total clients declined in Northampton and the take up of services in Kettering and Corby also declined in proportion to existing clients from the year before.