National Pupil Data Achievement and Attainment Tables (NPDAAT) Service copy

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Data is essential to DfE to meet its strategic aim of making evidence-based decisions. The data provided under this contract is business critical for use in school funding calculations and informing the Department and key delivery partners about school performance – allowing them to effectively target intervention and support activities. National Pupil Database data is shared widely to help develop, deliver and evaluate education policy. The data also underpins a number of the Department’s digital services e.g. the performance tables website. The service needs to be responsive to regular changes in policy as a key delivery mechanism of accountability policy. Problem to Be Solved The Department requires a service to support the collection, matching, checking and processing of a large volume of complex data that is sourced from a variety of systems/organisations. The Department is investigating a strategic solution for this service that will support its wider data strategy, driving efficiency by reducing duplication of data management across the data estate. This contract will provide business continuity to enable the transition, by the Department, between the existing service and the longer term solution. It will deliver a robust source of pupil and exam level data as soon as possible after data becomes available. Who Are the Users As an analyst, I need timely and accurate source data to analyse, report and publish. I provide insightful analysis to support policy and operational decision making. As a policy delivery specialist, I require early cuts of the data and continual dialog throughout the annual cycle to effectively project manage the release of data. As an awarding organisation, I require a simple and efficient way to get my data onto the supplier’s system. As a customer of DfE’s data (e.g. schools, governors, Ofsted) I need a trusted source of education data so that I can support schools to continually improve. Early Market Engagement We have not carried out any previous market engagement, for this procurement, but have referred to feedback from the market when this contract was renewed in 2016/17. In setting the contract date, the award decision will be announced by the 4th October 2019 to enable a new supplier a six month development and testing window ahead of the service needing to be live on the 1st April 2020. We will be presenting information about this project on the 5th August at 3pm – 4pm. To listen to this please dial in to: 0203 321 5238 and enter conference id: 41102603. For further detailed information around our requirements please email / write to NPDAAT.SERVICE-REQUIREMENTS@education.gov.uk and we will send them to you. Work Already Done There is an established service in place to deliver a large number of files and products to the timescales required, which has been developed and improved by the current supplier RM Results. There have been ongoing discovery phases within the Department into different aspects of that process to support the development of a strategic solution. The supplier will need to provide continuity of service, by producing the current outputs to at least existing timescales, whilst also supporting the Department to move to the strategic solution, by providing transparency of processes, an underlying rules base, and by sharing knowledge. Existing Team The incumbent supplier, RM Results, works with a core Department team of around 36 permanent staff with a mix of analysts (statisticians/operational researchers), project delivery specialists, and a seasonal service desk. They are responsible for the Department’s development and publication of attainment and progress national statistics. They work across a number of other internal teams including: • Policy • Digital scrum teams providing school performance tables and analyse school performance services • National pupil database data sharing team And external organisations such as: • Awarding organisations • Other suppliers e.g. those working on the NPD, developing digital services (performance tables) Current Phase Not applicable Work Location The majority of the work to provide this service will take place at the supplier’s address in the UK (preferably with a London site) . All development and maintenance activity must be completed within the UK or EEA and all Buyer Data must remain in the UK or EEA. The Supplier must obtain written permission from the Buyer before undertaking activity outside of these locations. The DfE teams are currently located across London, Sheffield and Darlington but in the main, the supplier will only be required to attend face-face meetings in London. Working Arrangments We expect the supplier will have a team or teams working on their own sites and for there to be regular (usually weekly) meetings - mainly remotely to cover the majority of the governance and day to day work of the teams in project managing the process, checking outputs etc. There will also be regular meetings on site both at the Department’s offices in London and the supplier’s offices (at least monthly) for the purposes of strategic oversight, governance and continuous improvement. The frequency of meetings may vary with an increase during peak delivery times. Security Clearance Evidence of BPSS clearance and annual certification on information handling and data protection are required for all contractors. Workers are not permitted to copy/remove or share any data owned by DfE, additionally suppliers will need to ensure that any system holding DfE data comply with the government security policy framework. Additional T&Cs Compliance with National Cyber Security Centre guidance Departmental security standards including ISO27001 certified Cyber Security Essentials Plus certified General Data Protection Regulation compliance Service Management is aligned to relevant industry and HM Government standards and best practice guidelines for example ISO20000 Skills & Experience Experience of delivering complex data services. Experience of developing and delivering complex technical data solutions including a demonstrable approach to solutions and data architecture. Experience of providing data capability at scale to collect/store large scale data sets from a wide range of organisations with varying input quality (90 AOs sending 25 million records) Experience of being able to provide data capability at scale to prepare, link, and match large datasets to tight timescales with a high level of accuracy. Experience of being able to provide data capability at scale to process data to create additional business indicators to support reporting and analysis undertaken by the Department. Experience of producing high quality, robust and assured datasets. Experience of building/running a secure service where c20,000 users can authenticate, validate and feedback on the data we hold on their establishments and people to improve quality/accuracy of data. Ability to run service desk teams, who understand education terminology and are able to work with local authorities, schools etc, and can be scaled up for peak seasons Ability to process data according to specifications developed collaboratively between the supplier and the customer’s analysts to create the full range of data outputs including complex layered derived variables Proven experience of working with government Departments. Experience of building services that meet government security standards and hold ISO27001 certification. Experience of implementing and ensuring data governance Experience of communicating between technical and non-technical teams across digital, data and policy teams. Experience of ensuring high quality data through robust data cleaning and quality assurance of data products. Experience of continual service improvement and supporting customers to build their knowledge of the service in order to drive efficiency through identifying duplication across siloed work areas. Nice to Haves Familiarity with the Department’s or education data landscape and the recent history of policy changes such as the evolution of value-added measures Experience of working directly with schools, multi-academy trusts local authorities and/or awarding organisations Experience of working with key stakeholders using compatible technology (Microsoft) Willing to operate from an office space in the London area No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria The proposed technical solution to deliver this service in full, with a split by the key elements of the service (collection, matching, processing and validation) Time needed in order to operationalise this service How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them How they will manage a number of complex hand-offs and work with the Department to streamline processes and drive efficiencies Experience delivering at pace whilst ensuring high quality How they propose to ensure the quality and robustness of the data outputs How they will keep the service under review to ensure it meets business needs How they will meet the deliverables for each area (NPD, performance tables etc) How they will work with the Department How the supplier will manage the delivery of outputs particularly through seasonal peaks of activity with hard deadlines How can they help us develop and build the Department’s knowledge and understanding of this service to support the work on a longer term strategic replacement Cultural Fit Criteria Quality – demonstrate commitment to high quality work and data under pressured timescales in challenging circumstances Innovate – Act on initiative, drive improvements, balance risks, deliver value for money Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Written proposal Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 5% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers Budget range total budget for two years excluding vat is estimated at £8 - 10 million. an indicative breakdown of costs should be provided and include the following aspects of the service: • service management • data collection • data transfer, storage and cleaning • data matching split by automated vs manual matching • data validation through data sharing and feedback to schools split by digital platform vs helpdesk • data processing split by product (e.g. performance tables files, national pupil database outputs and young people’s matched administration dataset outputs) • testing and quality assurance