Purpose

The council processes council
tax payments, benefits payments, and sundry debt administration
through a revenues and benefits system, which is integral to our
financial and administrative operations.
 
The system is hosted on premise
(vs in the cloud) and the current contract extension with the
provider, NEC, expires on 31 March 2026.
 
The revenues and benefits
system is deeply embedded within the council’s operations,
supporting multiple teams and nearly 60,000 residents and
businesses, and there are significant costs associated with
transitioning to an alternative system, including dual running of
the systems for one year. Given that the system we are using is
deeply embedded and the cost to change is high, it’s
important to consider disaster recovery and contingencies in our
planning.
 
Any migration to a new system
also risks losing historic council tax data, which is essential for
accurate revaluations and related processes.
 
The council has recently
invested significantly in integrating a new approach to delivering
local council tax support into the NEC system, providing rapid
decision-making for our most vulnerable customers and achieving
substantial efficiency improvements.
 
The council has conducted a
soft market testing exercise which has confirmed that the NEC
system represents good value compared to other comparable systems.
As part of this, a ‘Prior Information Notice’ was
issued to compliantly undertake market engagement. The results the
market is limited, with few solutions available.
 
This paper recommends
reprocuring the NEC system for a new term of five years, with the
option to extend the contract for two further two-year periods, and
within the procurement to move to a cloud-based solution in line
with the council’s IT strategy.
 
The procurement will be made
through a procurement compliant direct award on the VAS Framework.
With the advent of local government reorganisation, the VAS
Framework also includes a 90-day termination clause that will
enable the council or any future council to move away from the
contract with minimal financial impact should a change of system be
required by the future unitary council.

Decision

The Cabinet Member for Finance and
Commissioning approved the procurement of the NEC revenues and
benefits system for five years, with the option to extend for a
further two years, on the basis it has been assessed as the most
cost-effective and operationally sound option, subject to this
being within Approved Budgets.
 
The Cabinet Member for Finance and
Commissioning delegated the customer front-end system selection
(either enhancing NEC or transitioning to a comparable front-end
solution) to the responsible director, cabinet member, and s151
officer, subject to usability testing, procurement processes and
costs being within Approved Budgets.