Survey of Child Support Agency (CSA) Case Closure Outcomes

The Department for Work and Pensions operates the statutory child maintenance scheme (administered by the recently launched Child Maintenance Service (CMS) and the Child Support Agency (CSA) and funds Child Maintenance (CM) Options, a service which provides information and support for separating parents. Government is committed to helping parents (both the Receiving Parent and Paying Parent) to take responsibility for their children. Strengthening and supporting families is one of its key priorities. The Government’s view is that a parent’s failure to take responsibility for their children or to pay child maintenance is simply not acceptable.

The supplier will be required to develop and deliver a programme of surveys with Child Support Agency (CSA) clients for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) here on referred to as the Authority. This is with clients whose cases have been closed by the CSA in line with a process of case closure for all CSA cases, which will take place over a period of three (3) years starting from January 2015.

This requirement is for a series of quantitative telephone surveys with a key group of clients – separated parents who have a child maintenance case with the CSA. The Authority will provide sample files containing clients’ contact details. The supplier will be responsible for:

• Designing questionnaires, including cognitive testing and piloting (in conjunction with the Authority).
• All data collection, processing and analysis.
• Producing a series of reports, including verbal presentations, PowerPoint slides and a formal report for publication.