Assess technology needed to support delivery of an affordable, efficient housing needs service

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Hackney has one of the largest, most complex housing needs service in the country. We were well-prepared for the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act and used it to embed user-centred, Agile approaches across the service. Now we want to ensure that the flows of data and technology we use supports efficient, empathic delivery across the whole service whilst ensuring we can continue to iterate the technology to meet user needs. Problem to Be Solved We use old and/or inflexible technology to manage housing needs which creates inefficiency and additional concern for our service users as they lack clarity about their status and options. Who Are the Users - As a service user I need simple, intuitive tools to understand my options and current status so that I can live in affordable accommodation. - As a housing needs officer I need intuitive, efficient tools so that it’s quick and easy to follow legislation whilst providing an empathic service to customers. -As a housing property officer I need to be able to manage our properties so that we’re maximising availability for people in housing needs. Early Market Engagement Work Already Done We have conducted user research and service design across the whole service (attached below). We currently use a number of different software to deliver the service and these are also listed in the supporting documents but include Universal Housing, Jigsaw and TAPL https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1x5okvinSEu9aUofb4KXVPNOqUZhuBH5sOLQ3DI_21Gc/edit?usp=sharing Existing Team -Head of Service (project sponsor) -Product Owners for different aspects of the end-to-end service -Frontline staff -The development team available to write .NET APIs Current Phase Not applicable Work Location Initially London Borough of Hackney offices Working Arrangments We would prefer a team onsite for 3 days a week, most weeks in order to engage with subject matter experts and ICT thus building broader engagement with the style of working (eg through show and tells). Security Clearance Additional T&Cs Skills & Experience Have experience of working to the GDS service design manual Have built a service that has passed a Government Digital Service standard assessment Have experience designing services for a wide range of digital skills and confidence Provide a multi-disciplinary team including user research, service design and development skills Ability to support development of REST APIs to Hackney’s standards Experience of developing design patterns that can be reused for other services Agnostic of any existing software Experience of behavioural economics Nice to Haves Have an understanding of Housing Needs and relevant legislative requirements No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Understanding of user needs Clarity of approach Quality of the technical solution How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them Team structure, including skills, experiences and relevance of individuals Experience from a similar project Estimated time-frame for the work Cultural Fit Criteria Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Take responsibility for their work Work openly Hackney Council is a diverse organisation, reflecting the diversity of our borough. Describe how you would work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers in a diverse environment Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Written proposal Case study Reference Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 7% Price 33% Questions from Suppliers Budget range we can spend up to £500,000 in each of the next two years. however, we would expect to draw this down in blocks of c. £50,000 in order to ensure we’re meeting the service standard and securing value for money. this budget does not include the licence fees for any software options.