Articles in Council services

Articles in Council services

A pie chart showing the approximate councillor share across all English councils after the 2026 May elections.

English Council Elections 2026 – A Different Perspective

Ben Clark

The election results for English council elections are still coming out, but we wanted to share with you a different perspective to the one you will see in the media.

The media report ‘the English council election results’ and give you all the statistics for those elections. But there are 317 councils in England, and only 136 (43%) had elections today. And, of those councils which did have elections, most of them only elected a third or half of their councillor seats. So, the English council election results do not tell the whole picture. In fact, these election results tell a very partial picture, because more than half of councils did not even have an election and few elected their whole council.

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An infographic with the BuDS logo, a blue background and a picture of a wheelchair-user. Text reads “Carers Bucks Gives Up £4m Council Contract. Private health entrepreneur takes over from 1 July. In shock news for Buckinghamshire, long-established charity Carers Bucks has given up its £4 million council contract to support carers in the county. From 1 July, Mobilise Ltd will take over the role of supporting carers in Bucks. It isn’t clear how this will work, or whether Carers Bucks will survive. Read more on our website.

Carers Bucks Gives Up Bucks Council Contract

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Carers Bucks has given up its £4 million council-funded contract to support carers in Buckinghamshire. In a shock move, Carers Bucks decided not to re-apply for the contract, which has been awarded to Mobilise Ltd instead. While no formal announcement has yet been made, many observers fear that the Carers Bucks charity may now close later in the year.

Read more: Carers Bucks Gives Up Bucks Council Contract

All main councils in England are funded by the Government to commission services to support carers in their area. For many years, Buckinghamshire Council has given a contract to Carers Bucks, a local registered charity, to provide those services. From 1 July 2026, however, a private health entrepreneur, Mobilise Ltd, will be supporting Bucks carers instead.

Details of the service that Mobilise will provide in Bucks is not yet clear. However, Mobilise has the carers support contract for many councils, including Milton Keynes, Luton & Bedford, and the service provided there is primarily online. Carers in those areas can apply online for ‘dynamic digital carers’ assessments’ which creates an online ‘personalised support plan’. This is claimed to allow social workers to ‘proactively track a carer’s needs’ and help them to receive ‘continuous tailored support’. This digital, online, model, if rolled out in Bucks, would be very different from that provided by Carers Bucks, which is based on more traditional face-to-face and group support for carers.

Under contract and employment law, Carers Bucks will transfer information, paid staff and some resources to Mobilise Ltd when they take over. However, it is not clear whether activities, groups and volunteers provided by Carers Bucks outside their council contract will survive after 30 June.

Carers Bucks have said that its CareFest events in June will go ahead as planned. Billed as a celebration of carer friendly communities, the events may now be a bittersweet marking of the end of Carers Bucks’ long history in the voluntary sector in Bucks.