That:

a)    a financial pre-paid card service available to adults’ and children’s social care clients, and certain Clinical Commissioning Group clients if required, is awarded through an open procurement and a contract to be issued for a period of up to five years effective from 1 July 2018;

b)    the Director for Adults and Wellbeing is authorised, following consultation with the Director for Children’s Wellbeing, to take all operational decisions necessary to implement the above recommendation, including award of contract at a total cost of not more than £132k.

1.    To extend the current contract with the existing provider. This is not recommended as when the current provider, PFS, was directly awarded a 12 month contract from 1 July 2017, this was subject to a full competitive tender being undertaken through an open procurement for the period thereafter.

2.    To not offer the service. This is not recommended as it removes an element of choice about how adult direct payments are delivered, and the service provides good financial governance for the council. Without the service, adults with a direct payment would have to revert back to a more traditional manual process and this would be cumbersome for both customers and the council and would incur greater costs to the council.

3.    For the council to issue a purchase card instead of the pre-paid card for social care customers. This is not recommended as the card would have Herefordshire Council’s name on it and not the name of the customer. This is not in line with the personalisation agenda. It also presents an audit risk around disclosure agreements. It is a credit card which is inflexible as customers cannot pay into their account to top it up e.g. personal contributions.