Civica has won a significant new deal for its platform BPS offering in local government revenues and benefits. The deal is with Malvern Hills District Council, Worcester City Council and Wychavon District Council, to create a centre of excellence in the area providing services to the three councils and also to other public sector organisations. Civica is also committing £3m in savings over the next five years. It is taking on approximately 100 staff and committing to retaining their jobs, a large number of which were apparently at risk as a result of the universal credit implementation.
Vic Allison, deputy MD at Wychavon DC, is quoted in the local Worcester News, saying that the universal credit will simplify aspects of assessing benefits, and therefore some work will transfer back to the DWP (see here). He was in favour of handing this work to the private sector as a means to safeguard these local jobs.
Civica is rightly pleased to have secured the win against direct competition from market leader Capita, which has been particularly quiet in R&B for some time now. It builds on Civica's success at Gloucester City Council (see here), which now provides outsourced and on-demand Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) to 15 other authorities.
There are risks attached for Civica scaling up the service to sell to other authorities, particularly against competition from Liberata, which now claims over 100 local authority customers for its on-demand offering Capacity Grid. But the message of continued employment, and even growth in local employment if successful, is a positive one in these difficult times for local authority budgets.