Early Engagement: Department for Work and Pensions - Provision of Legal Services for the Child Maintenance Service in Scotland- Litigation and Debt Recovery

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), acting on behalf of the Child Maintenance Service who would be the principal user of the service, wishes to consult with interested suppliers on its outline plan to re-procure its legal service in Scotland. The service is principally required for the Child Maintenance Service but may include occasional ad hoc work for other parts of the DWP on debt recovery or more generic areas of legal advice. Our existing contract with a single supplier will be expiring in August 2025. DWP will be seeking a single supplier to cover the whole of Scotland to provide advice, court representation at Liability Order and Committal (Sanctions) stage together with a wide range of enforcement actions as needed. DWP wishes to consult on the approach to the re-procurement and is particularly interested in engaging with legal firms who are registered to operate in Scotland and have the skills and resource to deliver a large scale, end to end service in close collaboration with the Child Maintenance Service. In addition we will also be seeking to appoint a secondary supplier for a small number of cases that the main supplier is unable to handle eg conflict of interest.
Current trends indicate that a supplier could expect to receive approximately 1,000 Liability Order stage referrals and 300 Committal (Sanctions) stage referrals per year. Many cases can be long term in nature before conclusion with some requiring long term monitoring and repeat interventions. The active caseload is currently around 1,500 cases across Scotland. Initial planning is based on a proposal to award a contract with a minimum initial term of 4 years plus further extension options of up to 24 months.
It is anticipated that the opportunity will be tendered in March/April 2025.
More information on the proposed route to market will be shared at the market engagement session. The early engagement session will enable suppliers to find out more about the service required and raise any questions around the proposed procurement process. Some areas identified for early consultation may include: -

1. The nature and extent of reporting and cost transparency required by the DWP
2. Proposed KPI's
3. The most appropriate approach to Social Value in Scotland
4. Pricing approach - including pricing linked to length of contract
5. Any Supplier issues arising from the route to market proposals There may also be other areas identified for inclusion at the market engagement session. Expressions of Interest in attending the online market engagement event of approximately two hours duration to be held on either:

• Thursday 20th February 2025 AM or PM , and/or
• Friday 21st February 2025 AM or PM should be emailed to cd.debtservices@dwp.gov.uk by close of business on Friday 14th February 2025 indicating your availability for one or both dates/times. Confirmation of events date and times will be provided by Monday 17th February 2025.