Ealing Child Performance Licensing IT System

Description

Ealing Council is planning to re procure our current contract for Child Performance Licensing IT System and wishes to carry out market engagement with potential providers to help us develop our requirements. The current Child Performance Licensing IT System contract expires on 31st of March 2024. The approximate value for this contract is £5,000 to £8,000 per annum. The proposed duration of the contract would be for up to five (5) years, with one possible two (2) year extension. Child Performance Licensing refers to the legal requirement for children under a certain age to obtain a license or permit to participate in certain types of performances, including theatre, television, film, entertainment, and certain types of non-professional performances. In England, child performances are regulated by the Children and Young Persons Act 1963, as amended by the Children (Performances and Activities) (England) Regulations 2014. A Body of Persons Approval (BOPAs) refers to the approval granted for group performances involving children and recognises that certain performances involve multiple children performing collectively, such as in a choir, dance group, or theatrical ensemble. The London Borough of Ealing has statutory duties and responsibilities regarding Child Performance Licensing, such as licensing of child performances, determining licensing requirements, assessing and granting licenses, monitoring compliance, issuing exemptions, collaboration and information sharing, granting Body of Persons Approval (BOPAs), provision of guidance and advice, record-keeping and reporting. The Council plays a crucial role in granting approvals for both types of performances, assessing their suitability, and ensuring the welfare and safeguarding of child performers. Child Performance Licensing and BOPAs are interconnected as they both exist within the broader framework of child performance regulations. Whilst individual performances typically require child performance licenses, group performances are covered under BOPAs. The purpose of the licensing is to ensure the protection, welfare, and well-being of child performers while they are engaged in professional entertainment activities. The current IT system effectively manages and streamlines the process of licensing child performers, ensuring compliance with applicable regulations, efficient data management, and seamless integration with existing administrative processes. Our goal is to implement an efficient and user-friendly solution that streamlines the application, management of child performance licenses and BOPAs, enhances compliance, and improves the overall experience for children, young people and their families. Below are the key requirements we seek in the IT system: 1. Licensing Application Management: • A user-friendly and intuitive online application portal for parents and agents to submit child performance license applications. • Ability to capture and store relevant information, such as performer details, parent/guardian information, performance details, and supporting documents. • Automated population, validation and verification of application data to reduce errors and minimise manual processing. • Provision for uploading supporting documents electronically, such as consent forms, medical certificates, and performance schedules. • The system should be capable of handling a sufficient volume of license applications and concurrent user access. • Efficient data processing and response times, ensuring a seamless user experience. 2. Compliance and Regulation: • Comprehensive compliance with relevant child performance licensing regulations, including age restrictions, working hours, supervision requirements, and performance conditions. • Automated checks and alerts to ensure adherence to regulations during the application and licensing process. • Provision for capturing and maintaining historical records of licenses issued and compliance activities. 3. Communication and Collaboration: • Seamless communication channels to facilitate interactions between licensing authorities, agents,, parents/guardians, and relevant stakeholders. • Real-time notifications to applicants regarding the status of their license applications and any additional requirements. • The system should have robust communication features to send notifications and reminders to parents or guardians regarding upcoming deadlines, changes in status, or other important updates. • It should offer multi-channel communication options, such as email or SMS, to ensure digital issuing of licenses, effective and timely information dissemination. • Collaboration features to enable information exchange, queries, and updates between licensing authorities and applicants. • Customisable reporting options and the ability to export data in various formats, such as Excel or PDF, for further analysis. 4. Reporting and Audit: • Comprehensive reporting capabilities to generate accurate and detailed reports on licensing activities, compliance monitoring, and performance records. • Ability to track and monitor licensing trends, performance schedules, and work hours for individual performers or groups. • Audit trail functionality to record all system activities, ensuring transparency and accountability. 5. Integration and Data Sharing: • Ability to share relevant data with other stakeholders, such as child protection services, police, and professional associations, as required by regulations. • It should adhere to industry best practices for data security, encryption, and comply with relevant data protection regulations to safeguard sensitive information (e.g., GDPR) • Compatibility with commonly used systems, web browsers and mobile devices. • Regular automated backups of data to prevent data loss. • Disaster recovery mechanisms to ensure system availability and data integrity. • Comprehensive technical support to be available. 6. User-Friendly Interface: • The system should feature an intuitive and user-friendly interface that is accessible to Council officers, agents and parents/guardians with varying levels of technical expertise. • It should provide clear navigation, well-organised functions, and contextual help features to ensure ease of use and minimise training requirements. The market research questionnaire is voluntary and will only be used for market research purposes. It does not from part of any tender or contract. Your response will be confidential, and providers are in no way obliged to complete it, or to answer every question within it. However, we hope providers will complete is as it will assist us greatly in informing our future strategy to commission a child performance licence IT system. Please submit your response to this questionnaire by 5.00pm on 13th July 2023 via Microsoft Forms link https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Q4w6AYeCi0yHixMeMM258yr18p-24EtEgTV6UR8rX4lUQTRVSlpJVFdLVlhZNERWT0hEQ1lBRDBQQy4u Individual meetings are likely to be held with commissioners on the 19th and 20th July 2023. Please hold dates in your diary if you wish to attend. Please indicate in the MS Forms questionnaire your preference re day/time Keywords: Child , Performance Licensing, Software, Schools