ASC25078 Direct Payment Support Service - Market Engagement

*This advert is for market awareness, engagement and request for information only* 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. The Council held a virtual open information and feedback session on Thursday 7th August 2025. Slides and supplementary documentation are available via In-Tend. Worcestershire County Council would now like to invite interested organisations to further feedback on the proposed Service Specification via an MS Forms survey https://forms.office.com/e/CeMbarQBAA The specification documents are available via In-Tend. Your views and feedback will not be used for any part of the tender process and will only be used for the development of the specification. If you are not already registered with In-tend, you will need to register your organisation to view and apply for any opportunities in Worcestershire. To complete your registration, go to https://www.in-tendhost.co.uk/worcestershire/aspx/Home