Digital Weight Management

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The impact of obesity on children, particularly for children in the most deprived areas, is unprecedented with over a fifth of 4-5 year old children overweight or obese, which increases to over a third in 10-11 year olds. This can impact on their immediate and long-term health and well-being. Weight management services, which support adoption of healthier behaviours are an integral part of the cross-sector, system-wide actions that are required to tackle obesity across the life-course. Problem to Be Solved To provide a means to support children and families who are overweight or obese to achieve and maintain a healthier weight through behaviour change. Establishing this on a national footprint could provide a means to support the current fragmented local weight management provision for the treatment of obesity. A focal point of the digital service is to work with families to build, or identify existing approaches, which help provide equitable access to those from the most deprived backgrounds. Such an approach needs to consider solutions to deal with wider influences of behavioural change such as generational attitudes and preferences. Who Are the Users The purpose of the discovery phase is to establish who the users will be and what their needs are. However, the primary groups impacted by this are children & families. Local authorities and healthcare professionals may also need to be considered. Early Market Engagement Work Already Done In August 2016, the Department of Health published ‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action’ which outlined the government’s strategy to significantly reduce childhood obesity. PHE contributed significantly to developing the plan committing to use its expertise in translating evidence into practice and working with its partners (government; academic; NGO’s; commercial organisation’s; and the health sector) to develop and deliver approaches that will make a difference to preventing and tackling obesity. Online ‘passive’ resources exist that families and adults can access around healthy weight, such as NHS Choices information pages; however, none offer a digital behaviour change approach to weight management. Existing Team The supplier will work with the Obesity and Healthy Weight Team and the PHE Digital Team. A PHE project group (bringing together subject experts; digital; behavioural insights; evaluation expertise; data science; and social marketing teams) has been set up, and will meet regularly throughout the process. Progress will be reported to the Department of Health in line with the Childhood Obesity Plan reporting arrangements Current Phase Not started Work Location The work can be performed from any location, but is likely to be co-ordinated by staff in PHE’s London offices. Working Arrangments A London based organisation is preferable and the supplier is expected to house their staff. Work may be carried out from multiple locations, including the Supplier’s offices. Attendance at PHE Offices in London will be required for meetings. Supplier staff are expected to be on-site at PHE locations sufficient to manage relationships with senior stakeholders; the exemplar project team and users; and, stakeholders and users in other organisations so that the outcomes of the project may be met. Members of the PHE team would also work occasionally in the supplier’s offices. Security Clearance Not required, DBS checks will be required where user research with children and families is taking place. Additional T&Cs Skills & Experience E1) Recent and demonstrable experience in evaluating whether there are or are not viable digital solutions to meet user needs. Your answer must include links to 2 case studies E2) Recent and demonstrable experience of delivering service design projects with demonstrable outcomes. E3) Recent and demonstrable experience of methods and digital tools designed to be used by a diverse range of users preferably children and families. E4) Recent and demonstrable experience of User Research with children and families. E5) Recent and demonstrable experience of market analysis. Nice to Haves N1) Recent and demonstrable experience with public sector organisations such as central and / or local government. N2) Recent and demonstrable experience of working with healthcare organisations. N3) Recent and demonstrable experience of delivery within an evidence based policy environment including the development of KPIs and / or other metrics. N4) Experience of working with a group of stakeholders including scientific advisers. N5) Recent and demonstrable of delivering websites, and / or applications and / or games for children and/or families. N6) Recent and demonstrable engagement with hard to reach groups and/or users inclusion of users with limited digital skills. N7) Recent and demonstrable experience of delivering projects that have passed an assessment by GDS or a Governmental Department, showing conformance to the Digital Service Standard including Assisted Digital guidance. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria P1) Proposed approach to Discovery to determine and demonstrate whether one or more digital interventions can be demonstrated to the public health outcomes of this project. (max score: 50) P2) Proposed approach to User Research including children and families in order to meet the outcomes of this project. (max score: 40) P3) Proposed approach to developing KPIs or other metrics that demonstrate the efficacy of a proposed digital intervention suitable for use in an evidence based policy environment. (max score: 20) Cultural Fit Criteria C1) Working with the project team’s stakeholders including scientific advisors who have varying experience of agile methods C2) Open innovation that explores a wide range of solutions and conclusions that includes demonstrating the limits of digital interventions; and non-digital solutions. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Written proposal Case study Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 15% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers Budget range up to £49,500 inc. vat (for discovery)