Direct payments are intended to give individuals greater choice and flexibility to arrange and manage their care and support needs, through the receipt of regular funds from the Local Authority. For some people, choosing a Direct Payment may not be an option without support.
The Council has engaged with Personal Assistants (PA’s), Social Workers, Providers and Service Users. Key findings from this engagement included:
• The need for an advertising platform/local support office for support providers including PA’s (employed and self-employed) and micro enterprises.
• Social Workers also told us that an advertising or brokerage platform, which helped to source PA’s, would be useful for the people they support.
• Direct payment recipients identified barriers such as having a physical office that they could visit, or someone with local knowledge of what services are available to them.
To have two distinct contracts, one that concentrates on financial elements and one that concentrates on the support element. It is therefore proposed that the service will be split into two Lots for two distinct service elements:
Lot 1: Direct Payments Strategic Support Partner
The Direct Payments Strategic Support Partner will deliver strategic support to promote the growth of direct payments across Worcestershire and finding suitable services to meet the needs of direct payment recipients. It is anticipated that this Lot will be suitable for VCSE’s and SME’s within Worcestershire.
Lot 2: Direct Payments Finance Partner
The Direct Payment Finance Partner will deliver a financial management service, covering support of the payments, including managed accounts and payroll for personal assistants. The finance partner would also be operating managed accounts on the Councils’ behalf.
At this stage in the development of proposals, and prior to formulating any formal opportunities, Worcestershire County Council would now like to invite interested organisations to attend a virtual engagement session around the future delivery of Direct Payment Support across the County.
This session will inform the market of the procurement process, give further detail of our commissioning intentions, and consult on the content of the service specification.
Please see the flyer for more details