Issue - meetings

Report CS17082a

The Portfolio Holder introduced a report providing an overview of the process for the tendering of the Direct Payment Support and Payroll Service.

Direct Payments were available to people who had been assessed as having eligible care needs and enabled them to have greater choice and control over the way in which their support needs were met.  The Direct Payment Support Service provided support to service users who chose to use Direct Payments to assist them in making good choices about services, arranging their support and keeping records of transactions, as well as maintaining a database of Personal Assistants, which included undertaking all necessary checks such as DBS checks.  Approximately 10% of the eligible social care population in the Borough currently used direct payments and this was expected to rise over the duration of the proposed contract period to be more in line with the national average of 26% of service users.

The tendering process for the Direct Payment Support and Payroll Service had been undertaken in accordance with the Local Authority’s financial and contractual requirements.  A total of 28 suppliers had expressed an interest in providing the service, with three suppliers submitting compliant bids and one supplier assessed as being non-compliant.  Following evaluation of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire, the three compliant suppliers were shortlisted for the second ‘service specific’ stage of the tender process.  The evaluation was undertaken by a panel of Officers from both a commissioning and operational perspective and included service user and parent carer representatives with tender submissions evaluated on a 60% finance and 40% quality split.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder for Care Services be recommended to note the Part 1 (Public) summary when considering the recommendations in the Part 2 (Exempt) information report to award the contract to the highest scoring bidder.