Direct payments and PA support framework tenders
A Direct Payment Support Service (DPSS) tender is a council adult social care contract to help people who receive direct payments employ and manage their own personal assistants, covering recruitment support, payroll, managed bank accounts, HMRC tax and National Insurance, pensions, DBS checks and insurance arrangement. Crucially this is a support and brokerage contract under the Care Act 2014, not regulated personal care, so CQC registration is usually not an eligibility gate. That single point reshapes who can win: charities, CICs and software providers compete on equal footing with care companies. These contracts are published on Find a Tender and run through ProContract or Due North, often split into lots so you can target just one. We check you qualify for free before you write a word.
What a Direct Payment Support Service actually is
A DPSS is the support hub a council funds to take the employer burden off people who arrange their own care. Direct payments are a statutory mechanism under the Care Act 2014, according to legislation.gov.uk, letting a person with an assessed need take the cash value of their support and arrange it themselves instead of accepting council commissioned providers. That freedom comes with a catch: the service user becomes the legal employer of their personal assistant, responsible for interviews, contracts, payslips, tax, National Insurance, pensions and insurance. The commissioned support service exists to reduce exactly that load. Depending on the contract, you might run a managed bank account, process payroll, advertise PA vacancies, arrange DBS checks and employer liability insurance, or give one to one advice on employment duties. The scale is real: Norfolk County Council re-procured its DPSS PA Register to support roughly 1,400 individual employers, according to the Find a Tender notice. Read the specification closely, because the in scope duties vary sharply between authorities, and the bid that mirrors the council's own scope language scores better than one that describes a generic service.
Why CQC registration is usually not the gate
For most DPSS and PA register contracts, you do not need CQC registration to bid, and assuming you do is the single most common reason good providers self exclude. This is a support and brokerage service, not a regulated activity. The provider is not delivering personal care; the personal assistant does that, employed directly by the service user. So the eligibility screen tends to test financial standing, relevant insurance, data protection and safeguarding policies, not a care rating. This is the doorway penalty most bidders walk into. They read "direct payments" and "care" in the same sentence and back away, assuming a Good or Outstanding rating is mandatory. It is not. Always confirm against the actual specification, because a small number of authorities bundle regulated elements into a wider lot, and the selection questionnaire will tell you plainly if a registration is required. But as a rule, charities, CICs and welfare rights organisations win these contracts as often as care companies, precisely because the field is wider than people expect. If your eligibility check confirms no rating gate, that is a competitive opening, not a footnote.
How the lots are usually split
Direct payment contracts are frequently divided into lots, which lets you bid for the part you are strongest at rather than the whole service. A typical split runs across three areas: payroll and managed bank account (MBA) provision; the PA register or matching platform; and general direct payment advice and support. Each draws a different field of bidders, and each carries its own scoring weights. The payroll and MBA lot suits providers with strong finance, HMRC and pension administration capability. A managed bank account holds and disburses the service user's direct payment funds, pays the PA, and keeps the audit trail councils need for monitoring. The PA register lot is increasingly a technology contract: some authorities run separate PA register software procurements, such as Find a Tender notice 009436-2025, meaning software houses compete against support charities. The advice lot rewards employment knowledge and accessible, person centred communication. Decide early which lot fits your real strengths and write to its specific weighting, because a strong single lot bid usually beats a stretched bid across all three.
Who can bid, and where the contracts appear
Any organisation that can evidence financial stability, the right insurance and sound safeguarding and data protection practice can usually bid, including charities, CICs, social enterprises, payroll bureaux and software providers. The winning field is broader than commissioned home care because the service is administrative and advisory rather than hands on care. These contracts are published on Find a Tender, the UK wide notice service, with several live Direct Payment Support Services notices appearing in 2025, including notices 084151-2025 and 008416-2025, according to find-tender.service.gov.uk. The detailed documents and clarification process then run through the council's e tendering portal, most often ProContract (Due North) or a similar system. Set up alerts on both Find a Tender and the relevant ProContract portal so you see the contract notice and can register interest before the clarification window closes. In Scotland these notices appear on Public Contracts Scotland, in Wales on Sell2Wales, and in Northern Ireland on eTendersNI rather than Find a Tender. Registering interest early also gives you time to submit clarification questions, which often reveal how the council weights each lot.
How these differ from commissioned home care
The core difference is who employs the carer and who carries the risk. In commissioned domiciliary care, the council contracts you to deliver regulated personal care to service users it refers; you are the registered provider and CQC inspects you. In a direct payments arrangement, the service user holds the money and employs their own personal assistant, and you are paid to support that employer relationship, not to provide the care. This changes everything about the bid. There is no care rating to defend and no rate card for care hours. Instead, scoring tends to reward accuracy of payroll, speed of PA recruitment, quality of employment advice, accessibility for disabled employers, and safeguarding within an unregulated employment model. The demand base is substantial: 5.0 million usual residents aged 5 and over provided unpaid care in England and Wales at the 2021 Census, according to the Office for National Statistics, and direct payments exist to give those families a funded, self directed alternative to council arranged care. Frame your answers around lifting that burden, not around delivering care, and you align with what the commissioner is actually buying.
How to score well on the quality questions
Win these contracts by answering the lived problem the council is buying out: individual employers who are overwhelmed by HMRC, pensions and recruitment. Lead each method statement with a concrete, sequenced answer, then evidence it. For a payroll or MBA lot, set out your payroll cycle, Real Time Information submissions to HMRC, auto enrolment pension handling and error correction process, with named turnaround times. For a PA register lot, describe how you advertise, shortlist, run DBS checks and reduce time to hire, and if you offer software, how it stays accessible and secure. Safeguarding deserves a tailored answer, because the usual regulated framework does not apply when the service user is the employer; show how you protect against unsafe recruitment and abuse within a self directed model, including reference and DBS handling and escalation routes. Cover social value and accessibility for disabled employers, since both carry marks and both are easy to evidence concretely. Read the scoring rubric line by line and answer every bullet it lists, using the council's own headings. Vague capability statements lose; specific, evidenced, time bound processes win.
Direct payment and PA support lots at a glance
How councils typically split a Direct Payment Support Service contract, what each lot demands, and who usually competes for it.
| Lot / scope | What it covers | Who tends to bid | CQC needed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll & Managed Bank Account (MBA) | Holding and disbursing direct payment funds, PA payslips, HMRC RTI, NI, pension auto enrolment, audit trail | Payroll bureaux, finance strong charities and CICs | No |
| PA Register / matching | Advertising PA vacancies, shortlisting, DBS arrangement, onboarding, reducing time to hire | Support charities, recruitment capable providers | No |
| PA Register software | Cloud, multi user platform for individual employers to advertise, shortlist and onboard PAs | Software and technology providers | No |
| General DP advice & support | Employment guidance, employer duties, insurance arrangement, person centred help | Welfare rights bodies, advocacy and care organisations | No |
| Bundled / whole service | Two or more of the above combined under one contract | Larger providers and consortia | Usually no, check spec |
Not sure if you qualify for a tender? We check it for free, before you pay anything, and we only take bids we believe you can win. See our domiciliary care tender writing or text TENDER to get started.
Common questions
What is a Direct Payment Support Service?
A Direct Payment Support Service (DPSS) is a council funded service that helps people who receive direct payments under the Care Act 2014 employ and manage their own personal assistants. It typically covers PA recruitment support, payroll, managed bank accounts, HMRC tax and National Insurance, pension auto enrolment, DBS checks and arranging PA insurance. The aim is to lift the employer burden off individuals who would otherwise have to run all of this themselves. Councils procure DPSS through Find a Tender and portals such as ProContract or Due North, often as several separate lots.
Do you need to be CQC registered to deliver direct payment support?
Usually no. A Direct Payment Support Service is a support and brokerage contract, not a regulated activity, because the personal care is delivered by the personal assistant whom the service user employs directly, not by you. So CQC registration is normally not an eligibility gate, which is why charities, CICs and software providers win these contracts as often as care companies. Always confirm against the specific specification, as a small number of authorities bundle regulated elements into a wider lot, but as a rule no care rating is required to bid.
What is a Personal Assistant register?
A PA register is a system, often a cloud based multi user platform, where individual employers can advertise vacancies, shortlist and onboard personal assistants. Norfolk County Council re-procured its DPSS PA Register as exactly this kind of system to support around 1,400 individual employers, according to the Find a Tender notice. Some authorities run the register as a standalone software procurement, for example Find a Tender notice 009436-2025, which means technology providers compete alongside support charities. The register reduces time to hire and helps service users meet safe recruitment expectations within a self directed model.
How are direct payments different from commissioned home care?
With commissioned home care, the council contracts a CQC registered provider to deliver regulated personal care to people it refers, and CQC inspects that provider. With direct payments, the service user receives the funds, becomes the legal employer of their own personal assistant, and arranges their own care. The support service you bid for is paid to make that employer relationship work, handling payroll, recruitment and advice, not to deliver the care itself. Direct payments are a statutory option under the Care Act 2014 that give people a funded, self directed alternative to council arranged care.
What does a managed bank account service do for direct payments?
A managed bank account (MBA) holds and disburses a service user's direct payment funds on their behalf. The provider receives the council payment, pays the personal assistant correctly and on time, handles HMRC Real Time Information submissions, National Insurance and pension auto enrolment, and keeps the audit trail the council needs for monitoring. It removes the financial administration burden from people who do not want to run a payroll themselves. The MBA function is often tendered as its own lot, which suits payroll bureaux and finance strong charities and CICs that do not deliver care at all.
How much do you charge to write a direct payments tender?
Your first tender is £795. We only take bids we believe you can win, and if a loss is clearly down to our writing error we rewrite the next one free. Our win rate is 96 percent. We start with a free eligibility check, which for direct payment support contracts often shows providers qualify even without CQC registration, because these are support and brokerage contracts rather than regulated care. We confirm you can compete before you commit to anything.
Got a tender to check?
Text TENDER to +44 7822 030677and we'll tell you free whether you'd qualify, before you spend a penny.