Physical health checks for people with serious mental illness - Discovery

Description

Summary of the work To perform user centred design work, including Discovery and Alpha phases of digital service development, on a programme of work for NHSX. Included, but not limited, to the physical health check Discovery project. The Supplier may be required to run two or more projects simultaneously in the coming months. Expected Contract Length 24 Months Latest start date Sunday 1 November 2020 Budget Range £0 to £1m, inclusive of VAT For the purpose of evaluation if invited to tender at Stage 2 Suppliers will be expected to cost against the work required for Work Package 1. This Work Package is for a 10-12 week discovery phase with additional prototyping to support the digital transformation of physical health checks for people with serious mental illness (SMI) and packaging up this approach for internal teams to run. There is up to £120k budgeted for this piece of work. Subsequent SOW's will be agreed on fixed price or capped price basis with agreed phases and deliverables. Why the Work is Being Done The rapid digital transformation of mental health services suggests that technology could help improve service delivery. In 20/21, NHSE/I is investing in local pathfinders which will provide an opportunity to test different opportunities to service transformation, including new digital services. This project is about understanding the end to end physical health check service, building empathy and understanding with the people who need to access it, and those who deliver it, generating usable insights which will be used to inform opportunities for technology to improve outcomes and delivery of the service. As well as understanding needs, the team will deliver rapid prototypes to test and learn where digital could be the most effective. Then provide clear recommendations for future investment and work. This will be a standalone piece of work, with clear recommendations at the end of the project. This will all be packaged up into a repeatable digital transformation sprint approach. Problem to Be Solved Over 12 weeks, this project will seek to: ● Understand the current barriers and challenges across the care pathway for all elements of the check. ● Work with people with SMI, carers, staff and services to develop and test scalable and sustainable digital interventions and ways of working to improve completion rates and follow up interventions. ● Test the potential effectiveness and impact of these interventions. Share learning with local services and provide recommendations for future work or funding. ● Develop and blueprint a transformation approach which can then be run by internal staff with other areas of the NHS England and Improvement mental health programme Who Are the Users ● Members of the public with SMI who need to attend physical health checks. ● Healthcare professionals who deliver the physical health checks. ● NHS providers who provide mental health services Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done N/A Existing Team The work will be done with the NHSX Digital Transformation team and NHS England and Improvement Digital Mental Health and Adult Mental Health Programme teams Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Successfully leading strategic, user-centred design work to understand the end-to-end lived experience of users and the professionals who deliver services. • Full understanding and demonstrable experience of a wide range of research and design methodologies for designing high-volume digital services which have a diverse mix of users. • Proven track record and robust methodology for conducting user research with vulnerable people and handling sensitive personal information • Ability to scale the team to lead on further discoveries or alphas alongside existing discovery and alpha projects (with appropriate notice/agreement of work packages). • Strong experience of delivering discovery-alpha work to government service standards and through GDS assessment; demonstrable experience of using the outputs of discovery-alpha to set scope of the next stages. • Strong demonstrable experience of rapid iterative prototyping based on ongoing user research Nice to Haves • Understanding and previous experience working with NHS services and the challenges faced within the health and care system. • Demonstrable understanding of when and how to use different types and fidelity of artefacts and prototypes to validate concepts and communicate and get buy-in from a range of stakeholders • Demonstrable experience of successfully using insights from design research to make recommendations that change the approach of senior level decision makers • Demonstrable experience using lean, lightweight methods to provide actionable recommendations for future work Work Location The work can be performed from any location, but it will be coordinated by staff in NHSX’s London Offices. Working Arrangments Work may be carried out from multiple locations including the Supplier’s offices. Attendance at NHSX offices in London and in other locations around England may be required for meetings. Given the potential impact on local services over the next few months, user research and design activities on the Physical Health Check project might need to be carried out remotely. Security Clearance BPSS Additional T&Cs Expenses will be paid in alignment to Department of Health and Social Care terms and conditions where prior authorisation has been obtained. Expenses will not be payable for London or where resource is home-based No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Approach to conducting the Discovery phase of a multidisciplinary digital health project and capability to manage multiple projects [12%]. • Approach to applying the principles user centred design, user insights and prototyping to the development of solutions [12%]. • Approach, methodology and deliverables to enable us to identify the most valuable opportunities for digital to make a difference to patients and staff [12%]. • Approach, methodology and deliverables to enable NHS England and Improvement to make high-level commissioning and prioritisation decisions [10%]. • Approach, methodology and deliverables will bring to life key elements of the future for digital transformation for Physical Health Check programme and get buy-in for that vision from stakeholders [12%]. • Estimated timeframes, team structure, skills and experience [14%]. Cultural Fit Criteria • How you have established trusted advisory relationships with senior stakeholders in complex organisations [6%]. • Outline your approach to working with a multidisciplinary in-house team and how you have built in house skills and capabilities, with examples of established productive, collaborative relationships [6%]. • Outline your style and approach to working transparently & collaboratively when making decisions and recommendations, with at least 2 examples of how you have used the techniques successfully [8%]. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. "Please could you provide any further information as to what you define as 'lean, lightweight methods', as referenced in the following question:'Demonstrable experience using lean, lightweight methods to provide actionable recommendations for future work'" This refers to lightweight prototyping methods used to make any concept tangible e.g. paper interfaces, sacrificial concepts, storyboards, Wizard of Oz prototyping, codesigned prototypes 2. "Please could you provide any further information as to what you define as 'high-volume digital services', as mentioned in the following question:'Full understanding and demonstrable experience of a wide range of research and design methodologies for designing high-volume digital services which have a diverse mix of users.'" A digital service which is in use in the public or private sector and receives a high volume of traffic or usage e.g. something more than a blog or corporate website. 3. Among the requirements is the need to “deliver rapid prototypes”. What technology constraints are there, if any, that would impact the design and delivery of these prototypes The work will be completed remotely so any prototypes will need to be useable by NHS staff on their devices. Also, we would expect any prototypes to be “editable” by in-house staff or future suppliers. We use a variety of tools internally but typically have access to html/css/is (code prototypes), sketch, mural etc. 4. What would be examples of follow up interventions? There are a range of different follow up interventions e.g. stop smoking services, weight management services, digital self help or information 5. What would the completion rates refer to? In Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (FYFVMH) NHS England and Improvement (NHSE/I) stated that “CCGs should offer NICE-recommended screening and access to physical care interventions to cover 30% of the population with SMI on the GP register in 2017/18, moving to 60% population from the following year”. The Long Term Plan adds to this commitment by stating that by 2023/24, 390,000 people should be receiving a physical health check annually which is an additional 110,000 people over the commitment in the FYFVMH. 6. How much of the physical health check is about remote monitoring or engaging people to attend in person? To be determined in discovery 7. Should our approach to recruiting suitable research participants form part of our response? Yes, the supplier would be expected to do participant recruitment 8. Are you open to joint submissions from two partners operating under one framework? In line with the DOS terms and conditions, yes we will accept bids from consortia or suppliers who are sub-contracting the work 9. Is it possible to share the ecosystem of services that would be involved ahead of submission to help us make a more specific recommendation about how we would approach this? More information on physical health checks for people with a serious mental illness can be found on the NHSE/I website - https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/serious-mental-illness-smi/ 10. The scope seeks to understand the barriers and challenges of 'all elements of the check' – where does the journey for this start / end, what's included? An overview of the service can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/05/serious-mental-hlth-toolkit-may16.pdf 11. In the Nice to Have Skills & Experience section, do you have any preferred 'lightweight methods for recommendations'? See the answer to question 1 12. In the Nice to Have Skills & Experience section, are you referring to Lean UX design, Lean methodology or 'lean' in its common usage? Lean UX design - see the answer to question 1 13. How many simultaneous projects do you anticipate running? To be determined but we would expect a maximum of three projects to run sumultaneously 14. Do you require specific BPSS certification for each employee or will you accept equivalent standards? We will accept equivalent standards 15. In the section ‘proposal criteria’ there is an evaluation of the supplier’s ‘capability to manage multiple projects’ – can you please clarify this requirement? What do you anticipate multiple projects being in the context of this Discovery? The Supplier may be required to run two or more Discovery or Alpha phases simultaneously in the next couple of months. The Discovery and Alpha phases may run in parallel or at separate times. The phases will be for various projects not related to this project 16. Are you able to provide a SMI specialist / subject matter expert that we can work in collaboration with or are you expecting suppliers to provide this? We will be providing access to subject matter experts to work with the supplier in collaboration. They will not have the time commitment to be part of the core team but will be available for consultation and specific ceremonies/sessions when needed. 17. In the section ‘Why the work is being done’ you note that ‘the team will deliver rapid prototypes to test and learn where digital could be the most effective’. Please can you clarify what kind of prototyping would you envisage in this Discovery? Do you plan to do this prototyping within the Discovery or within subsequent Alphas? We would like the supplier to do rapid and lightweight prototyping in this Discovery so this phase can standalone if we do not do a full Alpha. This refers to lightweight prototyping methods used to make any concept tangible e.g. paper interfaces, sacrificial concepts, storyboards, Wizard of Oz prototyping, codesigned prototypes 18. It is noted that ‘subsequent SOW's will be agreed on fixed price or capped price basis with agreed phases and deliverables’. – How will these subsequent SOWs be awarded? To be determined. NHSX will make the decision to use this agreement or go back out to market on a project by project basis 19. It is our understanding that there is a maximum budget of £120k for this 10-12 week Discovery with then an additional £880k for future potential SOWs; can you confirm this understanding is correct? Yes, this is correct 20. Is this service expecting to go through the GDS Service Assessment? A GDS service assessment would only be run at the end of the alpha and beta phases. An internal service assessment at NHSX may be run at the end of the discovery phase. 21. Are you working with any existing suppliers in relation to this tender opportunity? If you are, who are they? We are not working with any existing suppliers 22. Can you host a call with suppliers about this opportunity where we can have a live Q&A and the discussion notes are shared on this tender ad? This has proven helpful on other DM opportunities. No. Any questions based on the advert should be asked within the relevant timeframe. Shortlisted suppliers will also have 1 week to ask questions based on the Request for Proposal. 23. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold at NHSX? To be determined 24. Please can you provide details of what the next steps are following this initial application i.e. deadlines for the written proposal/if there will be an interview and when? Following the initial application there will be shortlisting, then a Written Proposal (to include a case study) will be sent to shortlisted suppliers followed by a virtual presentation session. The virtual presentations will be taking place the week commencing 2nd November 25. Is it permissible to provide more than one example where required to fully address the question? Yes 26. Regarding the first Nice-to-Have question “Understanding and previous experience working with NHS services and the challenges faced within the health and care system”: which challenges do you want us to focus on? Operational (capacity, funding, staffing)? Or technical challenges? This question is open to interpretation. It is a chance for suppliers to showcase work they have done helping the health and care system consider any of the challenges it faces, including operational and technical 27. Which roles will be represented on the evaluation panel? Technical and Commercial 28. Please can you share a procurement timetable outlining steps (which would typically include evidence response evaluation, shortlisting of suppliers for next stage, preparation of supplier proposals, evaluation of supplier proposals, announcement of successful supplier, contract completion, contract signatures, commence work), bearing in mind the dates published on the contract notice include latest start date 1st November See answer to question 25 29. Do you have any preference between public sector or private sector examples? Or will both be treated equally as long as they are relevant to the question? They will both be treated equally as long as they are relevant to the question 30. 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? We would expect to you to provide sufficient evidence to show you meet the requirement, for which you can provide examples of previous work. 31. Will you be able to organise access to users and other stakeholders throughout the project? We will be able to provide access to stakeholders but the supplier would be expected to do participant recruitment 32. Are you able to recruit and provide access to users for the purpose of user research? We will be able to provide access to stakeholders but the supplier would be expected to do participant recruitment 33. Will your Product Owner be allocated full time to this project? As this is a service design and discovery activity, there is not a product owner in the traditional sense. We will have members of the NHSX Digital Transformation team available full time and members of the NHS England and Improvement Mental Health team available part time. 34. Has the work been fully defined, bounded and prioritised? As this is a Discovery phase the areas of focus will be determined in consultation with stakeholders 35. 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? They will be used to shortlist suppliers only 36. At the proposal stage, in order to compare suppliers like for like, how will price be evaluated: will you be evaluating by the 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? We have opted for a Capped Time and Martials approach. Both rate card and fixed cost will be evaluated 37. 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 supplier response should describe the roles in the team that would be put forward to undertake the tasks required to deliver the requirements. The role breakdown would depend on the proposal to complete the work but we would expect the team makeup to follow GDS Service Standard and Service Manual best practice and for the roles to be available for as long as they are needed. 38. Are suppliers able to provide multiple examples for each question? Yes, DOS asks suppliers to provide one example for each skills and experience requirement. This means we won’t score a supplier down if they only provide one example. You can reuse examples across different skills and experience requirements.