2021 AGM in Moulton Park

Our 25th annual general meeting was held on Tuesday 16th November

An invited audience, that included the Mayor of Northampton Cllr Rufia Ashraf, the Mayor of Daventry Cllr Karen Tweedale and 12 people on Zoom, heard reports from our Chairman Julia Faulkner, Chief Executive Chris Duff and Honorary Treasurer Ann Battoms at the Moulton Community Centre in Northampton.

Chris Duff explained that the past year has been extremely detrimental for the wellbeing of many older people in Northamptonshire. Our seven day centres were closed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic and our services were suspended for a while.  Our hospital based services were initially very busy and then demand quickly reduced as the number of older patients in hospital reduced markedly.

Age UK Northamptonshire focused on maintaining as many services as possible and kept our NHS contracted services going throughout the financial year.  Although some of our services for which there is a charge were forced to close during the early lockdowns, most have been open and available throughout the year.

Our newly elected chair Paul Bertin, with Miranda Wixon, chair of the VCSE Assembly.

We were delighted that Nicola Toms of the Daventry Volunteer Centre and the Mayor of Daventry Cllr Karen Tweedale were able to attend.

Presentations by Age UK Northamptonshire managers provided an overview of how our services have continued over the past year, including the Support Service at Kettering General Hospital that has provided crucial support to the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Thank you to Brian and Ann James of the Province of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire who represented the Freemasons at our AGM.

Our annual report explains that we introduced a range of emergency services during the initial lockdowns, providing 9,226 welfare calls, 1,659 befriending calls, 6,723 hot meals, 2,103 shopping trips, 234 prescription collections and over 1,400 other positive interventions. 

The total number of active clients on our database reduced slightly from 15,678 at April 2020 to 15,452 by the end of March 2021.  Most other services also saw a reduction in the number of new clients although our Extra Help at the End of Life Service, Information & Advice Service, KGH Support Service and Hospital Discharge & Community Team saw increases.  It is also positive to note that our services are used by people across the county, with a good spread of clients' postcodes reflecting the more rural areas as well as urban centres of population.

Our records also indicate that ethnicity, where declared, matches the profile of the older population from which our clients are drawn.

We would like to thank everyone who attended our AGM, in person and on Zoom.  We are proud to work with organisations and elected representatives from across the county.  With your support we can continue to make a positive difference to thousands of vulnerable older people in our community every year.

Our annual report with audited accounts is now available.