Developing final product for foster carer applications

Tender description

Summary of the work Development of part of a digital service to support the recruitment of foster carers, through iteration and improvement of an online eligibility checker and application form. Expected Contract Length 6 months Latest start date Monday 1 July 2019 Budget Range £12,000 - £20,000 Why the Work is Being Done We completed a discovery phase to understand the potential for digital to support the recruitment and retention of foster carers and developed an MVP to support applications, through a diagnosis tool and online application process. We would now like to build on those tools to improve the user experience and data quality. If we can identify why a single candidate dropped out of the application process and convert them into a foster carer, the Council would save the equivalent of £8,000 p.a. Problem to Be Solved A number of people initiate an application process but do not complete it, and the Council has little visibility of why this happens. Moreover, people who are not eligible are not signposted towards other forms of volunteering. An online diagnosis tool and application form can support a higher quality customer experience and provide more useful advice to prospective foster carers. Who Are the Users As a potential applicant, I need to: - know whether I'm eligible to be a foster carer so that I can plan accordingly - develop my application over time, so that I can provide everything required - be signposted to other volunteering opportunities so that I can develop suitable experience - know what to expect from the process, so that I have time to prepare - know what to expect from fostering for Hackney Council, so that I can decide who to become a foster carer with Existing Team 2 members of the fostering team, supported by the team manager 1 delivery manager 1 development resource looking after the integration with Mosaic social care system Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Have knowledge of user needs for the service • Have experience of working to the GDS service design manual • Combine user research, service design and developer expertise • Work to user-centered, iterative, Agile principles • Have experience designing services for a wide range of digital skills and confidence • Consume from and present to Hackney’s emerging API layer • Understand how to meet the needs of a diverse range of users • Have developed a service to meet the Digital Service Standard (either local or central government) • Experience of a similar project Nice to Haves • Employ a care leaver • Promote user-centred design and Agile across the Council Work Location Initially at Hackney Council offices, 1 Hillman Street, E8 1DY 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, building broader engagement with the style of working (e.g. through show and tells). No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Understanding of user needs from the service • Clarity of approach • How the approach or solution meets user needs • How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them • Team structure, including skills, experiences and relevance of individuals Cultural Fit Criteria • Describe how you would successfully work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers in a diverse environment. • 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 • Share knowledge and experience with team members and the wider service • Work openly Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 7% Price 33% Questions from Suppliers 1. Forgive us for asking, but is that budget range correct? It doesn't seem to add up. If you want a team on site for at least 3 days/week for 6 months, that would be 72 days. Even if the team consisted of just *one* person (which is very unlikely), and you used the top end of that budget range, that would mean a day rate of £277. It looks like an interesting opportunity, but we cannot see how those numbers can possibly be made to work. Apologies if we've missed something. We expect the project will be 4-6 weeks. 2. Can you confirm that the budget attached for this opportunity is correct? We expect the project to be 4-6 weeks. 3. Can you share who completed the Discovery Phase? The Discovery phase was run with support from FutureGov. The findings from the discovery phase are available here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o6xBXgTqZhe6b6XjfDfE2u6c_DmVjTP3 4. Are you open to consider consultants from Offshore working remotely using VPN to your server? Some remote working is acceptable provided account management and quality standards are met 5. Has a technology platform and/or environment been chosen? Our preferred approach is applications developed in Ruby on Rails, cloud hosted as per our development standards:https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/Hackney-Development-Standards 6. Given the budget, would you be looking for a solution using OutSystems low code platform which the council already has? We are happy to consider proposals from any agency on a platform that meets our standards, and budget. 7. Are there any incumbent suppliers currently? The eligibility checker and application form are currently externally hosted. 8. Is this part of a larger digital transformation or a one off project? We are exploring the use of digital approaches and tools to improve foster care recruitment and service user experience. 9. Most organisations do not feel it appropriate to keep records of whether employees have been in care. How will you ensure such organisations are not unfairly disadvantaged? Suppliers will be evaluated on their proposal and cultural fit, skills and experience.