Planning

Direct Payment Monitoring Tool

ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

14 Feb 2025 at 14:00

Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Essex County Council is in the planning stage of procuring a "Direct Payment Monitoring Tool" within the financial and insurance services industry category. This procurement focuses on developing a software solution that leverages open banking technology to streamline the monitoring of Direct Payments. The primary location for this procurement is the East of England, UK. A significant milestone in this process is the engagement end date on 10th March 2025. Initial documents, including an early engagement notice and a feasibility study, were published on 14th February 2025. The feasibility study invites interested parties to participate in an Early Market Engagement Questionnaire, ensuring confidentiality for all responses.

This tender offers substantial opportunities for businesses, particularly SMEs and those in the financial-tech sector, to collaborate with Essex County Council. Companies that develop secure banking systems, data services, or software compliance with standards like ISO 27001/Cyber Essentials Plus are well-suited for this project. The pilot phase of the initiative provides a unique opportunity for businesses to showcase their technology's effectiveness in addressing the council's requirements, potentially leading to further procurement in managing over 1000 dedicated bank accounts. This project emphasises data security and compliance, paving the way for innovative firms to contribute valuable solutions in public care and financial monitoring.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Direct Payment Monitoring Tool

Notice Description

Essex County Council (ECC) are seeking a software solution that utilises the open banking technology to make monitoring of Direct Payments within dedicated bank accounts easier for the Direct Payment Recipient and ECC. ECC currently make Direct payments to around 3000 people each month. The Direct Payment (in line with the Care Act (2014) is a payment to allow the person to commission their own care and support. Of these 3000 Direct Payments (DP) there are 1,000 people who receive the funds into a bank account. ECC's DP agreement sets out that this must be a dedicated account for their direct payment only (i.e. no other payments are made into this account). As well as having a statutory duty to ensure people have their unmet assessed needs met under the Care Act (2014), ECC has a fiduciary duty to proportionately monitor these accounts to ensure the funds are being used to meet the need and not being misappropriated. This process is currently very manual and relies on DP recipients sending ECC's monitoring team copies of bank statements. This is very time consuming and inefficient, thus a new solution is required. A pilot is planned to enable ECC's DP Monitoring Team to have easier access to the data they need to review individual dedicated bank accounts that hold people's Direct Payment (DP). This will initially be commissioned as a test and learn with a small sample of approximately 30 - 50 accounts to test the benefits of the approach for 6 months. If successful, ECC may look to introduce this technology with over 1000 dedicated bank accounts currently held by DP recipients following a further procurement. The following requirements are necessary: * A process that allows people to consent to ECC having access to reports of transactions taking place in their bank account. * The technology should enable access to information held on the dedicated bank accounts for the purpose of proportionate reviews. * The system should be able to clearly identify credits going in such as funds from ECC and the DP recipient's assessed charge contribution to the account * The system should also be able to identify credits paid out to agencies or Personal Assistants employed to give care and support as per the support plan outcomes * The system should be able to provide exception reporting to ECC when for example o cash withdrawals take place o Payments for utilities, groceries or gambling take place o The recipients expected assessed charge is not paid in to the account o No payments have been made out of the account * The banking system should be able to drill down were necessary to identify payments going out, to whom, the amount using identifiable data and not just a reference number * The data must be stored securely within the UK or EU meeting ISO 27001/Cyber Essentials Plus * Personal data should be psuedonomysed to increase data security

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-b5fd17-2b17a3de-92bc-4c2d-85c0-00b2677713c2
Publication Source
Contracts Finder
Latest Notice
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/cadc141f-958d-46cf-8614-48f7aecd93e0
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Not specified
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

66 - Financial and insurance services

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

CPV Codes

66000000 - Financial and insurance services

72300000 - Data services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
14 Feb 20251 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
10 Mar 2025Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
CHELMSFORD
Postcode
CM1 1QH
Post Town
Chelmsford
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLH East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLH3 Essex
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLH36 Heart of Essex
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Chelmsford
Electoral Ward
Moulsham and Central
Westminster Constituency
Chelmsford

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts. 

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