Devon Virtual Wallet

Devon County Council are one the leading local authorities when it comes to direct payments for children and young people.   PPL are therefore delighted that the council has chosen Virtual Wallet to be part of its offering.  

The council have historically used pre-paid cards for the management of direct payments.  The move to Virtual Wallet will improve transparency and visibility over budgets, real-time reporting and auditing assurance, which the council expects to deliver a streamlined process with better outcomes for individuals. 

The roll-out will involve:

Virtual Wallet ‘Lite’ solution – a managed marketplace solution that around 300 families will use to receive, manage and spend relatively small, annual ‘one-off’ payments or grants.   

Virtual Wallet Direct Payments solution – will be rolled out to approximately 1,500 existing DP recipients over the a 12 month period, as and when their annual reviews occur.  Expenditure will include personal assistants, domiciliary care providers, micro enterprises and non-traditional services.  PPL will be working alongside the council’s direct payments support service and a network of incumbent payroll providers. 

Following the initial migration, the council have ambitions to increase the number of individuals with a direct payment, and Virtual Wallet is one of the tools they will be using to achieve this.  As a result, the contract will make the council one of PPL’s largest client in terms of numbers of individuals using Virtual Wallet. 

Other parties within the local Integrated Care System (DCC Adult Services and NHS Devon) have expressed interest in also using Virtual Wallet for the delivery of their direct payments and personal health budget programs.