DHSC National Digital Support Platform

Description

Summary of the work NHS-TD require a team with strong experience of discovery through to go live to design, deliver and host a Digital Social Care platform. We will be looking for experience of working with the adult social care sector. Expected Contract Length 24 months (discovery, through to live and ongoing hosting) with break clauses. Latest start date Wednesday 1 June 2022 Budget Range Up to £430,000 exc VAT Why the Work is Being Done The successful delivery of guidance and support via the new national digital support platform is a key enabler for the wider success of the NHS Transformation Directorate Adult Social Care Digital Transformation Programme, including specific projects related to cyber security, learning opportunities and the implementation of digital social care records and other care tech. The current digital platform is not fit for purpose for future needs. Problem to Be Solved Design, build and host a new platform to replace the current Digital Social Care website. The adult social care sector and wider stakeholders need an engaging hub to host guidance, best practice, and learning resources including interactive tools and coding. It must be the 'go to' place for digital transformation of social care and comply with Government Service Standards. Specific problems we want to address via a new service include: - Varying levels of digital maturity across the ASC sector - Lack of confidence using and investing in new technology - No clear way for identifying and engaging with social care digital leaders. Who Are the Users Current and prospective users include: registered managers, supervisors and owners of adult social care providers, Local Authority Commissioners (or equivalent job title), ICS staff, Front line care staff who use digital technology, NHS ASC staff (OTs, nurses etc), Social Workers, people with care and support needs who would like more information about care tech, unpaid carers. As a registered manager of a care provider I need to be able to access key and inspirational guidance and learning about digitisation of social care. I need to be able to engage with the platform, access events and communicate. It must be accessible to me and all staff and be secure. Early Market Engagement DHSC undertook internal research into the current website which reported in August 2021, this will be made available to supplier. Work Already Done The impact of technology in adult social care provider services: https://ipc.brookes.ac.uk/publications/the-impact-of-technology-in-adult-social-care-provider-services Adult Social Care technology and digital skills reviews: https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/key-tools-and-info/adult-social-care-digital-transformation/adult-social-care-technology-innovation-and-digital-skills-reviews/ Existing Team The existing team consists of a programme and project managers and policy leads from the NHS Transformation Directorate Digitising Social Care team. There will also be virtual team members from Digital Social Care and the sector. Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Demonstrate experience of developing a digital service to public beta according to requirements of the government digital service standard, using agile methodology. • Demonstrate ability to pivot according to user needs. • Demonstrate experience of applying the principles of user design to the delivery of digital services, according to the government digital service standard. • Demonstrate experience of conducting user research and alpha work in the UK social care system. • Be experienced in developing a variety of user journeys. • Lead a process to develop the vision, scope and roadmap. • Have strong stakeholder management skills and experience. Nice to Haves • Work collaboratively, sharing knowledge and experience. • Provide experience of leading in project governance and delivery. • Provide evidence of building relationships quickly. • Demonstrate delivery of similar projects. • Have strong quantitative and qualitative user research experience. • Be experienced in business process mapping skills. • Experience of using decision-making logs to guide technical design. Work Location The work can be performed from any location, but it will be coordinated by staff in NHS-TD and NHSE/I’s London Offices, specifically Skipton House, 80 London Road, London, SE1 6LH (NOTE - these staff are currently hybrid working). Working Arrangments Work may be carried out from multiple locations including the Supplier’s offices. Attendance at NHS-TD offices in London and in other locations around England may be required for meetings. Given the potential impact on local services, the project will likely be carried out completely remotely. Security Clearance All must have BPSS as a minimum. Preference for contractors to already hold SC clearance. One person in the team must have SC clearance. Additional T&Cs Contract milestones and break clauses will be applied. All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the Cabinet Office (CO) Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy. 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. For further information please see the Information Commissioner's Office website https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/ No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Discovery approach and methodology 15% • How the approach would meet our requirements 15% • Estimated timeframes for the work 5% • Identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them 8% • Team structure 2% • Value for money 5% Cultural Fit Criteria • Take responsibility for their work 5% • Be transparent 5% • Share knowledge and expertise 8% • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes 2% Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please can you clarify whether the budget of up to “£430,000 exc VAT” is signed off for the discovery phase alone or whether it is to cover the whole discovery to live/beta? This budget covers the discovery phase, after which there will be a break clause, and also alpha/beta and through to live. 2. Do you have an incumbent or any external supplier already engaged in the process? If so, how long have they been involved and what have they delivered? We have an incumbent currently hosting the Digital Social Care website, they have done so since February 2022. 3. Can you please advise on what technology stack is used by the Department? There's no single technology stack that we use in the department, but we do have some expectations that may shape your choice of technology:- The platform to have a vendor agnostic and cloud-native architecture - The site itself should be built in line with principles of progressive enhancement, i.e. it should work using only HTML, with any JavaScript layered on top of that by way of an enhancement 4. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity, and what positions do they hold? Evaluators from the Digitising Social Care team are likely to be as follows:• Policy Lead X2 (from the Adult Social Care Tech and Data Team)• Assistant Director of Programmes• Programme Manager• Senior Project Manager 5. Can you please provide an anticipated timeline for this procurement that includes dates for:Shortlisting notification to Stage 2Submission deadline for Stage 2PresentationEvaluation periodAward notification Our anticipated timeline is as follows:• Invite proposals – 27th April• Deadline for proposals – 9th May• Evaluate proposals and presentations – 10th May – 23rd May• Award to supplier – 30th May 6. Please can you confirm whether CCS guidance RM1043.7-DOS-5-Buyer-webinar-how-to-create-an-opportunity-with-notes.docx would apply to this procurement and specifically whether the questions posed/evaluation criteria are in accordance with this sentence...“It is discriminatory to suppliers to state that they must have previous experience working in the public sector or within your specific industry.” For this requirement, we need the supplier to have a good grounding in the sector before they start the discovery. It is a very complex sector and time cannot be spent building that understanding from scratch. We will be requiring engagement across a range of stakeholders and this requires a specifically tailored approach – especially with people working in social care and people who draw on social care which can require sensitive engagement. 7. Can you further clarify what you are looking to understand and see evidenced in this skill and experience: ‘Experience of using decision-making logs to guide technical design’? Ideally our team would like to be involved in the decision log and agree any changes, especially if the team composition changes over time.It would be helpful if the context of decisions including the consequences are documented with the decision. 8. Would you require the supplier to host the service externally to your infrastructure, or to manage the service hosted on your infrastructure? Yes, the platform would be external to NHS infrastructure. 9. SC clearance is not typical for comparable digital projects procured by the Department, and there doesn’t appear to be anything in the brief that merits security clearance above BPSS. Is SC clearance (for only one team member) therefore a firm requirement, if it risks ruling out perfectly good teams with BPSS? If so, will you be willing to sponsor one or more of the winning supplier’s team for SC clearance if it is critical they have it? Additional security clearance is not required in order to comply with this contract. Suppliers must hold BPSS clearance or be willing to obtain it. DHSC is unable to conduct a BPSS screening on the contractors behalf. 10. Update to buyer requirements: Please be aware that a change to the security clearance requirements has been made. The requirement is now as follows: suppliers must hold BPSS clearance or be willing to obtain it. DHSC is unable to conduct a BPSS screening on the contractors' behalf. 11. Could you please provide some more detail re: what skills you are seeking experience of when you say, ‘Experience of using decision-making logs to guide technical design’? Does this refer to technical selection exercises for COTS/SaaS products, for example, or to documenting technical design to inform future decision-making using e.g. key design decision (KDD) documents? Both of the examples outlined in the question are skills/experience we would be interested in. 12. Can you please clarify what is the timeframe to design and deliver the new platform, and host it? The platform will need to be in place, live and functional by the end of December 2022. 13. Can you please confirm whether you would accept bids for only parts of the scope at the tender stage? No. The successful supplier will need to fulfill the full scope proposed within the advert. 14. In question 3, by ‘user design’, are you referring to ‘user-centred design’ or ‘user interface’ design? User centred design although we would see this as including user interface design as part of it. 15. In question 9, are you looking for how an account team work together to ensure success of a project? It would be helpful to include evidence of that. We are looking for robust governance arrangements and effective project delivery to evidence how you will meet requirements and within the timescales.