Re Contract

Capita Group PLC
9 November 2000


Capita chosen as preferred strategic partner by Blackburn with Darwen Borough
Council



Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has selected Capita as their preferred
strategic partner to enter into negotiations on the delivery of a wide range
of modern support services for the Council.



Blackburn has commenced detailed negotiations with Capita to formulate a
structure for the partnership and to scope the range of services which could
be included.  It is anticipated that a contract of 8 to 15 years will be let
covering services with a current annual spend in excess of £8 million.



Capita was chosen following a detailed competitive procurement process.  As
part of the proposed partnership Capita will establish a business centre of
service excellence in the Borough, delivering customer and support services to
the Council and other public sector organisations, and containing two
specialist support units. An education support unit will be developed to
provide a regional hub to deliver support services to clusters of LEAs and
schools.  A CRM (customer relationship management) support unit will provide
centralised technology support for leading edge CRM contact centres across the
Group which deliver quality customer contact services and feed back essential
management information to inform the continuous improvement of services.
Capita's business centre will create 100 new jobs within the first year of the
contract and has the potential to create 500 new jobs, recruited locally, over
the next 5 years.



Rod Aldridge, Executive Chairman of Capita commented:



'I am delighted that Capita has been selected by Blackburn with Darwen as
preferred strategic partner. The strong leadership, energy and drive in the
Council, together with its quality staff and partnership and inter-agency
working, will ensure that we can deliver real benefits to the Borough and
establish a business centre with real prospects of growth and quality job
creation. The business centre would form a key part of our growing network of
centres of service excellence and could provide another strong link in our
Group infrastructure with excellent prospects for business growth, both
locally across Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, and nationally.'



Council Leader, Malcolm Doherty said:



'This is a major opportunity for the Borough to deliver quality public
services to our citizens whilst reducing our support service costs and growing
high quality white-collar jobs in the Borough.  Our negotiations with Capita
will focus on forming a strong long-term partnership to benefit the whole
community.  Our approach once again underlines how Blackburn with Darwen is in
the forefront of local government thinking.  We are excited by the prospect of
Capita playing a key role in our future service provision.'



                                    -ends-



For further information:



The Capita Group Plc
                    020 7799 1525

Rod Aldridge, Executive Chairman

Paul Pindar, Chief Executive

Shona Nichols, Group Marketing Director



Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council

Steve Weaver, Executive Director (Community and Personal Services)   
                01254 585 655

Alison Milner, Director of Policy
                01254 585 335



Issued by

Hogarth Partnership, John Olsen/James Longfield
                020 7357 9477





Notes to Editors



The Capita Group Plc



Capita is one of the largest and fastest growing professional support services
organisations in the UK.  The Group delivers a range of integrated solutions
encompassing customer services, human resource services, software services,
systems and strategic support and property services to both public sector and
private organisations.  With over 8,000 people at over 100 UK sites, Capita is
quoted on the London Stock Exchange with a turnover of £327 million and a
market capitalisation of £3.5 billion.  Capita became a FTSE 100 company in
March 2000.  For more information, visit our website: www.capitagroup.com