DfE Data Service Delivery Capability

Description

Summary of the work DfE Data Directorate are looking for a supplier who will be able to provide service delivery capabilities on digital and technical projects as part of the DfE’s Data Transformation Portfolio. You will provide expertise and specialism to boost capacity and enhance capability, working alongside our in-house digital teams supporting delivery. Expected Contract Length 2 years Latest start date Saturday 1 April 2023 Budget Range Up to £6,000,000 ex VAT Why the Work is Being Done Data Directorate is undergoing a transformation programme to develop internal data delivery processes and cultivate our in-house skills. This will help us achieve our strategic goal to offer ‘Data as a Service’, modernising our data collection services and laying foundation for good data governance practices; all of which will allow delivery of high-quality data into our estate enabling greater insight into the sector as well as drive data driven policy and operational decision-making. Problem to Be Solved DfE Data Directorate are seeking a supplier to provide the required service delivery capabilities set out above from the digital marketplace to support a variety of agile, user led, digital, data and technology projects from our transformation portfolio. This includes both existing and new projects from inception through to a live service. Each will have SoW (Statement of Work) that will outline the work package deliverables, acceptance criteria and the specific capabilities and skills that are required. Projects will be managed using agile methodologies to deliver outcomes based on user needs and, where applicable, government service standards. The Data Transformation programme is a large, complex data delivery programme covering data ingestion, cleansing, transformation and data matching, and all development and design of our digital delivery work is in alignment with GDS standards. Each project will require a different mix of service delivery capabilities and may not require the full complement of capabilities. Within this contract we are looking for the following skillsets: Agile Delivery Managers with experience of delivering complex data pipelines and Digital front end web services, Scrum Masters, Technical Business Analysts, User Researchers, UX Designers, Content Designers and Technical writers. Who Are the Users This contract will cover a range of data services for which we have a wide range of internal and external users who contribute to and consume our data pipelines and Digital services. Internal users include policy teams, Departmental analysts and corporate services who access our data through analytical data stores and Bi reports. Other internal users include: Analysts, Policy team, Operations, Service Delivery team, e.g. As a data collector working in Data Engineering and Operations division, I need to setup data collection in line with departmental policy External Users include: Academies and Multi Academy Trusts, Schools, Local Authorities (Education & Children's Services), e.g. As an academy I need to be able to submit and validate my school census return and check my data. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done There are a number of projects and programmes that require service delivery roles, these range from the improvement of existing developed systems to brand new developments. Examples of completed work includes • Search for schools and colleges to compare - GOV.UK - Find and compare schools in England (compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk) • Get Information about Schools - GOV.UK (get-information-schools.service.gov.uk) • Get Information about Pupils – GOV.UK Existing Team The supplier will work with blended project teams comprising of permanent civil servants and other supplier teams across multiple strands of work for the service delivery. Typically, within agile delivery teams, working with service owners, product managers, delivery managers, business analysts, user researchers, architects, data and software engineers and users. You may collaborate or work with other suppliers who are providing capabilities as part of a team. Our multi-disciplinary agile teams stretch across 9 squads and are typically sized between 8 and 10. Current Phase Alpha Skills & Experience • Over the last three years - have experience of agile delivery management in a multi-programme digital, data and technology driven environment, delivering digital and data products/services • Over the last three years have demonstrable experience in managing delivery focused user centred design services that meet specific quality standards (e.g. GDS standards) and move through the delivery lifecycle • Proven experience of Agile delivery methodologies, delivering at pace and experience in creating robust user stories for development teams in support of behaviour driven development • Experience in delivery management and technical business analysis for delivering new data platforms on cloud, covering ingestion, transformation, validation, cleansing, matching and storage in a complex data environment. • Proven experience of delivering into an immature data development lifecycle and working collaboratively with a multi-disciplinary team of architects and developers to accelerate rapid delivery without creating technical debt • Experience in providing resourcing for Agile teams delivering Data and Digital projects at pace and reactive to changing demand able to work to short lead times on filling roles • Evidence of the placement of skilled resources to the standard required by the roles, who are able to meet the planned deliverables and contractual obligations Nice to Haves Experience and understanding of educational datasets and digital services Work Location Manchester ( and additionally Newcastle / Sheffield / Darlington /Coventry / London ) Working Arrangments Day to day delivery will be governed by standard Agile delivery techniques. These could be Kanban or a Scrum approach and the requisite agile ceremonies appropriate to those will be undertaken. The primary base will be detailed in each Statement of Work (SoW) and expenses will not form part of the cost unless the supplier is asked to work from a secondary location instead during the execution of the work relating to the SoW. e.g. If SoW primary base is Darlington then no expenses will be paid for Darlington. It is expected that this contract will sit predominantly within IR35 Security Clearance The successful supplier must be able to demonstrate that all proposed team members have been subject to Baseline Personnel Security Standards checks. Suppliers will also be required to complete a supplier security assurance form to ensure they meet the required standard for DfE e.g. Cyber Essentials Additional T&Cs Standard Framework and Call Off Terms and Conditions. Expenses must be pre-agreed and comply with CCS Travel and Subsistence Policy. Any expenses shall be submitted in line with DfE standard T&S policy. Primary work location stated in SoW will not attract expenses. Contract and Vendor Management will form a key part of governance and suppliers will be expected to complete cyber security questionnaire. Suppliers must provide sufficient guarantees to meet the requirements of GDPR in line with Procurement Policy Note 03/17 Changes to Data Protection Legislation & General Data Protection Regulation No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Over the last three years have experience in end-to-end design, development, and agile delivery of digital products/services to high quality standards (in a digital, data and technology driven environment. • Over the last three years have experience in delivery of new data platforms and data migration projects in a complex data environment. • Over the last three years have demonstrable experience in user centred design services (user research, content design and interaction design and business analysis) • Proven experience of using a range of agile tools e.g. Azure Dev Ops and techniques including scrum, working in multi-team agile programmes • Over the last three years have experience in delivery management, business analysis, user research, user experience designer, and content design to deliver new analytical data platforms, data pipelines and visualisation • Manage the full product lifecycles including business analysis, user research, design, delivery, and continuous improvement of one or more transactional services or platforms including rapid prototyping and delivering at pace • Evidence of demonstrable experience within the last three years in working on high profile complex, multi-stakeholder digital, data and technology programmes • Experience of working with multi-vendor teams across multiple projects • Experience of working with an organisation at the beginning of an agile culture change • Experience of successfully transferring knowledge to permanent staff within a client organisation Cultural Fit Criteria • How will your organisation support educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications (e.g. , Apprenticeships, Industry placements, Traineeships) • Describe how you will encourage representation of under-represented groups in the workforce, e.g. Women, BAME, Disabled, LGBTQ+ and how will you monitor and measure this throughout the contract? Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 15% Price 35% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you give an idea of approximate number of resources required for the this work. Between 15 and 30 are expected 2. Please can you confirm if your expectation is for the supplier to work on-site 5 days a week or whether a hybrid working model would be acceptable? If the case is the latter option, please can you clarify your preference on the split between on-site and remote working? Remote working will be considered the default delivery location for supplier staff. On-Site may be required, but this will be specified at SoW level. 3. Please can you confirm whether Stage 1 scores will be carried over and used as part of the evaluation at Stage 2? Stage 1 will be factored into the overall score of shortlisted suppliers at Stage 2. This will have an overall weighting of 5% toward the total technical component for this procurement. 4. Please could you confirm what scoring methodologies will be applied at Stage 1 and Stage 2? We will be using the standard 0-3 scoring mechanism, with 0 being "not met", 1 being "partially met", 2 being "met" and 3 being "exceeded" 5. Please can you confirm what you mean by “..by “immature data development lifecycle...” for question 5 please? To give further context to the question - we are looking for proven experience in building and delivering data products as part of recently-established data delivery squads. The organisation is still at the beginning of its data development journey. In the last couple of years or so, we have been setting up new data delivery processes and refining our ways of working. A suitable supplier will work with us to further refine the data development and delivery processes. 6. In the opportunity description it is said that project is on Alpha stage, however in the description of work already done it is mentioned that there will be multiple projects. Does that mean that work will be with multiple projects on various delivery stage rather than on Alpha ? if yes is there a mechanism in place to pass the knowledge from existing teams which could ensure seamless delivery? The portal unfortunately only allows us to select one phase of development, although our requirements are over multiple phases. Alpha best described the average of the project lifecycles, but there will be a spread of different phases of development. The teams tend to stay and move through the project lifecycle together. 7. The work with external users will require access to contacts form the Academia, Multi Academies Trusts and other organisations, is that something that DfE teams can help with or is it something supplier need to arrange? It depends on the nature of the relationship. Where one exists through the DfE we can help arrange. 8. Is there any privacy concern or ethical concerns supplier should take under consideration like for example user research with the under aged pupils or young adults? We have an in-house data protection team that manages our data privacy impact assessments for all our work. UR is only normally conducted with the sector and parents. 9. 1. Additional assessment methods’ lists ‘case study’ and ‘work history’ – will this be in addition to the evidence requested by the outlined proposal criteria?2. Are you able to provide an indication of the likely split between new pieces of work and existing pieces of work across the contract? 3. Could you please confirm the link, if any, between this opportunity and the opportunity of the same name released in January 2022. And is there an incumbent supplier in place? 1. The evaluation panel have concluded that shortlisted suppliers will only need to complete a presentation along with the written proposal criteria.2. There is a changing landscape of priorities and there will be a requirement for responding to the dynamic changes at pace. 3. From a delivery perspective, the work is in a similar area but we are responding to the dynamic landscape and changing requirements. 10. Regarding the response criteria at Stage 2, please can you confirm that the Case Study, Work History, Reference, Presentation and each of the 10 points listed in the Proposal Criteria section will be equally weighted within the 50% allocated to Technical Competence within the evaluation The evaluation panel have advised that stage 2 suppliers will now only be expected to provide a Presentation along with a written proposal. Stage 1 will account for 5% of the total technical component, with equal weighting being attributed to each of the proposal criteria for Stage 2 11. Who is the incumbent supplier? This is new and additional requirement, so there's no incumbent for this overall package of work 12. Please can you provide a timeline indicating the dates on which you intend to notify suppliers they have been shortlisted, the submission deadline for Stage 2, and the date of award etc.? An indicative timeline is as follows:• Suppliers notified of outcome/ Stage 2 requirements published 13/02/2023• Closing date for written proposals 24/02/2023• Presentations W/C 27/02/2023• Notify Suppliers W/C 06/03/2023 • Aiming for contract signature by 27/03/2023 13. What are the expectations around the timelines for mobilising a team after a statement of work has been signed and exchanged? Does the requirement around transferring knowledge to permanent staff include training them on technical topics? What tools are expected to be used for the front end web services, Scrum Masters, Technical Business Analysts, UX Designers and Content Designers? We would work with to provide early indications of any new demand so that you can assess timescales for bringing resources in. Generally no but it depends on the project Microsoft 365 ( Teams, SharePoint, Excel/Word/PowerPoint ) , Azure Dev Ops , UXPin , InVision, Lucidchart, Lucidspark