This meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council's officer decision makers was scheduled to consider the award of contracts for the Public Mental Wellbeing Programme, and the write off of irrecoverable debts under £50,000. The Director of Public Health was delegated authority to award the final contracts for the Public Mental Wellbeing Programme, and the Strategic Director of Finance and Resources was delegated authority to approve the write off of debts. The Executive Member for Finance and Governance was consulted regarding the write off of debts over £10,000.

Public Mental Wellbeing Programme Contracts

The council was scheduled to consider the award of contracts for the Public Mental Wellbeing Programme. The report pack stated that the Public Health department led the commissioning and procurement of the programme, and following a competitive tender exercise in July and August 2025, were exercising delegated authority to award two contracts.

The recommendations were:

• To award Lot 1, the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Training and Engagement service, to Spring North to commence in October 2025 until 31 March 2028, with the option to extend until March 2030.
• To award Lot 2, the Men's Mental Wellbeing service, to Rugby League Cares to commence in October 2025 until 31 March 2028, with the option to extend until March 2030.
• Lot 3, the Community Bereavement Support service, would not be awarded at this time.

The report pack noted that the mental health of Blackburn with Darwen residents has a significant impact on the area, and that improving mental health and wellbeing is a key priority for all health and care organisations in the borough. The Public Health department has commissioned a broad programme of public mental wellbeing services for the past five years, but significant changes in the mental wellbeing and mental health landscape have resulted in a need to refresh these services.

In January 2025, the new place-based mental health and suicide prevention strategy (2025-2030) was launched, which is an all-age strategy developed collectively by a range of local health and care organisations. The strategy was informed by an engagement exercise with over three hundred people, which provided information on the level of need in Blackburn with Darwen and the types of services that were relevant and acceptable to local people. This information, along with a number of local insight reports, including the Healthwatch Bereavement Report 2024, Lancashire County Council's Suicide Audit 2022, and the Thematic review of deaths in children and young people across Pan- Lancashire 2023, were used to inform the delivery model.

A paper was presented to the Executive Board in April 2025, which secured approval to commence a competitive tender process, and delegated authority to the Director of Public Health to award the final contracts.

The report pack stated that it was important to work with successful bidders to ensure a smooth mobilisation, and that integrating the new services into existing structures within Blackburn with Darwen would require coordination, but also presented opportunities to strengthen alignment and build strong relationships with local partners. Strong provider engagement and co-production with communities would add value to service design and sustainability, but this work is time-intensive and may mean that certain milestones need to be phased carefully.

The decision not to award Lot 3 showed the importance the council places on quality and meeting local need, and provided an opportunity to strengthen the final offer. Revisiting the service specification would extend the timeline, but this provided an opportunity to ensure the service would deliver maximum impact once in place. As a new offer in the borough, it was important to have complete confidence in the supplier to ensure the successful establishment of a high-quality service.

The contracts were scheduled to be funded by the Public Health Prevention grant.

The report pack also stated that due to the non-award of Lot 3, a re-tender exercise would be considered to find suitable provider(s) for community bereavement services.

The invitation to tender was opened on the Chest¹ on 17 June 2025, and the closing date was 21 July 2025. The local authority received 28 submissions in total: 11 for Lot 1, 13 for Lot 2, and 4 for Lot 3. All submissions were evaluated in line with the published award criteria, with price accounting for 10% of the total score and quality accounting for 90%. Panels made up of representatives from across the Blackburn with Darwen Council, with additional input from wider stakeholders where appropriate, reviewed, scored, and moderated all submissions to ensure a fair and consistent process was applied.

The awarded provider for Lot 1, Spring North, achieved the highest overall score (54.3% on quality, and 5.81% on price). The panel noted their strong local understanding, connections, and resources, giving confidence in their ability to deliver the contract requirements. The awarded provider for Lot 2, Rugby League Cares, achieved the highest overall score (65.2% on quality, and 9.61% on price), and the panel expressed strong confidence in their ability to deliver a high-quality service in Blackburn with Darwen. In the case of Lot 3, none of the providers achieved a sufficiently high score (the highest scoring submission was below 50% on quality), and the panel did not have confidence in awarding the contract on this basis.

Before seeking approval from the Executive Board, the commissioning intention and high-level delivery plan were shared for information and comment at the following forums (March – April 2025): Public Health and Housing SPT, Strategic Commissioning Board, Children's Executive Members Briefing, Mental Health Delivery Board, and Age Well Partnership. In collaboration with Commissioning and Procurement colleagues, Public Health hosted a premarket engagement session on 19 May 2025, which was attended by 67 participants from approximately 30 organisations.

Write Off of Irrecoverable Debts

The council was scheduled to consider a report on the write off of irrecoverable debts under £50,000. The report pack stated that the council has a good record of collecting income, and is comparable with similar local authorities. However, despite this performance, there are some instances where it is not possible to collect an outstanding debt. Once the council is unable to collect the debt, whether that be in respect of the death of person, bankruptcy, or where all recovery options have been exhausted, the council should conduct a write off of the debt.

The council is responsible for collecting income from a range of sources, including council tax, business rates, housing benefit overpayments and sundry debtors, which together forms around £188 million of income to the council annually. The collection rate for council tax is around 96% annually, with business rates around 97%. The collection rate for housing benefit overpayments is lower, primarily because the council is restricted in statute by the amount of overpayments that can be recovered from a claimant's benefit entitlement.

The council's Standing Orders and Financial Regulations stipulate that the Strategic Director Finance and Resources may authorise the write off of any individual debt up to the value of £10,000. For those debts above £10,000 and below £50,000, the Strategic Director Finance and Resources, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Governance, can authorise the write offs.

In arriving at a decision to write off a debt, officers must pursue a rigorous process to establish whether funds can be recovered before concluding, as a last resort, that the debt is deemed to be irrecoverable. The debts identified in this report have been pursued as appropriate using all available recovery and enforcement methods. However, it has not been possible to recover the money owed, and the only option available is to write off the debts.

The debts in this report cover a number of financial years ranging from 1995 to 2023, with the oldest debts being written off at this time dating back to the 1995/96 financial year. Prudent accounting practice requires that provision be made for bad and doubtful debts, and writing off the debts outlined in this report will not result in any additional cost to the council as the cost is fully covered by the relevant bad debts provisions. Where additional information comes to the council's attention that would indicate a debt is recoverable, any debts written-off are reinstated and recovery action will take place.

After extensive enquiries, all of the debts listed below have been deemed irrecoverable and do require write off from the appropriate system. A summary of the write offs amounts is listed below, including the service area totals and the reasons for the write.

• Council Tax: £1,412,323.
• Business Rates: £209,577.
• Housing Benefit Overpayments: £33,047.24.

All accounts have been actively pursued with all recovery options being considered and exhausted. In the case of debts from deceased persons, it has been confirmed that the estate has no funds available to discharge the debt. The bankrupt cases have been verified with the Insolvency Service / Practitioners with claims made for the outstanding debts if applicable.

The council maintains provision for potential bad debt write off, and the adequacy of this provision is reviewed each year and is subject to audit review. The provision is sufficient to meet the cost of writing off these debts. The amount for write off detailed in this report is £1,705,250.51, and the total amount of write off is provided for under the council's bad debt provision.