Decision

Salford City Council – Record of Decision

I Councillor Cusack, Lead Member for Corporate Services and Chairman of the Procurement Board, accept the recommendation of the Procurement Board and in exercise of the powers contained within the Council Constitution, do hereby approve:

·      to Award the Contract forCivica Pay Cash Receipting, as detailed in the table below:

Detail required

Answers

Title/Description of Contracted Service/Supply/Project

Civica Pay Cash Receipting Contract

Procurement Reference numbers (DN and CR number supplied by Procurement)

S1150

Name of Successful Contractor

Civica Pay

Supplier Registration Number

(to be supplied by Procurement

01628868   

Proclass Classification No.

(to be completed by procurement)

271440

Type of organisation

(to be supplied by Procurement)

Private Limited Company

Status of Organisation

(to be supplied by Procurement)

SME

Contract Value (£)

Year 1 – £129,265.00

Year 2 – £94,902.00

Extension Year 3 - £131,212.00

Extension Year 4 - £94,902.00

Total contract value £ (including extensions)

£450,281.00total project value

Contract Duration

24 months

Contract Start Date

20/07/2026

Contract End Date

19/07/2028

Optional Extension Period 1

24 months

Optional Extension Period 2

N/A

Who will approve each Extension Period?

Procurement Board (extension > £150k)

Contact Officer (Name & number)

Andrea Beaven 0161 793 3977

Lead Service Group

Corporate Services

How the contract was procured?

(to be supplied by procurement)

Direct Award/ Call off

Framework Details (where applicable)

(procurement body, framework reference & title, start/ end date

Back Office Software (BOS2) Framework:

RM6285

Framework Start date:

18/02/2025

Framework End date

17/08/2027

Funding Source

Revenue Budget

Ethical Contractor (EC): Mayor’s Employment Charter

N/A

EC: Committed to sign The Mayor’s Employment Charter

N/A

EC: Committed to the principles outlined in the Mayor’s Employment charter

N/A

EC: Accredited Living Wage Employer

Yes

EC: Committed to becoming Accredited Living wage Employer

N/A

The Reasons are:

The Council requires a secure, resilient and fully compliant payments and income management solution to support the collection and processing of payments across a wide range of Council services.

The Council has held a contractual relationship with Civica Pay (Civica Cash Receipting Software) since September 2019. The platform provides a fully hosted payments and income management service that enables the Council to process significant annual income volumes with minimal staff intervention, while ensuring continuity of service, high system availability and strong information security controls.

The solution supports multiple payment channels, including online, telephone and automated payments, and is fully integrated with the Council’s critical back office systems.

It is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, with all cardholder data removed from Council systems, significantly reducing the Council’s compliance burden, risk exposure and associated costs. The service also includes disaster recovery and business continuity arrangements, ensuring the ongoing availability of critical payment services to residents and businesses.

CivicaPay is an established solution within the public sector, widely used by local authorities, and provides a stable and trusted platform that supports the Council’s digital transformation objectives through increased automation, self?service and efficiency gains. The proposed contract ensures continuity of a critical service and avoids the operational and financial risks associated with migrating to an alternative payments platform.

Services Currently Using Civica Pay

Directorate / Service Area

Service / System

How Civica Pay Is Used

Corporate Services

Revenues & Benefits (NEC)

Online and staff?taken payments for Council Tax and Business Rates, with payment files processed via Civica Pay and posted into back?office systems (NEC and SAP).

Corporate Services

Registrars (Stopford)

Payments for ceremonies and citizenship services. Civica Pay also supports refunds and reconciliation and is used directly by the service where integrations are constrained.

Place

Blue Badge

Citizen payments processed via Gov.UK Pay, with transaction files imported into Civica Pay and onward to internal systems.

Place

Pest Control (Zipporah)

Customer payments processed through Civica Pay as part of service request and contact?us forms.

Place

Arcus (various Place?based services)

Integrated online payments routed through Civica Pay, including tested callback and verification mechanisms.

Multiple Services

WebPay Staff (Corporate Cashiering)

Used by multiple service areas for card payments, cash receipting, refunds, reporting and miscellaneous income, including VAT transactions.

Civica Pay underpins high?volume, business?critical income streams, particularly in Revenues, Registrars and Place?based services.

The platform is not service?specific; it acts as a shared corporate payment gateway supporting multiple systems and directorates.

Any change to Civica Pay (contract, platform, security or replacement) would require coordinated impact assessment across Resources & Transformation, Place and Corporate Services, with particular focus on income continuity and statutory services.

The new CivicaPay proposal will renew the Council’s licence and provides access to all the payment channels and modules that we currently use, including online payments, phone payments, ATP and Income Management.

It will also provide the following benefits:

o   Predictable costs for the contract term

o   PCI DSS Level 1 compliant hosted service

o   Continuity of service

o   Disaster Recovery and protection from cyber attacks

o   A hosted, Cloud solution

o   Automation of your Payments and Income Management processes, saving the council staff time and costs

The total for the initial 2-year contract is £224,167.00

A breakdown of these cost are detailed in the tables below:

Year 1

Total £129,265.00

Description

Licence Fee

Annual Maintenance, Hosting, Licence & Support Fee

Implementation Fee

Civica Pay Income Management and Payments Software, with unlimited users.

£33,620

£77,035

£0.00

Additional 75,000 transactions per annum to increase the allowance to 275,000 transactions per annum

£0.00

£9,000

£0.00

Apple Pay & Google Pay

£0.00

£4,780

£4,830

Total

£33,620

£90,815

£4,830

Year 2

Total £94,902.00 (4.5% inflation on year 1)

Description

Licence Fee

Annual Maintenance, Hosting, Licence & Support Fee

Implementation Fee

CivicaPay Income Management and Payments Software, with:

-          Unlimited users

-          275,000 Transactions per annum

-          ApplePay & Google Pay

N/A

£94,902

N/A

Total

£0.00

£94,902

£0.00

If Salford City Council takes the optional two-year extension, the additional two years would cost £226,114. If we proceed, we will seek Procurement Board approval in 2028.

Description

Licence Fee

Annual Maintenance, Hosting, Licence & Support Fee

-          CivicaPay Income Management and Payments Software, with:Unlimited users

-          275,000 Transactions per annum

-          ApplePay & Google Pay

N/A

£226,114

Total

£0.00

£226,114

Options considered and rejected were:

Option 1 – Do nothing / allow the existing contract to expire
This option was rejected as Civica Pay underpins the Council’s ability to collect and process payments across multiple statutory and business?critical services. Allowing the contract to expire would present a significant risk to income continuity, service delivery and customer experience, and would expose the Council to increased operational, financial and reputational risk.

Option 2 – Undertake a full open market procurement for an alternative payments solution
This option was considered but rejected due to the high level of transition risk associated with replacing the existing Civica Pay platform. Civica Pay is embedded across multiple Council services and integrated with several core back?office systems. Re?procurement and system replacement would require significant DDaT, Finance and service capacity, introduce additional implementation and integration costs, and risk disruption to high?volume, business?critical income streams. There would also be increased risk to PCI DSS compliance and payment security during transition.

Option 3 – Direct award via an approved framework (preferred option)
The preferred and approved option is a direct award via call?off from the Crown Commercial Service Back Office Software (BOS2) Framework. This option provides a compliant procurement route, ensures continuity of service, maintains PCI DSS compliance, avoids unnecessary transition risk and provides cost predictability for the contract term.

Assessment of Risk:

Risks of not continuing with Civica Pay

CivicaPay processes payments and manages more than £55 million of Council income each year. The risk of discontinuing the system is high; the key risks are summarised below:

1. Income Continuity Risk - Failure to renew or adequately replace Civica Pay would disrupt the Council’s ability to take payments, impacting income collection across multiple statutory and discretionary services.

Impact:

• Delays or loss of income across Revenues, Registrars, Place?based services and corporate cashiering
• Cashflow pressure and increased debt chasing
• Reputational damage if citizens are unable to pay easily

1. High-Volume Service Disruption Risk - Civica Pay underpins high?volume, business?critical income streams (e.g. Council Tax, Business Rates, Registrars). Changes risk operational failure in peak periods.

Impact:

• Backlogs in payment processing and reconciliation
• Manual workarounds for front-line teams
• Increased errors and customer complaints

1. PCI-DSS and Security Compliance Risk - Moving away from Civica Pay introduces risk around maintaining PCI-DSS compliance, secure handling of card data, and audit assurance.

Impact:

• Increased likelihood of non?compliance
• Higher audit scrutiny and remediation activity
• Potential exposure to data security incidents

1. Reputational and Customer Experience Risk - Changes to payment journeys may negatively impact residents and businesses.

Impact:

• Increased abandoned transactions
• Reduced take?up of digital self?service
• Trust erosion if payment processes fail

1. Implementation and Transition Risk - Replacing Civica Pay would require coordinated change across multiple systems, services, and integrations that have grown organically over time.

Impact:

• Significant DDaT and Finance capacity required
• Competing pressures with other major programmes (e.g. Unify, Genesis, EYES, Nimbus)
• Delivery risk if timelines slip

1. Hidden Cost Risk - While contract savings may be assumed, alternative solutions may introduce unplanned costs.

Impact:

• New integration builds and maintenance costs
• Increased support and reconciliation effort
• Multiple point solutions rather than a single corporate gateway

The source of funding is:

Costs associated with the licences are funded by Revenue Budget from Corporate Services.

Legal Advice obtained: Supplied by Carolyn Redford – Shared Legal Services

Date Provided 12th May 2026

Financial Advice obtained: Supplied by Kalesh Bhaskaran – Senior Accountant?

Date provided: 19th May 2026

Procurement Advice obtained: Supplied by Emma Heyes – Category Manager

Date provided: 14/04/2026

HR Advice obtained: N/A.

Climate Change Implications obtained: N/A.

Contact Officer: Andrea Beaven

Telephone number: 0161 793 3977

·      This matter is also subject to consider by the Lead Member for Corporate Services. The Lead Member has been consulted and is supportive of the proposed contract.

Signed:    Cllr Cusack         Dated:    8 June 2026.

                Lead Member

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE ONLY:

·      This decision was published on 9 June 2026.

·      This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 16 June 2026 unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.