Swindon Borough Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 06 February 2026

About Swindon Borough Council

Demographics

Swindon is a town in the South West of England with a population of 238,417. It has an Index of Multiple Deprivation score of 4 (10 is the most deprived) and it is ranked 107 out of 153 local authorities, with 1 being the most deprived and 153 being the least deprived.

The proportion of people aged 18-64 is 61.50%, which is slightly higher than the national average (60.51%). There are more people aged 0-17 (22.22%) than the national average (20.80%) and fewer people aged 65 and over (16.28%) than the national average (18.69%). The majority of people (81.46%) are White (national average, 81.05%) and the largest minority ethnic group is Asian and Asian British (11.96%, national average: 9.61%).

Swindon Borough Council is located within the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System which serves a combined population of 940,000.

It is a unitary authority and has a leader and cabinet model of democratic governance. It has been run by a Labour administration since May 2023. It received an ‘Inadequate’ Ofsted rating following the last inspection of its children’s services in July 2024. A monitoring visit in September 2024 showed progress was being made.

Financial facts

• The local authority estimated that in 2023/24, its total budget would be £292,811,000. Its actual spend for that year was £325,791,000, which was £32,980,000 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £88,735,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2023/24 Its actual spend was £92,020,000, which is £3,285,000 more than estimated.
• In 2023/2024, 28.25% 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 2710 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 775 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2023/2024. Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting people. 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.