Decision details

To approve the award of a contract to the identified preferred supplier, the transactional elements of the Council’s Benefits, Council Tax and Business Rate services commencing 1 April 2010 for a period of 5 years with the option, purely at the discretion of the Council, to extend the contract by up to 2 years.

The Strategic Director Customer Service and Resources and the Head of Finance submitted a report on the progress to date following the decision to externalise the transactional elements of the revenues and benefits service and, following a tender process, to recommend a preferred supplier.

Resolved

(1)                     That the project progress to date in relation to the primary objectives be noted and the proposals below agreed:

a)     That the transactional components of the revenues and benefits function are transferred to the preferred supplier with effect from 1 February 2010 to be delivered offsite in a specialist processing facility.

b)     That benefit investigations, debt recovery, customer facing services, discretionary payment awards, and tribunal/court representation are retained in house. These elements will be incorporated into existing Finance, Legal and Customer Services teams.

c)      That the supplier will be subject to rigorous performance monitoring by a newly established contract management team to ensure compliance with contracted standards.

d)     That current customer services resources are increased by six posts, including three specialist revenues and benefits advisors.

e)     That service support costs associated with the outsourced services are reduced by £123k per annum.

(2)                     That a preferred supplier for the externalised components of the services as set out in the exempt Minute be appointed.

Reasons -Following a value for money review and an external options appraisal in December 2008, the Executive agreed, in March 2009, to seek an external supplier for the transactional “back office” elements of the revenues and benefits service with three primary objectives:

a)     To secure a sustainable service delivery model, sufficiently resilient to deliver consistently good levels of service to residents and able to meet peaks in demand such as that associated with the current economic climate

b)     To improve customer access and provide local area based service points      for specialist revenues and benefits support

c)      To secure improved value for money, delivering the transactional elements of the service within the administrative subsidy envelope (£885k)