Purpose

The County Council is committed
to giving customers choice and control over their support services;
one method of enabling this is through Direct Payments, where the
customer receives a cash allocation to spend in an agreed way which
will meet their assessed care needs. Direct Payment Support
Services are a statutory requirement to ensure that people can
receive the appropriate advice and support to make the best use of
their money. It also supports the County Council to ensure that
Direct Payments are used lawfully and
effectively.  
 
The contract for the current
service, extended in November 2023 (Key Decision OKD35_23_24), comes to an end on 13th February
2026. A consultation and coproduction project will be occurring
across summer 2024 to identify, appraise options for and propose a
model of delivery for the future of these services. The County
Council intends to seek agreement from the Cabinet Member for
Adults Services to carry out the proposed option to meet this
statutory requirement from February 2026. 
 

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Adults Services has
approved;
 

(1)the procurement of a
new contract to provide Direct Payment Support Services from 1
April 2026 – 31 March 2031, at a maximum price of
£0.350M per annum for an initial five (5) year period with
the ability to choose to extend by up to twenty-four (24) months or
two separate one-year (12 month) periods, and
 

(2)the delegation of
authority for contract award, arising from this procurement
process, described in Section 2 and the budget described in section
5 of the report, to the Executive Director of Adults &
Health.