DDaT19318 - Regulation Navigator Project

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Within the Better Regulation Executive’s (BRE) white paper “Regulation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution” is a commitment to explore the need for an easier way for small/innovative businesses and those with business ideas to identify what regulation applies to them. BRE also seeks to assess whether/how to assist businesses in initiating contact with relevant regulators. This project is part of a wider proposal to ensure the UK is committed to delivering a world-leading, innovation-friendly regulatory system. Evidence suggests it is currently too hard for businesses to find regulatory information. Any solution that we would develop in order to help businesses should be built around strong user needs. Currently there is an evidence gap around what barriers businesses face when attempting to navigate the regulatory landscape, and whether businesses need a specific service or tool to overcome such barriers. This tender is for a Discovery phase using agile working to uncover what needs and barriers businesses have in getting access to regulatory information. We seek to identify what the users are trying to achieve, where the existing issues are, and to help design and develop solutions that are based on evidence from a wide range of businesses. Problem to Be Solved We have some limited anecdotal evidence that it is currently difficult for businesses to find out which regulations apply to them. We seek to provide a way to unify regulatory information, making it far easier for companies to get this regulatory information themselves. We are particularly interested in the problems faced by small companies as they often rely on non-expert staff to get this information. We do not yet have detailed information about what businesses would need/want/find useful to improve their ease of access to regulatory information. We seek to get these insights from user needs research in this Discovery phase. This project should give us the information needed to decide whether there are currently any barriers for businesses in getting relevant regulatory information and whether a (potentially digital) solution is needed. To design an effective solution to any barriers identified, we also need to be able to understand businesses’ journeys when seeking regulatory information, how businesses currently identify what regulation applies to them and what tools they currently use to get this information. To help us make the case for change/intervention in this area we need a clear identification of the problem from a robust methodology. Who Are the Users We currently think the following groups could be users of any service we create: • Innovative businesses (probably SMEs or smaller) • Smaller businesses (Sub-SME official threshold) • People with an idea for a business (pre-start-up) • Overseas companies looking to invest in the UK From previous research done in BRE on SMEs and regulation we know that many SMEs outsource regulatory compliance functions to external regulatory intermediaries/consultants or get this advice from angel investors. Other businesses may have a member of staff acting as a compliance agent. These groups would be important user groups for this work. Similarly, from previous research we also know that there are industry regulatory experts or academics who may have particular expertise in the regulatory field on how businesses deal with regulations and obtaining regulatory information. It would be worthwhile including these stakeholders in any methodological approach. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done N/A Existing Team Currently we have a small team of civil servants working on this project, who have progressed it to this stage. The successful bidder will be working with: • A policy project lead • The senior responsible owner (SRO) for the project • An economist analytical lead • Supporting officers Each of the above people currently work on this project part-time, however the policy project lead will be spending the majority of their time on this requirement during the Discovery phase. Current Phase Discovery Work Location This project will be mostly conducted in your own offices with visits to our central London departmental site, 1 Victoria Street SW1H 0ET. We could co-locate with your proposed team 1 day a week for face to face meetings such as show and tells and for making key decisions and quality assurance on the work. Depending on where you are based this could either be at our site or yours. Working Arrangments We would want the team to be primarily based in your normal offices, however we could accommodate you for 1 day a week. Security Clearance BPSS clearance Additional T&Cs N/A Skills & Experience Detail what experience you team has had of working to the Service Standard, including Service Design Manual, Technology Code of Practice and wider industry standards (3%) Demonstrate your experience of delivering successful user needs research for Government (2%) Demonstrate your experience of working with public sector teams, particularly those with no/limited experience of Agile, in Discovery and iterative development (3%) Demonstrate your experience of working with SMEs and micro-businesses as users (3%) Detail how your team has successfully delivered robust qualitative findings through mediums such as interviews and focus groups (3%) Demonstrate how your team has skills in developing own topic guides, scripts and materials for facilitating workshops deferring final decisions to the BRE team. (1%) What experience your team has in distilling outcomes from user needs led Discovery research into findings/conclusions choosing appropriate ways to represent these, ensuring successful delivery of user needs. (3%) Demonstrate experience in being able to recruit a diverse yet relevant set of users/other groups such as SMEs, microbusinesses, academics, industry regulatory experts, compliance officers and angel investors. (1%) Nice to Haves Detail your experience of working within business regulation as a topic (1%) No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria Demonstrate how your proposed team’s technical expertise, solution, approach and methodology will ensure the successful delivery of this project. (9%) Provide details of the key risk and a plan for mitigating against them (4%) Demonstrate how your team’s approach and solution will develop robust user needs. (9%) Project plan and timescales proposed for the work (7%) Proposed team structure and staff experience (7%) Knowledge transfer into BRE (4%) Cultural Fit Criteria Pursue a transparent and collaborative way of working with BRE staff (4%) Refer to BRE staff for key decisions and quality control of work (4%) Demonstrate how you will share your knowledge with existing staff (4%) Challenge assumptions and status quo (4%) Approach for working with existing BRE staff (4%) Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers Budget range the total maximum value of this contract shall not exceed £85,000.00 excluding vat