Information regarding Devon County Council’s outsourcing of the provision of pre-paid debit cards in the financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 and its current and planned outsourcing of the provision of pre-paid debit cards in 2022/23 and future financial years.
(a) the local authority’s outsourcing of the provision of pre-paid debit cards for the use by staff, volunteers, council tax payers service users:
| Set up with prepaid card | Provider of prepaid card | |
| Number of adults | As of 30th June 2020, there were 3,938 active accounts -Direct Payments and Personal Health Budgets | Prepaid Financial Services/EML |
| Number of children | 1,546 | Prepaid Financial Services/EML |
Please note that Devon County Council does not issue pre-paid debit cards to staff or volunteers.
(b) the ways in which the local authority uses pre-paid debit cards:
- Direct Payments and Personal Health Budgets for Adults
- Direct Payments and Personal Health Budgets for Children
- Managed Accounts for Adults
- Managed Accounts for Children
- Carers
- Instant Issue for Refugee Resettlement
- Individual Service Fund (ISF)
- Direct Payments for Care Leavers
(c) the full name(s) of any outsourced service provider(s) supplying the local authority;
The prepaid cards contract is held by Prepaid Financial Services (now known as EML) as a direct award under the NEPO pre-paid cards framework. This contract commenced on 1st March 2021 and will run for four years until 28th February 2025.
(d) the contract(s) with any outsourced service provider(s) supplying the local authority;
See response for c above. For more information, please see the Contracts Register.
(e) the date(s) on which contract(s) with outsourced service provider(s) expire:
See response for c above.
(f) the total fees paid by the local authority, or budgeted to be paid, by supplier, for each of the financial years requested above:
Total spend (including Childrens) for PFS/EML in 21/22 was £104,000 and 20/21 £76,000.
(g) the number of pre-paid debit card users the local authority had, or anticipates having, for each of the financial years listed above:
| Programme | Average active accounts per yr |
| Direct Payments and Personal Health Budgets for Adults | 1,500 |
| Direct Payments and Personal Health Budgets for Children | 1,300 |
| Managed Accounts for Adults | 950 |
| Managed Accounts for Children | 60 |
| Carers | 0 |
| Instant Issue | 10 |
| ISF | 10 |
| Direct Payments for Care Leavers | 100 |
(h) the tendering process, or other procurement method, under which the outsourced contract(s) were awarded:
NEPO is the tendering method used to let the contract.
(i) the tendering process, or other procurement method, under which the service will be re-contracted: and
This is not yet known, so Devon County Council does not hold this information.
(j) the date on which the process referred to in (h), for the re-contracting of the outsourced service, will commence.
This is not yet known, so Devon County Council does not hold this information.
(k) the name and email address of the person within the local authority who has responsibility for the authority’s management and provision of pre-paid debit cards.
We consider this information is exempt under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (Personal Data).
Devon County Council are not obliged to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018.
In this instance we believe that the release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore Section 40(2) is applied.
In the interests of providing advice and assistance, information about the leadership of Devon County Council can be found on this webpage.