Public Health Wales Digitisation of the Health Equalities Framework Tool - Alpha

Description

Summary of the work Public Health Wales is looking for a supplier who can engage with NHS users of the Health Equality Framework to develop a digital application alpha service, product roadmap and proposals for additional digital services, post alpha. Expected Contract Length 8-12 weeks Latest start date Thursday 1 December 2022 Budget Range Up to £83,000 exclusive of VAT Why the Work is Being Done Welsh Government is seeking to do an alpha to meet user needs on an existing health equality assessment tool used by NHS Wales health boards. On behalf of Welsh Government, Public Health Wales, improvement division (Improvement Cymru) is supporting health boards in Wales to use the Health Equality Framework (HEF) as an outcome measure for determinants of health inequality amongst people with a learning disability Problem to Be Solved In Wales, HEF is the only outcome measure used to determine health inequalities in people with a learning disability, which provides aggregated data. The tool currently utilises Microsoft Excel as the repository of handwritten assessments completed by nurses across NHS Wales. Use across Wales is variable, with nurses citing usability and integration into existing and emerging health systems the most likely barrier to wider use. We are looking for a supplier to design an agile Once for Wales digital product that will deliver the HEF in a more intuitive and user-friendly way as part of existing NHS Wales systems Who Are the Users As a health practitioner, I need to be able to access the tool on a mobile device or a computer while I am with service users so I can enter their needs As a service planner I need to know what the needs of service users are at a local or national level so that I can plan services accordingly Early Market Engagement Research has shown that, compared with the general population, people with a learning disability were 3 to 4 times as likely to die from an avoidable medical cause of death. The HEF is the only outcome measure available (in the UK) that is capable of highlighting health inequalities at both an individual and aggregated national level. A recent survey undertaken by Improvement Cymru (2021) on the use of outcome measures across Wales, concluded that the HEF remains the most commonly used tool. Use varies significantly, with some organisations reporting improving use amongst practitioners over the past years but little evidence of organisations utilising findings to inform quality improvement, service redesign and transformation. There is anecdotal evidence from practitioners across Wales that the current method of capturing HEF (via a macro-heavy worksheet) is clunky and off-putting. Therefore, there is a general acceptance currently that practitioners are not capturing the information as they should, and a better solution is needed to capture information in a smarter way. Consideration to further expansion for children and young people, social care, education and commissioned independent providers will be given once implemented in health boards Work Already Done A recent report from NICE (November 2021) highlighted the lack of progress made in reducing health inequalities for people with a learning disability. Existing Team This is a Public Health Wales project delivered by Improvement Cymru (improvement division). Senior Improvement Manager, Improvement Cymru Data Analyst, Improvement Cymru Business Support, Improvement Cymru Current Phase Alpha Skills & Experience • Demonstrate experience of user needs analysis in a transparent, open, engaging and supportive way • Experience of presenting research findings and insights to a non-technical audience • Demonstrate experience of developing solutions for public services, ideally in a health and social care context • Experience of user centred design for developing products and services • Experience of educating and training client side staff during development • Front and backend design and delivery • Continuous development and delivery ethos • Experience of transforming excel products into SQL and the M365 suite of products Nice to Haves Experience of undertaking digital developments with NHS organisations and practitioners Work Location Across Wales’s seven health board regions Working Arrangments Engagement with end users (health practitioners) will be essential and this will like be virtual, using platforms such as Microsoft teams (universal use in NHS Wales). Subject matter experts will be available from Improvement Cymru to support supplier engagement. With current demand on NHS clinical staff and the timescale for completion of the alpha phase, this is the most effective way to engage users. Limited face-to-face engagement is available if deemed helpful and costs will come from the allocated budget. Improvement Cymru will provider supplier with contact details of all health board leads for this project to co-ordinate with users Security Clearance ISO 27001 or Cyber Essentials Plus and be able to show appropriate commitments to working with sensitive data. Additional T&Cs A standard contract will be issued. Please note that this development and any subsequent phases will be conducted to the Welsh Digital Service Standards. Please also bear in mind the implications of the Welsh Language Act and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. All vendors are obliged to provide sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures so that the processing meets the requirements of GDPR and ensures the protection of the rights of data subjects No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • technical solution • approach and methodology • how the approach or solution meets user needs • how the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal • estimated timeframes for the work • how they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them • team structure • value for money Cultural Fit Criteria • Work diplomatically with health practitioners and subject matter experts • be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • share knowledge and experience with other team members • Be comfortable in advocating for agile practices, user centred and inclusive design Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Was the Discovery conducted by an external incumbent or done internally? The Discovery phase was completed internally by Improvement Cymru: Learning Disability Team and based on organisational feedback and user reflections 2. Experience of transforming excel products into SQL and the M365 suite of products”Would a solution using Drupal be considered or are you only interested in M365 In terms of our architecture and integration with NADEX, it will have to be SQL/Microsoft 3. Is it acceptable for the supplier to work from England? Yes this is acceptable 4. Is the supplier expected to provide text for Welsh language version, within budget, or will Improvement Cymru provide this translation facility? The supplier is not expected to provide text for the welsh language version. We are in the process of validating a welsh language text of the HEF with a University experienced in this field. 5. What previous work has been done in Wales on HEF, by academics or commercial, or gov in the last 2 years? Please provide details of any work done. The HEF has been split into 8 Areas. 1: Ongoing support for the health boards in its continued implementation and use in Specialist Services, 2: Progression of the HEF being translated and validated into the Welsh language. 3: Training materials developed (bilingual) to share with each health board for increasing the workforce knowledge and skills. These training materials are both face-to-face and on a virtual platform, ESR and Wales@Learning. 4: Development into a validated easy read version for patient's and their families/ carers. Undertaken through a coproduction approach. 6. What previous work has been done in Wales on HEF, by academics or commercial, or gov in the last 2 years? Please provide details of any work done Continued from previous question....5: Embedded into the Outcome Measure project in Wales and is one of the key outcome measures for people with a learning disability and their families/ carers. 6: Development and dissemination easy read materials to users and their organisations. 7: Consideration for a pilot for the Children's and Young Person's version (separate outcome measure not yet validated) The aim will be to validate and test in practice. 8: Digitalisation 7. We code in PHP. Must the tech stack be MS365, or would it be acceptable to integrate with/provide outputs for MS365? The tech stack doesn’t have to be O365, as long as it can integrate. We are happy to consider fully coded solutions or configured modules from elsewhere, as long as they meet our accessibility and security needs, and can be integrated to the wider environment with relatively lightweight APIs 8. how many people and what roles are required please That depends on the proposal. We would expect the organisation making the proposal to give us an indication. 9. Could you confirm the expect scope of this tender, is it (1) for the user centred design of an online system or (2) in addition to design also include the build of the system using SQL/Microsoft – (2) it is an alpha design that is required We expect the design and whatever development is required to produce a clear pathway to mvp. 10. Will integrating into existing health systems be a factor considered in the alpha design or is this to come in a later phase? The alpha should consider integration with current systems, but also the potential to evolve towards the longer term, strategic system design. 11. Is the ability to speak the Welsh language a necessity (both for design as well as testing and consulting with health professionals)? it is not necessary as Public Health Wales will ensure any product is compliant with requirements under the Welsh Language Act 12. Does the existing research include detail on user needs? How much additional research is needed/expected during the alpha phase? we have some evidence from users and although we do not expect further discovery we anticipate some further user experiences will form part of the user engagement required to design a product. 13. In essential skills and experience you mention training of staff? Is there an expectation to train the staff on the tool, or in the design process? And if so, how many staff members would this entail Formal training is not required. However, the team are not high in Agile or digital literacy, and part of the aim of each piece of work we undertake is to expose team members to more Agile practices and higher levels of collaboration and understanding. For this reason, a culture of sharing and teaching/learning together is highly valued. 14. Is there a requirement to support Information Governance processes including support with SLSP and DPIA There will be a requirement for a DPIA which is part of our internal information governance processes. 15. What are the requirements for demonstrating compliance with the DCB0129 standard for Clinical Risk Management It is not a specific requirement but demonstrating adherence to relevant guidance is encouraged. 16. Is there a requirement to undertake clinical safety reviews, with clinical safety officer sign off? there is no requirement to undertake clinical safety reviews 17. You have asked for a tool to replace Excel, that can be used on mobile devices. We have a tool that is web based and comes with a mobile app on G-Cloud that is currently in use by the DHSC and other government departments. We are happy to provide staff to configure our tool to your requirements, but the tool needs to be purchased through G-Cloud. Is this of interest to you We are looking for an alpha development, we'd need to understand if the tool was a replacement for our tool, or just for excel, which is not what we are looking for. If your just pluggin your tool - if you think it's relevant, you could submit a proposal. 18. Is it required to go through CDDO service assessment as a part of this alpha phase? Understanding if this is a requirement will help us to tailor our plans and resourcing accordingly.Are there any additional discovery findings you can share with us around challenges with the current solution? Understanding challenges associated with the current solution will help us scope work more accurately.Alpha phase is often focused on testing riskiest assumptions. Is it expected that the entirety of the solution will be designed as a part of this alpha phase? This is to tailor our plans and resourcing accordingly There is no requirement to go through CDDO assessment as this is an NHS product. However, is does need to meet the needs of its users and the organisation as set out in the brief 19. Within the alpha phase do we need to create a working prototype that integrates into one of more health board systems or is it a standalone working prototype? The current system is a VBA/macro-heavy Excel workbook, so it doesn't integrate with anything. A working prototype would - at an absolute minimum - integrate with NADEX (for authentication and authorisation) or provide another secure method of login and WDS (for patient identification lookup). 20. Can non-uk resources be used in this engagement? We would suggest not as there may be a requirement to visit sites 21. Are expenses included or excluded from the budget They are INCLUDED in the budget 22. Would you consider the use of Microsoft Power apps as an option Yes. NHS Wales Office 365 Centre of Excellence have done work on processes around developing such apps in Power Apps and similar platforms, which might prove relevant