The design, build and development of a website to support our innovation, research and data offer

Description

Summary of the work To design and deliver an inclusive, accessible and bilingual Craft CMS-based website for sharing our innovation, research and data work, taking an agile, user-centred approach, building our capability to maintain and improve the website, and integrating with Azure AD and MS Dynamics to support user experience and insights. Expected Contract Length Project will be developed in phases over 24 months with option to extend by a further 6 months Latest start date Tuesday 1 November 2022 Budget Range Financial year 2022/23 - £60k Financial year 2023/24 - £50k Financial year 2024/25 - £40k Why the Work is Being Done Our remit is to develop the social care workforce, improve care and support and increase public confidence in care. Our priorities include supporting people who work in social care in Wales to use research, data and evidence to develop practice, service design and policy-making. We have recently extended our remit to support innovation. We are committed to making better use of digital solutions. (https://socialcare.wales/cms_assets/file-uploads/Strategic-plan-leaflet-2022-ENG.pdf) People working in social care look to Social Care Wales for information and guidance about workforce regulation and training. While we have some information about research and data on the main website, our remit and user base have grown. We now need greater flexibility and a higher profile to support our innovation and knowledge mobilisation activities, benefitting people who work in social care, and improving service delivery and outcomes for people who access social care services. We require the supplier to design and develop an accessible, inclusive and bilingual website that will enable us to work with partners and those working in social care in Wales. This new website will be part of the Social Care Wales brand. It should support the development of our understanding, knowledge and leadership of research communities within the sector. Problem to Be Solved Information about our social care innovation, research and data work is not easily accessible to our users. The website should inspire interest in our work through better visibility of our content and improved functionality, for a larger and more engaged audience. The website should support access to existing offers, including: • our social care data portal for Wales (https://www.socialcaredata.wales/) • e-library access through our partner Digital Health and Care Wales (https://dhcw.nhs.wales/information-services/e-library-for-health/) • our digital community platform (hosted on Digital Place for Communities) • our existing website and SCWonline. The website will include: • engaging, responsive zone to share ideas and information about innovation, responding to user needs and interests • central resource providing access to relevant, current, trustworthy, clear and concise evidence • curated research • resources to build confidence and skills in research, data and innovation • events and learning opportunities (through linked platforms) • news and blogs about research, data and innovation • interactive maps with searchable information. The design should support new functionality and content, meet WCAG2.1 and support services equally in Welsh and English languages. This contract includes user experience, design, build and early maintenance for public-facing website that fits with existing and planned digital architecture. Who Are the Users As someone working in social care, I need to find current evidence and information, and access networks to help me think creatively. I need to navigate complex systems and identify opportunities for support and collaboration. As someone leading in social care, I need to find evidence and examples of innovation to inform planning and improvement, opportunities to collaborate and share policies and approaches, and ways to build a learning culture and workforce capabilities. As someone researching social care, I need to share my research to support improvement in social care practice and inform further research. As someone supporting innovation, I need to find opportunities for collaboration with and between people, and to engage well with people working in social care so they can access the support available. As a Social Care Wales Community Manager, I need to support groups to find, use, share and network about social care research, data and innovation. As someone accessing the website, I want to be able to easily see the content regardless of the device I’m using to access it. As Social Care Wales we want to support and signpost users towards relevant content and engagement activities, driven by user expressed preferences and actions. Early Market Engagement We commissioned work looking at our digital and data approaches and have recently developed our first Digital Strategy. Our approach is therefore based on user research. Our stakeholders have told us we need to: • take a user-centred design approach, with a strong emphasis on user experience and user interface • enable user personalisation, designing added value functionalities that improve user experience • take an agile, learning-based approach that seeks early user insight to build, test and iterate • make use of open standards and sources that can communicate with other systems avoiding big, expensive bespoke systems • ensure equal value is placed on Welsh and English languages with seamless switching and the ability to support additional languages if required • build the capability of Social Care Wales to manage, maintain and make improvements to the website, and for support • include website analytics for understanding user behaviour • support users to self-manage compliance with data protection, privacy and other statutory requirements as far as possible • ensure our users feel confident and safe using our systems • support seamless transitions between service offers and systems • ensure resources are accessible Work Already Done Research undertaken in building our approach: • Social Care Institute for Excellence research to understand how the workforce makes use of research, data and evidence (https://socialcare.wales/research-and-data/using-evidence-in-social-services-and-social-care-in-wales) • Y Lab and Nesta’s People Powered Results user research to understand the key innovation partners and how Social Care Wales could offer meaningful innovation support. This work has also produced personas to inform our future work. • Discovery research with registered people to support us in our digital transformation and understand their digital learning needs. Our digital strategy seeks to align our digital activities, create seamless digital journeys and develop personalised, self-service experiences. Existing Team People already working on this project include: - Research & Evidence Manager (SCW) - Data and Intelligence Manager (SCW) - Innovation Manager (SCW) - Assistant Director for Research, Data and Innovation (SCW) - Assistant Director for Corporate Services (SCW) - Digital Architect - MS Dynamics Development Team (SCW and 3rd party contractor) Current Phase Not started Skills & Experience • Experience in designing and developing accessible and engaging websites (4%) • Experience in working with users to understand their work, operating context and constraints and implement improvements and overcome barriers (4%) • Evidence of a robust approach to UI/UX, designing and developing services through iteration, research, prototyping and testing (3%) • Experience of creating easy to use, consistent and engaging user interfaces (3%) • Demonstrable skills and experience in digestible and accessible content curation and creation (2.5%) • Evidence of increasing the interoperable capability of existing services (2.5%) • Experience in blending new and off-the-shelf products to create a sustainable digital solution (2.5%) • Experience in transferring knowledge to internal staff to facilitate the long-term sustainability of the approach (2.5%) • Experience of designing, developing and delivering bilingual products or services (2%) • Understanding of the processes detailed in the Government Digital Service services manual and designing solutions that have passed an accessibility audit and meet WCAG 2.1 (2%) • Evidence of agile programme management techniques to be applied to this project (2%) Work Location This work will engage with people across Wales. Some engagement and meetings are likely to be face-to-face with our staff and partners in different parts of Wales, although most can be done remotely. Working Arrangments Social Care Wales has an all-Wales remit. We operate a hybrid working policy and have offices in Cardiff & St Asaph. The partners we need to engage with to develop the website will be based in different areas of Wales and some face-to-face engagement is likely to be needed. Security Clearance No specific security clearance however contractor must hold Cyber Essentials Plus to ensure cyber security and Supplier Security Policy. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Describe how the approach supports our work on research, data and innovation (4.5%) • Evidence of your ability to make informed decisions based on user needs, available technology and provide value for money (4.5%) • Demonstrate your understanding of the brief (3.5%) • Describe the proposed technical solution (3.5%) • Provide a timeline for the work and explain how you will deliver on time (3.5%) • Describe how the approach meets user needs and shows an understanding of our users: their work, operating context and constraints (3.5%) • Describe the identified risks/dependencies and your approaches to manage/mitigate them (3.5%) • Describe your proposed team, including structure, role, experience and responsibilities (3.5%) Cultural Fit Criteria • Explain why you think you are a good cultural fit to work with us on research, data and innovation (2.5%) • Share knowledge and experience with other team members with varying levels of technical expertise (2.5%) • Demonstrate how you will work transparently, collaboratively and share your approach with the project team (2.5%) • Describe how you will work as a team with Social Care Wales and with other suppliers (2.5%) • Demonstrate transparency regarding work outsourced to any other suppliers (2.5%) • Be transparent and collaborative in decision-making (2.5%) • Shared understanding of the importance of building accessible services for all (2.5%) • Awareness of Welsh language legislation and its impact on delivering bilingual services in Wales (2.5%) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you provide more detail around the content creation aspects of the requirements? We’ll supply content for the website. We expect the website to be built around content we provide, and we’d like to publish future content ourselves once the website is up and running. 2. Can you provide any information about the hosting requirements for this opportunity? We would like the supplier to include costs for hosting the website. 3. Good afternoon, would you consider a build in another CMS (Umbraco) or are you committed to Craft as your CMS? We are committed to using Craft as our CMS, as we need this website to work with our wider organisational developments. 4. With reference to CMS based solution, what kind of content will be added? Will it only contain text and images or will it have videos, etc.? Video hosting has performance implications, etc. Content will be mixed and will include video and other sources of rich media. 5. Can you please give more details of specific integrations required with Azure AD and MS Dynamics? Can we assume that insights will be drawn from straight forward data extraction and summary? Will relevant APIs be readily accessible with appropriate documentation? Our main CRM is an MS dynamics system. We would wish to integrate any personal information provided to the new product with this platform and potentially make use of SSO on the new product. We also have a national data portal that uses Power Platform and Azure. We would like to be able to use assets from the portal in the new product. We own the IP for all our digital products. APIs will be accessible, but require extensive configuration. 6. We are required to support users to self-manage compliance with data protection, privacy and other statutory requirements as far as possible. What type of support are you envisaging? Do you expect users to be able to delete data after uploading OR is there something more expected? Users should be able to delete, opt-out, and change any of the information and preferences they provide to Social Care Wales by means of membership of the solution (either through mailing lists or onsite sign-on). 7. With reference to process, will this project be following the standard GDS process of discovery, alpha and beta? Will this project go through GDS assessment? Will there be multiple statement of works for each phase? Social Care Wales is a Welsh Government sponsored body and is not governed by the gov.uk design standards. We would however expect the supplier to follow the principles of UI/UX best practice, producing a user-designed product through agile delivery. 8. With reference to interactive maps with searchable information, can we use Google maps API and restrict the features to what google maps API is offering? Please can you elaborate a bit on this feature? We expect the supplier to determine the appropriate tools based on thorough assessment of user requirements. We are not able to comment on the suitability of the Google Maps API. 9. Will we be required to build support for languages other than English and Welsh? If yes, can you confirm whether these languages will exclude right to left languages like Arabic, etc. No, just English and Welsh at this time. 10. Is the total budget GBP 150,000? Or will be it less if the project finishes within 2 years? The project is based on the payment approach of capped time and materials. If the contracted supplier reaches the limit before the work is finished, they would need to complete the work at their own cost. If the supplier finishes the work before they said they would, we would pay them for the time they took to do the work. Please note that costs are INCLUSIVE of any applicable VAT. 11. Will this project require any data migration? If so, do we have some information around the elements that would need to be migrated? How many years will be migrated? Will we need to migrated only summary information? This is a new project, with no planned data migration. We will be migrating content from the current Research and Data section of the Social Care Wales website (https://socialcare.wales/research-and-data). 12. What is the planned process after shortlisting suppliers? How long do you plan to give shortlisted suppliers to respond with a full proposal? Will there be an opportunity to discuss the project with you on a call? We plan to shortlist 3 suppliers who will receive invitations to the assessment method stage which includes submission of a written proposal, case study, work history, references and the attendance at a presentation. The details for each will be outlines clearly within the invitation to those who have been shortlisted. From receipt of this invitation, suppliers will have approximately 12 days to submit written assessment methods and 25 days to attend a presentation. We will not be entering into individual discussions to ensure fair competition. 13. Have you run projects using an agile methodology before? Do you think you have buy-in for an agile approach within your organisation or will you need support in this? Yes, although we’re still in the formative stages on our agile journey. The team you will be working with has experience of using agile (SCRUM) methodology on a number of recent projects. We would require some basic support with running the project. 14. Are you looking for a supplier based in Wales, or are you open to working with suppliers across the UK? We are open to working with suppliers across the UK. 15. How big is the team at Social Care Wales that will be managing the website? We’re recruiting a team of 4 people to support Research, Data and Innovation’s overall digital offer. 16. Are you able to share any reports or documents from the Discovery project, or any of the user research noted in this opportunity? The link to the published report on our research and evidence work is in the ‘work that’s already been done’ section. Unfortunately the discovery research with registered people and the user research for our innovation work is not publicly available, but we will share this with the selected supplier. 17. Is the supplier who worked on the Discovery project applying for this opportunity, or are you looking for a new supplier? The project is a new development and we are open to all interested parties. We will not know who has bid for the work until after the submission date. We are always open to working with new suppliers who can offer Social Care Wales the most suitable plan for delivering the project. 18. Is one goal of the website to replace and expand on the content in this section on your current website https://socialcare.wales/research-and-data Yes 19. You note the website should “support new functionality” – do you have any ideas on the sort of new things the website needs? New functionality would need to respond to the list of what the website will include we set out in the ‘problem to be solved’ and user needs sections of the advert. 20. Do you have any details on the 3rd party systems that will need to be integrated with as part of this project (e.g. purpose of the integration, what the system is called, what data needs to be integrated)? Potentially:Corporate CRM - MS Dynamics National Data Portal – Azure/Power Platform 21. Do you have any thoughts on what sort of things users should be able to personalise on your website? We would like to have personalised user journeys, which respond to user activity and how people engage with the website. 22. You mention “increasing the interoperable capability of existing services.” Do you have any examples of systems or services that you want to improve interoperability in this project? Potentially:Corporate CRM - MS Dynamics National Data Portal – Azure/Power Platform 23. You note Open Source (OS) systems is important to you. Have you identified any OS systems you are keen to work with on this project? No OS products have been identified for this project. 24. You mention “transferring knowledge to internal staff.” What sort of thing do you expect this to cover? For example, is this focussed on website management, technical skills such as configuring or updating website templates, or something else? We want to develop on Craft because it’s the CMS we use on our main Social Care Wales website. We anticipate developing Craft skills internally, and are looking for your help to build content management skills. 25. Do you have any estimates on the number of visitors per year to the website? The number of visitors to this new website is likely to be less than 10,000 per month. 26. We understand that we are required to be consistent with existing digital architecture. Where can we find material on planned and existing digital architecture? Thank you for checking this. We’ve posted an extract from our digital strategy here: Extract from our digital strategy Aug 2022.docx: https://socialcarewales-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/sara_evans_socialcare_wales/ETddVmDtYAJLpimXm4Z5JFcBRTFB_DDfUebIvUo0nJz4_w?rtime=m6qTVJWK2kgThe website we’re commissioning is referred to as the ‘research microsite’ and ‘research hub’ in the diagram.