Purpose

The contract with the current provider ends in March 2025 and a decision needs to be made if this service should continue.

Decision

That Cabinet: 

1)    Approves option 2 - the recommissioning, procurement and implementation of the Core and Carers elements of the Wiltshire Community Advice and Support Service for a minimum of five years with the option to extend for an additional two years with an uplift mechanism. 

2)    Delegates authority to the Director of Commissioning in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Health, Communities, Leisure, and Libraries to award the new contract, including the taken of all necessary steps and the production of all associated documentation. 

Reason for Proposals 

Option 2 will give the Council greater consistency of service across the county and theopportunity for more robust contract management.  Only tendering for core and carers reduces the financial risk and pressure to the council if the grants for the refugee programme and Ukraine support were not forthcoming in future years or should the team decide to invest this money in different services. 

A wide range of council service areas make daily referrals to Wiltshire Citizens Advice service and it is a service relied on heavily by Wiltshire residents. Not having this service in place would place unprecedented demand on council teams, who are not currently resourced to meet this demand and customers would not receive as timely as response, should the service be brought inhouse. 

Additionally, Wiltshire Council does not have Financial Conduct Accreditation (FCA) or Advice Quality Standard (AQS) accreditation, which means that it cannot provide specialist advice around debt and housing issues. Further to

this, Wiltshire Council is not a charity, this prevents bidding on Charity specific funding which the current provider uses to bolster services. Not having this service in place would mean Wiltshire residents would be unable to seek specialist financial and housing advice.