Barking and Dagenham Council has extended its out-of-hours telephony contract with Capita Business Services Ltd for a total value of £1.4 million. The decision, made at a Cabinet meeting on 19 August 2025, ensures round-the-clock emergency access for residents requiring assistance with housing repairs, social care, noise complaints, and other urgent issues.

The contract, which commences on 1 October 2025, will run for five years with the option to extend for two additional one-year periods. It builds upon a collaborative arrangement led by the London Borough of Ealing, which has already delivered significant financial benefits and high resident satisfaction.

The extended contract provides:

  • 24/7 emergency telephony access for services such as housing repairs, social care, and noise complaints.
  • A bespoke CRM system integrated with council systems (e.g., Barking and Dagenham's repair platform). The CRM system will support call translation, scripting, performance tracking, and integration with council systems.
  • A Back-up, Step-in daytime service to ensure business continuity.
  • Disaster recovery and remote working capabilities to support resilience and sustainability. Detailed Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans have been produced and loaded onto Resilience Direct, a secure digital platform used in the UK to support emergency planning, response, and recovery.

The council has participated in a joint out-of-hours service since 2020 led by the London Borough of Ealing. Cllr Dominic Twomey, Leader of the Council, noted that this collaborative arrangement has delivered significant benefits, most importantly some £3.2 million in savings over a six-year period and a 95% resident satisfaction rate which is fantastic.

As part of the Contract for Out of Hours Telephony Service, Capita has committed to a contractually binding social value matrix, which includes:

  • Ensuring that all employees are paid at least the Real Living Wage
  • Delivering 10 careers engagement events per year with schools in the areas served by the participating organisations

The council will ensure these commitments are met through contractually binding agreements and monitoring.

According to the Cabinet reports pack, a competitive dialogue was conducted, with six suppliers submitting selection questionnaires. Four were shortlisted, but only Capita completed the process to the final hurdle and were therefore awarded the contract.

The report in 1.3 on page 180 sets out the benefits of being part of a framework and I think we all know economies of scale, financial savings as I'd already put out. What else? More efficient call handling, more cover should there be issues. So a strong business case for procuring this.

Social value is very important. I always talk about social value on page 183 and you'll see as part of the weightings and criteria you'll see social value there at 10% and you'll also see following that down business continuity disaster recovery plans which are all very important when you have and when you have these sort of services.