Provision of Print, Mail Fulfilment and Document Consolidation Services for Council Tax, Business Rate and Benefits Communications

Provision of Print, Mail Fulfilment and Document Consolidation Services for Council Tax, Business Rate and Benefits Communications. Caerphilly County Borough Council is seeking to engage with the market to understand the availability of solutions and suppliers capable of delivering document consolidation, print, mail fulfilment and associated services for Council Tax, Business Rate and Benefits communications.

The Council currently issues approximately 75,000 annual Council Tax bills, 16,500 Benefits notifications and 5,000 Business Rate bills each year. The existing arrangement for merging annual Council Tax bills and Benefits notifications has expired and the Council is exploring options for a replacement service.

As part of this engagement the Council is also looking for an expanded solution to consolidate, print and mail daily/weekly Council Tax and Benefit documents.

The daily/weekly volumes are…(excludes annual bills and Benefit Notifications)

• Council Tax circa 100,000 documents each year

• Benefits circa 47,000 documents each year

The aim is to deliver a single, coherent communication pack that improves customer understanding, lowers postage and fulfilment costs and supports operational efficiency.

Project Objectives

The Council is seeking market input regarding solutions that can:

• Merge annual Council Tax bills with Council Tax Reduction and Housing Benefit notifications into a single mail pack.

• Print and despatch annual Business Rate bills

• Reduce printing, postage and fulfilment costs through document consolidation.

• Improve customer experience and reduce avoidable customer contact.

• Ensure compliance with statutory requirements relating to Council Tax billing and Benefits notifications.

• Support secure handling of personal data and compliance with GDPR requirements.

• Explore opportunities to extend services to other Council departments requiring bulk print and mail services. Potential Scope

The Council wishes to understand supplier capability in relation to:

Core Requirement

• Data receipt from Council systems.

• Intelligent document composition.

• Merging of Council Tax bills and Benefits notifications.

• Print production.

• Automated enclosing and mail fulfilment.

• Postal optimisation.

• Reporting and audit trails.

• Secure destruction and data handling.

Optional Services

The Council is also interested in understanding supplier capabilities for:

• Outsourced production and dispatch of daily and weekly Council Tax correspondence.

• Outsourced production and dispatch of Benefits notifications and correspondence.

• Provision of a wider corporate print and mail gateway for additional Council services, including high-volume customer communications.

• Hybrid mail and digital delivery solutions.

• Support for increased adoption of eBilling and digital communications.

Market Engagement Questions

The Council welcomes responses from suppliers who can provide information on:

1. Your organisation's experience delivering document consolidation services within local government.

2. Your ability to merge multiple document types into a single statutory communication pack.

3. Typical implementation timescales.

4. Security certifications and compliance standards held (e.g. ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, GDPR arrangements).

5. Cloud-based or hosted service options available.

6. Reporting, management information and audit capabilities.

7. Approaches to supporting digital-first communications and eBilling.

8. Pricing models typically used for services of this nature.

9. Opportunities for additional efficiency savings through postal optimisation and wider corporate mail solutions.

10. Any innovative solutions or service developments the Council should consider.

Indicative Procurement Approach

The Council anticipates undertaking a competitive procurement process following completion of this market engagement exercise. The final procurement route, contract structure and scope will be informed by responses received through this engagement.

Participation in this engagement exercise will not form part of any future evaluation process and will not confer any advantage in any subsequent procurement procedure.

Interested suppliers are invited to provide a written response outlining their capability, relevant experience and any information considered helpful in shaping the Council's procurement approach.

All responses must be submitted via the Council etendering portal proactis Plaza as per the link below:-

Proactis - Supplier Network

You need register to the system, if already registered you then search Opportunities and search PME1000009 - Provision of Print, Mail Fulfilment and Document Consolidation Services for Council Tax, Business

You need to submit your response to the ten questions to the requested question in the portal.

All submissions must be received no later than 12:00 Noon Friday 07 August 2026

The Council may also invite suppliers to participate in market engagement meetings, demonstrations or workshops following review of responses.

This notice is issued solely for the purpose of market engagement and information gathering. It does not constitute a call for competition, commencement of a procurement procedure or commitment by Caerphilly County Borough Council to undertake any procurement exercise.