001236 - Soft Market Testing Exercise for the Provision of a Deputy and Appointee Banking and Software Solution

Durham County Council Deputy and Appointee Team (DAT) are exploring banking and software solutions to support the Deputy and Appointee functions of its customers. Currently, we support circa 950 customers with appointeeship or deputyship in any financial year.

The DAT are responsible for managing the finances, including all daily living expenses and household bills, for individuals deemed to lack capacity to manage their financial affairs. Individual need will vary from monthly personal allowance payments to individuals who require their funds to be paid daily.

For appointee cases, the DAT will access Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits and for CoP cases, this can range from investment accounts, private pensions, existing individual bank accounts and DWP benefits, and will also include property as applicable. Our current operating model is as follows: • One main bank account for Durham County Council (DCC). • All payments/income are paid into the main DCC bank account. • Support function to translate one main bank account into 950 individual virtual accounts and undertake reconciliation activity. • Software package as Client Record Management System (CRMS). • Pre-paid cards to make individual payments to customers daily, weekly, monthly. • Individual reconciliation of pre-paid card payments and transactions to individual virtual accounts.

We are looking for an incorporated system for all financial transactions for our customers, reducing the duplication, interdependencies, and potential multiple impacts of the current system. Previous system ref DN742339