Service Delivery Capability

Description

Summary of the work We are looking for service delivery capability to work alongside in-house teams and other suppliers. They will work with blended teams to deliver outcomes based on user needs. The contract will support capability gaps within the scope of Service Delivery capability in DOS (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/digital-outcomes-and-specialists-digital-outcomes-capabilities#service-delivery ) until end of FY 20/21. Expected Contract Length 11 weeks Latest start date Monday 18 January 2021 Budget Range Substantial activity is in our pipeline before the end of FY 2020/21, with an indicative budget against the requirements for this capability being £1.5m exc.VAT, but that scope could expand or contract. Budget approval is subject to Cabinet Office spending controls, service assessments and T&T governance. The department reserves the right to use any of the DOS pricing methodologies in any SoW (fixed price, capped T&M, or T&M). Each SoW will outline the work required and associated budget, suppliers will need to provide clear costs to enable tracking. T&T does not commit to minimum or maximum spend at this point. Why the Work is Being Done The NHS Test and Trace business plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-test-and-trace-business-plan) sets out the challenges. These include strengthening and scaling delivery through local/national partnerships; expanding testing to 2.5 million a day; expanding and improving contact tracing; reaching contacts faster; identifying and reacting to clusters and outbreaks faster; increasing adoption of the COVID19 app; and making the public part of the continuous improvement of our services. We are looking for service delivery capability, to work at pace alongside our in-house teams and other suppliers, to deliver business plan outcomes that meet user needs and government service standards. The contract will support capability gaps across the CX division – specifically those capabilities within the scope of the Service Delivery capability in DOS (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/digital-outcomes-and-specialists-digital-outcomes-capabilities#service-delivery ) – until the end of FY 20/21. Problem to Be Solved To deliver our business plan, we need support to create new, and improve existing, Test and Trace transactions, products and services. Current services cut across a range of channels, and are delivered through a complex arrangement of in-house teams, partners and suppliers. This contract for Service Delivery will support the filling of capability gaps with teams, or individuals within teams, who will work alongside existing teams to deliver our ambitions for this next phase of Test and Trace. This will be through the delivery of outcomes based on user needs and meeting government service standards. We anticipate suppliers may need to support 4-5 projects running at any one time, however, each project may not require a full complement of Service Delivery capabilities. Suppliers will need to be capable of supporting a range of projects from inception through to live, though we do not expect suppliers to do the technical development work. Statements of Work will specify outcomes and problems to be solved. Who Are the Users Everyone has a role to play in breaking the chains of COVID-19 transmission, protecting the public’s health and enabling people to return towards a more normal way of life. Within Test and Trace, our high-level users and needs include: - The general public – who need to behave in a way that can keep themselves, their families and their communities safe - Users of Test and Trace services – who need easy and convenient access to services, who need to find out as early as possible if they have exposed/been exposed to the virus so they can self-isolate to stop further transmission - Those providing testing and tracing services, guidance and support at local, regional and national levels – who need to be empowered and enabled to deliver excellent service to the public - Those designing policy and service – who need fast access to data and insight, and short feedback loops, so they can target and tailor to increase effectiveness and responsiveness of design Existing Team You will work with internal Test and Trace, DHSC, PHE, and NHSD staff from a range of disciplines, including architecture, security, policy, user experience, service design, finance and commercial. The successful supplier will be expected to collaborate or work with other suppliers who are providing capabilities as part of a team. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Demonstrate end-to-end delivery of high quality services in a public or third sector environment • Evidence of agile development and delivery using CI/CD techniques • Demonstrable experience designing services using user-centred design methodologies • Experience moving a product successfully through different lifecycle phases • Proven experience working collaboratively in a complex, multi-vendor environment Nice to Haves • Provide insight, structure, guidance and support to delivery programmes (including digital delivery) • Advocate for the importance of agile, iterative and user-focused delivery, as set out in the Government Service Manual • Proven experience prioritising user needs (using qualitative and quantitative data) with the team and incorporating user needs Work Location For the duration of restrictions on movement due to COVID-19, all teams are expected to work and collaborate remotely. Working Arrangments A Statement of Work will be completed, which will identify expected working arrangements, and outline the outcomes and deliverables expected for each engagement. Expenses will not form part of the cost unless the Statement of Work specifies non-remote working (e.g. for user research activity). We anticipate a maximum of 4-5 concurrent engagements at any one time. Security Clearance NHS T&T requires all supplier staff to have baseline personnel security standard clearance (BPSS). There may be a requirement for some of the work to require security clearance checks, where this is needed it will be detailed in the Statement of Work. Additional T&Cs Expenses must be pre-agreed and comply with NHS T&T Travel and Subsistence Policy. For each SoW issued under this contract, the supplier is obligated to undertake the relevant security and criminal checks as determined by NHS T&T, with the Buyer having sole discretion over the acceptance of Supplier Staff who will be performing the activities in the SoW. Suppliers must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) May 2018; the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, the Law Enforcement Directive and any subsequent amendments/changes to date. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Demonstrable delivery of products and services to government service standards across digital and non-digital channels • Evidence of ability to deliver using agile methodology in environments where digital maturity varies • Delivery of digital services/products using each of the service delivery capabilities • Demonstrate ability to scale and be flexible in deploying to meet organisational needs • Evidence of approach used to make complex and technical (inc. clinical) concepts and language simple and accessible for non-technical audiences Cultural Fit Criteria • Experience of championing and coaching for agile delivery beyond digital teams - inc within policy and operational environments • Experience of effective collaboration with multiple stakeholders and suppliers to achieve a single objective. We seek evidence of an inclusive approach and collaboration with practical mechanisms suggested to achieve this. • Experience of transferring knowledge to and building capability of permanent staff within a client organisation • Understands how to be part of a multidisciplinary, agile service team in a programme with high levels of interdependency between workstreams Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. How many suppliers will be awarded this contract? Maximum of 5 2. At the proposal stage, in order to compare suppliers like for like, how will price be evaluated? Will you be evaluating by total price, rate card or both? How do you ensure that you are completing a genuine value for money comparison rather than just a rate card comparison? A combination of total price and rate cards will be used to ensure that value for money comparison is achieved 3. Will the scores from the evidencing round be taken through to final evaluation? Or will they only be used for the purposes of shortlisting suppliers? Scores will be included in the overall decision 4. Has the work been fully defined, bounded and prioritised? No - they will be for each individual Statement of Work. 5. Will you be able to organise access to users and other stakeholders throughout the project? Yes 6. For the first evaluation round (evidence), what would you expect to see from an answer for it to be deemed "exceeding" and score 3 marks? Exceeding includes clear demonstration of successfully meeting the requirements in terms of more than meeting the Essential and Nice to have skills and experience in the delivery of the requirements in a similarly challenging environments to ours 7. Please can you share a procurement timetable outlining steps from initial submissions by midnight Mon 11th Jan to work commencement on Mon 18th Jan (typically including evidence response evaluation, shortlisting/informing suppliers, preparation of supplier proposals, evaluation of supplier proposals, announcement of successful supplier, contract completion, contract signatures, commence work)? An indicative timetable will be as follows;Evaluation - 12.01.21Presentations - 13.01.21Notification - 15.01.21Internal Approval - 19.01.21Contract Award - 19.01.21Contract commencement - w/c 18.01.21The Contracting Authority will endeavour to meet the timetable but reserves the right to amend the timetable from time-to-time at short notice and Suppliers should only use it as a guide 8. Which roles will be represented on the evaluation panel? Service Design, Commercial, Product Management 9. Through parallel workstreams as per related DOS notices, are you able to recruit and provide access to users for the purpose of user research to feed into this work? Yes 10. Advocating importance of agile delivery is core of our business. For question "Advocate for the importance of agile, iterative and user-focused delivery, as set out in the Government Service Manual", would it be acceptable for us to talk about our experience more broadly or would you like us to use a single case-study to demonstrate this? It is advisable to answer the question in a way in which you as the Supplier believes will maximise the score awarded when evaluated by the Contracting Authority 11. Service Delivery: Please could you lay out the timelines for submissions, presentation, assessment, award and onboarding so that we can be better prepared to meet your timelines. It currently looks like second submission, presentation, awarding and onboarding all occur between 11-18 January. An indicative timetable will be as follows;Evaluation - 12.01.21Presentations - 13.01.21Notification - 15.01.21Internal Approval - 19.01.21Contract Award - 19.01.21Contract commencement - w/c 18.01.21The Contracting Authority will endeavour to meet the timetable but reserves the right to amend the timetable from time-to-time at short notice and Suppliers should only use it as a guide 12. Q2 seeks "evidence of agile development and delivery using CI/CD techniques". Is this Continuous Improvement/Continuous Delivery as per the standard definition of Service Management? It's Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery - see here: https://blog.gds-gov.tech/that-ci-cd-thing-principles-implementation-tools-aa8e77f9a350?gi=84586a02b21e We are seeking evidence of experience of delivery/product management of agile teams - we do not expect suppliers to provide technical development capability. 13. Will it be a single supplier who is selected or a group of suppliers? It is anticipated that a group of suppliers will be selected but this will be determined by the evaluation and ensuring the Value for money is achieved 14. When are the pricing details required? In line with the submission deadline 15. Can you confirm that the 18th Jan is the start date for the work? The Contracting Authority has prioritised this opportunity and endeavours to work to the indicative timetable issued and Suppliers are advised that commencement of work must not be unnecessarily delayed. Our indicative timetable is for contract commencement w/c18th Jan. 16. Are you looking for a single supplier or multiple suppliers? The number of suppliers selected will be determined by the quality of the submissions and ensuring value for money is achieved 17. Call-off contract clause 34 - liability: the clause stipulates that breach of data protection is unlimited in liability. In consideration of the value of this opportunity, will the customer consider reassessing this provision so as to create a reasonable balance of risk and aligning this position so that it is commensurate with the overall contract value? Contract value is not the only attributable factor when considering risk and therefore the level of liability. The Contracting Authority will assess the risk proportionately when entering into the contract. 18. Will your Product Owner by allocated full time to this project? Yes, unless a SoW asks for supplier to provide one. 19. What roles are you expecting suppliers to provide? In addition, are you expecting all roles to have the ability to be full-time for the duration of the project? The roles written into the Capability Framework ( https://www.gov.uk/guidance/digital-outcomes-and-specialists-digital-outcomes-capabilities#service-delivery ). We will specify which among them, and capacity needed, in each SoW. We know we have an immediate need for business analysis, agile delivery and product management. There is no general requirement for roles to be full time for the duration of the project, provided that does not delay delivery. Delivery timescales will be specified in each SoW. Given the typical delivery pressures of Test and Trace it is likely that full-time roles may be needed on specific SoWs in order to meet our delivery timescales 20. Service Delivery: Please can you provide a list of roles expected from the first SOW, such that we can start to identify the best candidates to onboard in a timely fashion. We have identified immediate need for business analysis, agile delivery and product management 21. In Question "Evidence of agile development and delivery using CI/CD techniques", you are seeking evidence of agile development however in section "Problem to be solved", you said "we do not expect technical development work". Please can you please clarify if this question relates to project management of agile delivery or actual agile development by the supplier?" This question relates to management of agile delivery. 22. In Question "Experience moving a product successfully through different lifecycle phases", can you please clarify if you are referring to GDS "Discovery, Alpha, Beta, Live" as lifecycle phases, or "MVP, soft launch, launch" as product lifecycle phases here? We are referring to the general principle of moving a product or service through its lifecycle from initial concept to live, and working on products and services at different stages of that lifecycle, regardless of the labels used. We expect suppliers to be familiar with the GDS lifecycle, but the pace of product and service development means we do not always have clearly distinct discovery, alpha, beta and live stages. 23. In Question "Experience moving a product successfully through different lifecycle phases" can you please clarify what do you mean by lifecycle phases? We are referring to the general principle of moving a product or service through its lifecycle from initial concept to live, and working on products and services at different stages of that lifecycle, regardless of the labels used. We expect suppliers to be familiar with the GDS lifecycle, but the pace of product and service development means we do not always have clearly distinct discovery, alpha, beta and live stages. 24. Is there more detail on the skillsets required? We expect to primarily need business analysis, product management, agile delivery and service management skills. The skillsets are in line with https://www.gov.uk/guidance/digital-outcomes-and-specialists-digital-outcomes-capabilities#service-delivery and the DDaT profession framework https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digital-data-and-technology-profession-capability-framework#product-and-delivery-job-family