We have at last heard from Leics. We are not impressed.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION – COVID-19 DISRUPTION
TAXI OPERATOR INVOICES AND PAYMENTS
Dear Sir/Madam
In these unprecedented times we realise that you will be concerned about your businesses short term financial position as well as your longer-term viability. and we thank you for your patience while we have been reviewing the government guidance and consider appropriate financial support. We are now in a position to clarify the position and the financial support we can offer.
It is of course in the best interests of both you and ourselves to ensure that Leicestershire County Council (LCC)’s supply chain remains robust, and to that end LCC will help where it can to ensure your business remains viable and in a position to continue to provide crucial services to the local community in the future.
The financial implications, however, of the current circumstances are also putting significant pressure on (LCC)’s budgets. Whilst the Government has provided additional support, it will only cover to a limited extent the financial impact that LCC will face and therefore needs to be targeted at businesses and third sector groups supporting our critical services.
It is, therefore, our expectation that Central Government’s interventions will be the primary support to prevent business failure. Details of each of these, including who is eligible and what is required to access the various support measures, can be found on the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... businesses The speed and scale of what Government is capable of far surpasses anything LCC could do locally. The initial £350bn announcement equates to about £3.2bn for Leicestershire, approximately 6 times LCC’s total annual expenditure.
By necessity LCC’s financial resources will be targeted at the additional costs caused by Covid-19 of services that continue to be delivered.
LCC will offer financial support for those operating Mainstream school, SEN taxi school contract services and Social care taxi contract services but in return for financial support from the Council we expect you to act with best endeavours to reduce costs and access whatever additional support measures for businesses the Government has put in place for which you are eligible (as a business or sole trader) and that you act with integrity and do not seek to make profits on elements of a contract that are undelivered during this period.
You must also agree to operate transparently (open book) to help demonstrate that the payments made have been used in the manner intended (including the benefit being passed on to employees/sub-contractors where applicable) and to allow a retrospective reclaim of payments where appropriate (for example where further government measures may become available which can offset payments made by LCC).
LCC support will be the following contracts only:
· Where mainstream, SEN and social care contract services delivered by taxis are continuing to operate as normal, taxi operators will be paid in full, please submit invoices in the normal way on a monthly basis.
·
Where mainstream and SEN school transport services have been suspended, taxi operators will be paid at 25% of the contracted rate until the end of the current contract or the end of the school year on 10th July 2020 (whichever is sooner). Please continue to submit invoices in the normal way on a monthly basis.
· Where contracts for social care transport services have been suspended, taxi operators will be paid at 25% of the contracted rate until the end of the current contract or the end of June 2020 (whichever is sooner) at which point a further review will be required. Please continue to submit invoices in the normal way on a monthly basis. · If at any time we need to re-instate the contract that is currently non-operational then you must be available to do this and be available for delivery of an alternative type of service. Revised payments may be made by agreement with LCC if the alternative requirements are seen to require additional time or mileage to deliver.
We ask that invoices are submitted as follows:
Mainstream school taxi contract services (beginning with the letter “S”),
SEN taxi school contract services (beginning with “00” or “PTU00”) and
Social care taxi contract services (beginning with the number ”5”)
· MARCH: If you haven’t already, please submit your invoices for March based on the number of days you were contracted to do, minus any normal deductions that occurred prior to the school or social care setting closing. If you have already submitted your invoice for March as you were no longer providing transport, please add the extra days to your April invoice, do not send an additional invoice for the March
· APRIL TO JULY: Please submit your invoices for each month based on the number of days you were contracted to do at quarter of the current rate if the service was suspended or in full if the service continued to operate.
· April’s invoices should exclude the Easter holidays unless you were otherwise contracted to fulfil journeys on those days. The same will apply for bank holidays 08/05/20 and 25/05/20) and May half term for the May invoice.
· The contract invoices for each month will be accepted at their normal time:
o Invoices for April will be accepted after Thursday 30th April 2020
o Invoices for May will be accepted after Friday 29th May 2020
o Invoices for June will be accepted after Tuesday 30th June 2020
o Invoices for July will be accepted after terms or contract ends around 10th July 2020 for school transport.
We hope that the above measures will provide you with some financial stability in the short term whilst we work through Coronavirus pandemic together.
Finally, on behalf of Leicestershire County Council, we would like to thank you for all your efforts during this very difficult time for the whole country.
If you have any further questions.
Contract invoices and Payment enquiries
to@leics.gov.uk Mainstream transport contract enquiries
mainstreamtransport@leics.gov.uk SEN transport contract enquires
sentransport@leics.gov.uk Social care transport contract enquiries
socialcare@leics.gov.uk Kind Regards,