EDIS-23-002 Unified Customer Experience for EA Admissions, Transport, SEN and Free School Meals

Description

Summary of work The Education Authority as part of the EdIS Programme Unified Customer Experience (UCE) Project aims to enhance the delivery of education services to schools, educational settings and pupils by continuing its development of the EA Connect portal to simplify administrative processes and improve parental engagement with seamless integration across all services. To unify the experience for our parents following our EdIS principle “Tell us once” to remove the duplication of data entry and provide a user-friendly platform accessible to all parents to access throughout their child/children’s education journey maximising re-use where feasible to simplify the user experience. Due to the success of the digitisation of Online Admissions, SEN Annual Reviews and Further Education Transport, the UCE project seeks to further develop functionality and embrace new technology to further develop the EA connect portal using Outsystems. The aim is to continue to create an intelligent experience tailored to our user’s needs. Implement features incrementally for the enhancement of our bespoke Parent, School, Admin portals, to deliver an extensive digital service for EA support services within agreed DE and Statutory timelines and where feasible maximising re-use to simplify the user experience. The work will further digitally transform our processes by removing any remaining manual paper processes to further enhance our current services on the portal. We aim to create end to end processes for services by adding additional processes and support services to enable parents, schools and EA to connect through the portal to unify processes relating to school placement: 1) Admissions - adding to the bespoke end to end process for Pre School, Primary, Post Primary and 14+ to include appeals, deferral and smart criteria etc. 2) Transport - provide applications to all students requesting home to school transport and further enhance current integrations with location based applications to automate decisions and match pupil records with EA systems to remove manual keying. 3) SEND and Support Services - Further development of the SEN annual review to support and provide School placements for all children and digitisation of support services processes. 4) Free School Meals & Benefits - Enabling parents to apply for Free Schools Meals and uniform grants digitally to transform the current process by seeking to build an automated benefits checking capability in collaboration with other government departments and integrated with EA systems. By unifying these services on the EA connect portal this will modernise priority manual administrative processes and enhance data quality/analysis to make better use of data to support schools/EA decision leading to improve outcomes for all children and young people. Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Who the organisation using the products or services is Education Authority Why the work is being done The Education Authority is responsible for the provision and administration of delivering education services to support all children and young people within Northern Ireland. The EdIS programme was established in 2021 to provide new and emerging technologies to support schools’ business critical services and facilitate integration and interoperability across systems and services to deliver enhanced user experience, accurate management information and reporting across the wider education community. We operate within the agreed DE Admissions timetable and agreed EA statutory timelines to ensure that services are provided to all children and young people within agreed timescales. The initial improvement work for SEN Annual Review must be completed by 30 September 2023. This will include preparation for go live and associated go live tasks. Subsequent deliverables will need to be met within agreed timetables. The business problem The success in the digitisation of School Admissions and SEN Annual review has highlighted the need for EA to further digitise current processes not previously digitised to benefit all stakeholders within the next 2-3 years. This will present new opportunities for more effective and efficient services for all of EA’s internal and external stakeholders to simplify current administrative processes and improve parental engagement through further development on the current EA Connect portal. The integrated system (EA Connect) provides significant benefits and efficiencies for parents, Schools and EA, removes paper from the process, speeds up application processing times, improves communication between all parties and reduces EA and schools administration times and resource. The development in 22/23 demonstrates the progression and the integration possible in a short period of time and is continually improving the unified experience for parents and schools. EA need further development and enhancement of EA Connect within the Outsystems platform to benefit all stakeholders and present new opportunities for a more effective and efficient service. The current system has been used by approximately 70k parents to apply, stipulate preferences, contribute to annual review, upload documents and received notification for school placements for their children. EA aim to improve the user experience for all our users with an easy to use platform to enable all Parent/Students, Schools/Colleges to “Tell us once” by connecting seamlessly through EA Connect to access EA support services relating to Online admissions, Transport, Free School Meals, and SEN support services to support children and young people throughout their school placement. Seamless integration across EA and schools current and future systems will improve data quality with one source of truth for all children and young people. Through improved reporting and data analysis EA will be enabled to identify trends and plan for future School admissions for all children and young people. As the number of users accessing EA connect increases, the contractor needs to ensure that the services are accessible at all times and in particular at peak times with no impact on system performance and current integrations. The people who will use the product or service User type: Parents/Carers/Students Definition: • I need to be able to register to the EA connect portal to access EA and School services for my child/children based on my language choice • I need to apply online within the EA connect portal for a wide range of EA support services • I need to have secure access to log onto my EA connect account to access EA support services for my child/children in one unified space • I need to be able to submit applications for school admission, Further Education/Home to School Transport, Special Education Needs (Annual Review), Free School Meals and Uniform grants on the EA Connect portal • I need to view and amend application details, view status/outcomes and receive emailed notification based on their applications for their children on the specified date **Based on current statutory timeline • I need to complete my parental contribution in relation to my child’s progress prior to or during the AR meeting • I need to upload supporting documents to support my applications • I need to receive automated emails and track the status/progress based on all my applications • I need to view outcomes of my applications • I need access to EA tools that will provide me with assistance when making an informed decision (Eligibility Checkers) • I need to accept/reject, add further preferences, appeal as required for all applications • I need to be able to add additional preferences to my application • I need to be able to submit an appeal(s) against the decision by a school(s) which has not selected my child • I need to access the school’s documents in response to the appeal(s) . • I need to receive updates on the status on my appeal(s) including the scheduled date/time/location • I need to have access to the Tribunal’s written decision on my appeal(s) Potential future role: • I need to communicate in real time with EA services so that I can update, make changes to current provision, report any issues and track EA Transport provision for my child(ren). User type: School Users Definition: • I need to have secure access to log onto my EA connect account • I need to view and process all data, view and verify documents, select or not select applications as required • I need to be able to access applications to view, edit, update, track status and to coordinate the service as required • I need to schedule meetings through the portal with parents and external representatives • I need to have access to reporting and analysis • I need to have access to admissions appeals and documents submitted by parents • I need to be able to respond to appeals and upload documents • I need to I need to receive updates on the status on appeal(s) against my school including the scheduled date/time/location. • I need to have access to the Tribunal’s written decision on my appeal(s) • I need to have access to the contribution and documents submitted by parents • I need to be able to access documents separately to share with relevant stakeholders (HSCT, EA, Careers) Potential future role: • I need to communicate in real time with EA services so that I can update, make changes to current provision, report any issues and track EA Transport provision for my child(ren). User type: EA Services Definition: • I need view application status based on data and integrations with ESRI to inform decisions • I need improved reporting, analysis and insight • I need to match applications based with EA Systems • I need to view and download applications, appeal documents and reports • I need to view a dashboard and have the ability to filter and sort applications within EA Connect • I need to add, update and remove schools, allocate categories such as sector, feeder and receiver schools, enable and disable school users access to their schools’ applications • I need to be able to set user roles up with different types and levels of access e.g. EA User, EA Admin, Super Admin, Clerk, Review Admin etc • I need access to share relevant sections of the completed application with other stakeholders • I need to edit applications if required Potential future role: • I need to communicate in real time with schools/colleges and parents/carers so that I can make them aware of any updates or operational changes to current provision • Receive reports of any issues from School/College or parents/carers. User type: EdIS Support Team Definition: • I need to monitor applications • I need edit/delete applications if required • I need to create reports using power bi • I need to assign user profiles based on roles • I need to view all a full audit trail of all transactions • I need access to test and live environments to enable testing of development for EA Connect meets user needs User type: Independent Appeal Tribunal Members Definition: • I need to be able to view my calendar to view appeals scheduled and update my availability User type: As EA Data Analysist Definition: • I need access to live data via an API and ability to pull data from outsystems tables User type: As EA IT Services Definition: • I need access to ADT files to import to the EMS platform User type: As Managed Services Provider Definition: • I need to access all data across all application environments and access detailed logs and dashboards to investigate issues and provide support to EA User type: DE Definition: Potential future role for DE to access EA Connect for management of Temporary Variation requests from schools User type: Other Users/Services Definition: There may be other users/services required not currently identified. Likewise there may be new statutory requirements in the future. These will be agreed with Contractor going forward. Any pre-market engagement done n/a Which phase the project is in Beta Existing team Internal EA Project Team • Workstream Lead – directs, leads and manages the workstream resources, budget, stakeholder communication for all associated projects • Delivery Manager – oversees project management activities including change management, manages cross project resources and dependencies • Product Owner (Admissions) - subject matter expert for the Admissions service. Responsible for the delivery of Admissions within EdIS, working closely with Schools, parents, service managers, Department of Education and other relevant parties ensuring outputs are delivered • Product Owner (Special Education) - subject matter expert for the Special Education service. Responsible for the delivery of SEN & Support services within EdIS, working closely with Schools, parents, service managers, Department of Education and other relevant parties ensuring outputs are delivered • Product Owner (Transport) - subject matter expert for the Transport service. Responsible for the delivery of Transport within EdIS, working closely with Schools, parents, service managers, Department of Education and other relevant parties ensuring outputs are delivered • Support and Development Officer - Provides administrative support for training and testing and assists Product owners with testing and training • PMO Support – Team management and administrative support ensuring project standards are applied • Business Analyst - Models business (AS-IS)/Establishes facts and develops requirements and user stories. Models and validates requirements (TO-BE) Explores business impact of decisions and Identifies business process change and supports development of training EA Stakeholders • Additional subject matter experts from EA Support Services • Admissions Head of Service • Transport Head of Service • SEN Head of Service • Representatives from ICT Integrated Suppliers • Outsystems • ESRI – API • Capita – API It is envisaged the team shall undergo expansion with new roles included. Address where the work will be done Education Authority Northern Ireland, project can be delivered remotely Working arrangements In the current circumstances we anticipate the team will work remotely and communicate via MS Teams. The Contractor is expected to work closely with EA services and EdIS teams and our platform provider Outsystems. The Contractor will need to undertake discovery exercises with a range of stakeholders as required to fully understand current processes and identify improvements. For governance, we require weekly status reports to include progress to date, milestones, next actions, bug identification and planned fixes, issues, risks, budget, project plan, blockers and successes. The Contractor should be prepared to hold daily stand ups and provide show and tell sessions upon conclusion of each development sprint through agile project delivery methodology and be involved in project closure activities as required. Security and vetting requirements Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Security and vetting requirements Security Check (SC) Latest start date 4 September 2023 Expected contract length Contract length: 2 years 0 months 0 days Optional extension: 1 years 0 months 0 days Special terms and conditions special term or condition: • Frequent refinement sessions with attendance from the product owner and any relevant stakeholders. special term or condition: • Identify challenges well in advance of development commencing and to allow time for a solution to be identified. special term or condition: • Testing – Provide Testing strategy and scripts completed. Support user acceptance testing by EA representatives providing testing and address any issues arising during testing. special term or condition: • Configuration access – extend configuration access and control across project team to ensure knowledge sharing and best practice. special term or condition: • Ensure all support channels are in place and available on the day of a key launch. special term or condition: • Scheduled check in points (aligned with key deliverable dates) with proposed UAT team leading up to UAT period commencing. special term or condition: • Scheduled time with IT/EA/Supplier to agree on PEN testing outputs and risk acceptance. Budget Indicative maximum: £1250000 Indicative minimum: The contract value is not specified by the buyer Further information: It is estimated that the work can be delivered within the budget range of £750,000 to £1,250,000. This covers the entire length of the contract including any extensions. The optional extension subject to performance and commercial governance arrangements. Contracted out service or supply of resource? Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Terms and acronyms Term or acronym: EdIS Definition: Education Information Solutions Programme Term or acronym: SEN Definition: Special Educational Needs Term or acronym: UCE Definition: Unified Customer Experience Project Term or acronym: EA Definition: Education Authority Term or acronym: DE Definition: Department of Education Term or acronym: Section 75 Northern Ireland 1998 Definition: The Education Authority is required to promote equality of opportunity and good relations in carrying out their functions, under Section 75 and Schedule 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998