National Biosurveillance Network - ALPHA Phase 2

Description

Summary of work The NBN aims to establish a dedicated home for scaled, national detection capability to help acterise and report on known and emerging high-consequence biological threats as early and reliably as possible. It will embed a One Health approach as well as bringing together people, data and biosurveillance capabilities across government, academia, and industry, improving our ability to surge this actionable intelligence and collaboration in response to biological events. This project will improve understanding of the surveillance landscape across Government, where the gaps are, how we fill them to transform situational awareness, deliver cross Government functional biosurveillance based on One Health and National Security. The successful Supplier must be able to meet the requirements of today’s needs and strategy, as articulated in the Statement of Requirements, whilst also recognising that there could be a high degree of variation and change across the period of the contract as business and programme needs change. We expect the successful Supplier to be flexible both in the skills provided across the life of the contract, the ability to flex upwards and downwards the number and type of resources required to deliver the outcomes and demand at different times, and the recognition that what we deliver may need to change in line with the priorities of the programme. Where the supplied staff will work London Where the supplied staff will work South East England Where the supplied staff will work South West England Who the organisation using the products or services is UKHSA and DEFRA Why the work is being done The Biological Security Strategy (BSS) was updated and published in July 2023. Improved, interconnected, biosurveillance of threats forms a key tenet of the updated strategy, particularly focussing on harnessing existing investment to deliver compounding benefits for the taxpayer and an improved, and more responsive, biosurveillance system able to detect and identify threats more rapidly and confidently. Biological threats can come from a variety of places, and the increasing interconnectedness of society requires a coordinated One Health approach. Included within the Strategy are: A National Biosurveillance Network (capable of connecting syndromic, genomic, environmental, and pathogenic surveillance capabilities across animal, plant, sentinel and human health) providing output to: A Biothreats Radar capability, assured by experts, which provides early warning, assessment, and reporting of threats to the biological security of the UK. - Note that the Biothreats Radar is not part of this programme but is expected to heavily use the outputs of the NBN. Capability to support decision-makers so that they have the required information as and when they need it, to respond to biosecurity threats confidently, quickly, and effectively on an ongoing basis. The business problem The successful supplier will be required to provide: - Client-side delivery assurance to support the NBN programme, project governance and its workstreams, with an ability to flex resource to provide staff to cover key programme roles and gaps within the programme delivery team - Ability to draw on a range of relevant UK and International experts (including scientific, clinical, data, AI, public health operations and other biosurveillance relevant fields as required). Situate NBN outcomes in international best practice, supplier-provided experts are able to advise on, and support, the delivery of NBN, including knowledge transfer to an in-house programme team being established - Subject to confirmation during Alpha on whether there will be a need for a new platform or development of existing platforms, there will be a need to draw on data engineering, architecture and related expertise - Stakeholder management communications leadership and support. NBN must satisfy a wide and diverse range of internal, external (including the public) and international stakeholders provide advice and expertise to communicate effectively. - Provide assistance and support to workstream outcomes and workstream leads, including thought leadership, business engagement, drive delivery to time and ensure that NBN provides the right evidence base to properly evaluate the business for Beta - Define and establish the “As-Is” and develop the proposed new Target Operating Model (TOM) of the NBN to pilot during Beta and roadmap for the delivery of Beta (this will encompass more than just a data platform, and will include the wider business processes required) - Have available as required data sharing, governance and contracting expertise to advise on and challenge existing practice within government and dock in successfully with the relevant experts within HMG (it would be an advantage to be able to draw on specialist information law expertise as required) - Be able to provide materials capable of being used to inputsupport business development and understanding to assist the wider team prepare for the funding bid which will need to be submitted to UKHSA DHSC mid-way through 2024, to ensure successful funding for the Beta phases and beyond - Whilst we will be running an independent evaluation process of the programme, the supplier will need to understand programme evaluation processes and output and adjust the programme accordingly in line with the SRO and Programme Director, so that the programme releases as much value as possible. The people who will use the product or service User type: Government Definition: HMG will benefit from the NBN Any pre-market engagement done NA Work done so far The NBN Discovery phase scoped the viability of a potential NBN developing a roadmap and investment (see Annex A). The work was informed by over 300 stakeholders across 13 Government organisations to: a. Map the current biosurveillance capability and identify potential improvements (through a rapid discovery report) b. Provide an in-depth gap analysis for a short-list of use s to define pilots for alpha and beta (through a synthesised discovery report) c. Describe the strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management (through a Strategic Outline ) and d. Develop a blue-sky vision report for an NBN, based on the scientific and technological developments which are ly to materialise in the future to 2030 and onwards. This approach is to show the art of the possible, where the policy or economic constraints, practicalities and limitations of today’s system are ignored. An Alpha Phase 1 is currently under way until 31st March 2024, the outcome of which will be: a. a Strategic Outline Plan, setting out programme and workstream delivery roadmaps for Alpha Phase 2 b. a communications and stakeholder engagement plan c. an analysis of interdependencies across the workstreams, and related barriers. Which phase the project is in Alpha Existing team The existing team consists of the following: Senior Responsible Owner Deputy Senior Responsible Owner Programme Director Senior Business Operations Manager Business Support Officer Stakeholder and Engagement Lead Senior Project Manager Two x Project Managers Project Support Officer Address where the work will be done 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London, E14 4PU And other suitable premises Working arrangements The successful supplier’s team will be issued with UKHSA email resses to allow for access to MS Outlook and SharePoint. The supplier will need to ensure that their people’s IT will be able to access UKHSA’s email and SharePoint via their UKHSA email address. The Supplier must use UKHSA NBN’s in-house project management system (JIRA and Confluence) and associated templates during the lifetime of the project to ensure all knowledge, assets, and communications associated with the project are retained within UKHSA. UKHSA will provide access to these systems. The chosen supplier will also be required to do a formal handover at the end of each phase to the UKHSA project team and, if applicable, to another supplier if the project changes hands. Security and vetting requirements Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Security and vetting requirements Security Check (SC) More information about the Security requirements: Security Check (SC) may be required for some of the SoWs. UKHSA will support SC applications and Suppliers will cover any costs incurred. Latest start date 1 May 2024 Expected contract length Contract length: 0 years 11 months 0 days Optional extension: 0 years 5 months 0 days Special terms and conditions special term or condition: NA - To be updated at Stage 2 Budget Indicative maximum: £12000000 Indicative minimum: The contract value is not specified by the buyer Further information: The total budget available is up to a maximum of £12m excluding VAT. The Total Contract Value will be the of the initial fixed price Statements of Work and all subsequent Statements of Work throughout the life of the contract. Please see the 2 x example SoWs in the attached documents, these are for information and context at Stage 1 only, no specific action is required until Stage 2. Contracted out service or supply of resource? Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Terms and acronyms Term or acronym: NBN Definition: National Biosurveillance Network Term or acronym: BSS Definition: Biological Security Strategy Term or acronym: UKHSA Definition: UK Health Security Agency Term or acronym: WS Definition: Workstream Term or acronym: SoR Definition: Statement of Requirements Term or acronym: DEFRA Definition: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Term or acronym: TOM Definition: Target Operating Model Term or acronym: SRO Definition: Senior Responsible Officer Term or acronym: EDAP Definition: Enterprise Data Analytics Platform Term or acronym: DHSC Definition: Department of Health and Social Care Term or acronym: HMG Definition: His Majestys Government