News: Payroll Services for Direct Payments Recipients
Lancashire County Council are inviting suitably experienced organisations to deliver a payroll service for Direct Payment recipients.
The County Council has contracted a payroll service for Direct Payment recipients who employ their own Personal Assistants (PA's) since 2001.
The Council's existing approach is to contract payroll support for people who receive Direct Payments through a single block contract. There are currently approximately 1600 Direct Payments users accessing the service, many of whom employ more than one PA. The council is exploring options regarding how payroll services for Direct Payment recipients is funded in the future which may include the possibility that services users fund their own payroll service from a range of providers. However some further work and consultation is required before the Council is in a position to take forward this approach. Therefore the current contract is to be re-tendered to allow time to develop a business case to inform the most appropriate way forward for the future.
The maximum contract value is £268k per annum for the new service, though this is likely to increase as there is a commitment to increase the number of citizens taking their Personal Budget (PB) as a Direct Payment. It is anticipated that this figure may increase by 20% over the next two years as the County Council have a clear intention to increase the number of people taking their PB as a Direct Payment, in line with Government Policy.
The contract will be tendered as a Countywide contract and potential providers will be invited to submit a bid to deliver the service Countywide as a single provider.
It is the Council's intention that the contract awarded will start on the 6th April 2014 and continue for 12 months with an option to extend for a further two years (one year at a time).
Further information is available at the Council's e-tendering website at www.lancashire.gov.uk/tendering
Providers wishing to tender for this service are required to complete a tender questionnaire via the e-tendering website.
Providers who are already registered on the e-tendering website will be able to access the questionnaire by logging in to the website. Providers who are not currently registered on the e-tendering website will need to go to the above web address and register as a new user.
Questionnaires must be completed and returned electronically via the e-tendering website by 10am on the 17th January 2014.