Explore education statistics platform support

Description

Which phase the project is in Beta Existing team The supplier will be working with the DfE Explore education statistics platforms team comprising of subject matter experts, one of which will be a product owner. The team we need will likely include (at SFIA levels 5, 6 and 7): • Front end developers • Software developers • Infrastructure engineer (Microsoft Azure expertise) • Quality assurance / test engineer • User researcher • Interaction designer (UX and content design) • Delivery manager We may require access to people with different skill sets at different times throughout the project. As such, we would require any supplier to be able to scale and flex as quickly as required to ensure the work can maintain momentum. Suggested SFIA roles and levels are provided in the attached price evaluation model sheet. The current incumbent is HiveIT. Address where the work will be done Remote working. The DfE team are usually based in Sheffield & Darlington. Travel to those offices and various locations throughout England may be required. Working arrangements Detailed working arrangements will be contained within each statement of work. Day to day delivery will be governed by standard agile delivery techniques. These could be either a Kanban or a scrum approach (depending on the work) but the standard agile ceremonies appropriate to those should be undertaken. Scope and prioritisation of work is decided by the product owner with input from the SRO and wider governance when appropriate. All work should be done in accordance with Government digital service standards. Provide more information about your security requirements: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Provide more information about your security requirements: BPSS standard Latest start date 2026-06-22 Enter the expected contract length: 2 years Extension period: 1 year Special terms and conditions 1. Bidders must respond to the opportunity using the response template found within the project attachments. Only essential and nice to have criteria require responses at stage 1. Special terms and conditions 2. In order to participate in this opportunity, DOS6 awarded suppliers should have followed all necessary registration steps through the Public Procurement Gateway, operated by Crown Commercial Service (CCS). Please follow instructions sent to you at the email address supplied during the DOS6 application process. Special terms and conditions 3. The Supplier shall ensure that no Supplier Staff who discloses that they have a Relevant Conviction, or who is found to have any Relevant Convictions (whether as a result of a police check or through the vetting procedure of HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard or through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or otherwise), is employed or engaged in any part of the provision of the Services without the prior written approval of the Buyer. Subject to the Data Protection Legislation, the Supplier shall disclose the results of their vetting process, immediately to the Buyer. The decision as to whether any of the Supplier’s Staff are allowed to perform activities in relation to the Call Off Contract, is entirely at the Buyer’s sole discretion. The Supplier shall be required to undertake annual periodic checks during the Call Off Contract Period of its Staff, in accordance with HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard so as to determine the Supplier Staff suitability to continue to Framework Schedule 6 (Order Form Template, Statement of Work Template and Call-Off Schedules) 5 provide Services under the Call Off Contract. The Supplier shall ensure that any Supplier Staff who discloses a Relevant Conviction (either spent or unspent) or is found by the Supplier to have a Relevant Conviction through standard national vetting procedures or otherwise, is immediately disclosed to the Buyer. The Supplier shall ensure that the individual staff member immediately ceases all activity in relation to the Call Off Contract, until the Buyer has reviewed the case, on an individual basis, and has made a final decision. Where the Buyer decides that a Supplier Staff should be removed from performing activities, as a result of obtaining information in relation to the Call Off Contract, or for any other reason, the Supplier shall promptly and diligently replace any individual identified. Special terms and conditions 4. Expenses will not be paid for the monthly meet ups. The primary location of work will be specified in each Statement of Work (SoW) and expenses cannot be claimed for travel to that location. Expenses can be claimed for travel to any secondary location of work as required and agreed. Expenses are capped to the value specified in the SoW. When travel to secondary DfE sites is required, all costs incurred must comply with the prevailing DfE Travel and Subsistence policy. Parking is not available on DfE sites. Should base location vary it will be outlined and agreed upon the individual statements of work. Special terms and conditions 5. The latest start date will be outlined in each individual statement of work. Except for in exceptional circumstances, and as agreed with the buyer Special terms and conditions 6. Service provider resources must work within the United Kingdom unless agreed by the Department on an individual basis. Departmental equipment must not be taken abroad or access the departmental network whilst outside the United Kingdom unless agreed by the Department on an individual basis Special terms and conditions 7. The Department’s standard approach to pricing mechanism will be ‘Capped Time and Materials’ (CTM) however we reserve the right to use any of the other approaches as listed in the call-off charges section. Special terms and conditions 8. General Information Standard Framework and Call Off Terms and Conditions will apply Suppliers must agree to all DFE security clearance policies and processes. Suppliers must comply with the Regulation (GDPR) Regulation May 2018; the (DPA) Act 2018, the Law Enforcement Directive and any subsequent amendments/changes to date including providing sufficient guarantees to meet the requirements of GDPR in line with Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 02/18 May 2018 which updates PPN 03/17 All Project-Specific IPRs (as defined) and the Deliverables shall vest in the Buyer unconditionally and immediately upon their creation. Special terms and conditions 9. Suppliers will be required to undertake Financial and Security Due Diligence as part of the tender process, prior to award. It will be undertaken at Stage 2 and must be completed by all shortlisted suppliers prior to contract award. While the FVRAT is not required at Stage 1, a copy has been included in the Stage 1 documentation to ensure suppliers are fully informed of this requirement in advance. Any supplier that does not meet the FVRAT requirements at Stage 2 will be asked to provide satisfactory mitigating measures. If suitable mitigations cannot be provided, the supplier will not be able to progress further in the procurement process. Please refer to the FVRAT guidance for detailed instructions and methodology of how the Department will approach the EFS assessment and its overall evaluation process. For information only at Stage 1 we have included the following documents: Financial viability risk assessment tool FVRAT Evaluation guidance Special terms and conditions 10. Non-Solicitation Clause: 1.1 The Supplier shall not, either directly or indirectly, by or through itself, its affiliate, its agent or otherwise, or in conjunction with its affiliate, its agent or otherwise, whether for its own benefit or for the benefit of any other person solicit, entice or induce, or endeavour to solicit, entice or induce, any employees of the Buyer who are employed or engaged in the performance of the Services with a view to employing or engaging the employee of the Buyer during the Call-Off Contract Period and for a period of [9 months] thereafter. 1.2. Notwithstanding clause 1.1 the Supplier may employ or engage any employees of the Buyer which have responded directly to a bona fide recruitment drive either through a recruitment agency engaged by the Supplier or via an advertisement placed publicly by the Supplier (either in the press, social media, online or in trade and industry publications). Write the term or acronym: EES Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes Indicative maximum: 2820000 Provide further information: An indicative budget of up to £2.82 million (excluding VAT) is available for use across the 24-month contract term. Should DfE decide to exercise the option to extend, up to an additional 50% of the value may be made available. Budget approval is subject to internal spending controls. Payments will be linked to delivery against agreed SoW throughout the contract lifecycle. Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Summary of work Explore Education Statistics is aimed at making education statistics easier to find, access, navigate and understand. Public beta launched in 2020 and live assessment is imminent in late 2025. We're now planning for beyond live assessment to maintain and enhance the service to meet expanding demand. We need a team to maintain and continue to develop the service in line with user feedback. Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Why the work is being done DfE publishes over 70 official statistics series’ each year, with data being used by the public, schools, local authorities, the media and central government amongst others. These are used to improve the transparency of the education system, shine a light on education delivery, and facilitate evidence-based departmental and sector decision making. After completing a discovery, alpha, private beta, the Department moved to publishing its statistics via its own ‘Explore Education Statistics’ service (EES) - aimed at making education statistics easier to find, access, navigate and understand. The service is recently gone through live assessment. As more users interact with EES and the demand for efficient data increases, it is clear that continuing enhancement work is essential to keep the platform and the forefront of statistical publishing. The business problem you need to solve We are looking to maintain and optimise the explore education statistics platform. The contract will include: Maintenance To support maintenance of the service throughout the duration of the contract, including monitoring and optimisation of the service as well as bug fixing. Development Researching, designing, and developing enhancements to the service. These developments will be identified during user testing and then prioritised and grouped into distinct SoWs as appropriate. A backlog of features already exists as a starting point. Enhancing large data capabilities Review and improve the existing data infrastructure and delivery to better handle the increasing size of data sets. This includes: - Implement performance improvements in storage, transfer and processing of data and associated infrastructure - Enhance and future proof the existing table tool functionality to better deal with large and more complex data sets - Review processes and protections around public API usage and implement any necessary improvements Automation and data source connectivity - Design and develop new automation processes allowing analysts to create releases from more complete templates - Develop tools to directly load data into the EES databases from analyst data processing pipelines (including integration with Databricks) All development and solutions will need to be GDS compliant and conform to WCAG 2.2. First user type: System super-user First user type: Statistics creators First user type: Statistics consumers - automator First user type: Statistics consumer - builder First user type: Statistics consumer - headline seeker