Welsh Government SHELL Digitisation - C043/2020/2021

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The Welsh Government will be launching a new employability support programme in 2021. A new digital system is required to support this programme as current systems are largely based on paper processes and will not scale to provide the required functionality or reliability. The policy objective is to support individuals by providing financial support. The initial target group will include those either recently made redundant or about to be made redundant; those who are unemployed or economically inactive, and vulnerable groups. Problem to Be Solved Deliver an end-to-end digital service that allows: • users in a defined target group to discover information about grants and apply, prove eligibility and be awarded a grant for training and, where appropriate, for removing other barriers to employment (e.g. childcare, travel, accommodation); • employers to discover information about grants and to apply, prove eligibility and be awarded a grant to support the employment of individuals in the target group; • Welsh Government staff to administer the process (handle queries, deliver reports, make approvals, manage payments etc.) Who Are the Users The primary user group consists of individuals living in Wales who are unemployed, or in the target group for assistance, who need to access grant funding to undertake training. Training providers and employers also need to be able to access the service to make claims. Welsh Government staff will manage the system, and other external providers will help individuals to use the service. Policy officials, statisticians, and funding agencies will require reports and data from the system. Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done An internal discovery phase is currently underway. A summary report of the discovery phase will be made available to suppliers selected to progress to the selection stage. Existing Team We expect the successful bidder to provide all necessary skills and roles for this work, e.g. both for user research/service design and technical elements of service delivery. The divisional Digital Lead, who has experience of the delivery of digital services across government (e.g. GDS exemplars), will be responsible for oversight of this work. A third-party security consultant will be engaged, and an independent IT Health Check will be undertaken. Handover sessions to an internal team will be required as part of the Beta phase. Current Phase Discovery Work Location The supplier will work for the Welsh Government. We expect the supplier to work remotely, on-shore, in the UK; with the ability to attend regular meetings (e.g. for planning, user research, or demonstrations of work) in Cardiff or Swansea if and when we are able to return to physically meeting in person. Working Arrangments Based in Welsh Government buildings, Cardiff however remote and leveraged resources can be used for design, development and support. All resources must be on-shored. No Offshore or near shore resources shall be used as part of the development and support. Working hours are standard hours Monday to Friday (excl. bank holidays), 9:00 – 17:00. Security Clearance All resources who require access to Welsh Government systems in order to work will need to be Security Cleared (SC). All non-technical and supporting roles shall be cleared to Counter Terrorist Check(CTC). All staff will also need to complete Welsh Government security and ID Checks. Supplier must have Cyber Essentials. Additional T&Cs Service must comply with GDPR regulations & have successfully passed an independent IT Health Check. All front-end screens must: • Made available to the user bilingually, in the languages of Welsh and English; • Compliant to WCAG v2.1 level double-AA standard as a minimum and, where possible, level triple-AAA; • Fully responsive & follow the GOV.WALES design standards for any externally accessible pages; • Tested and verified as being fully compatible with the browsers in this list: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/designing-for-different-browsers-and-devices & Assistive Technologies in this list: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/testing-with-assistive-technologies The Supplier shall be required to sign Welsh Government Security Aspects Letter prior to commencing. Skills & Experience Experience of successfully delivering Cloud solutions Experience of working with current Microsoft stack, including but not limited to Developing in Azure, Power BI, Dynamics. Experience of developing, and documenting APIs that meet current UK Government guidance on documenting API: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-document-apis Experience of architecting and delivering microservices based architectures Experience of integrating with other services (e.g. GOV.UK Notify, SAP) Experience of setting up and delivering using a Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline Experience of developing a suite of automated tests using a Test Driven Development (TDD)/ Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) approach to delivery Experience of delivering fully responsive front-end solutions that meet all current government requirements Proven track record of adhering to security standards e.g. ISO27001 or equivalent. Experience of undertaking iterative user research into user behaviour on planned new digital services Proven track record of successful knowledge transfer to ensure systems are reliably handed over to other team(s) to manage live running/BaU Experience of delivering using the GDS service standard and Design Principles Experience of delivering Alpha and Beta phases of the GDS service lifecycle A proven track record of using an agile approach to service delivery, both in development and team management Proven ability in delivering automated reporting/MI solutions Experience in undertaking detailed analysis into service design ahead of creating a digital service in a policy area for the first time What is your earliest start date Nice to Haves Experience of delivering payment processing services, e.g. grants. Experience of working in a government/public sector context Experience of working with multilingual approaches to digital service delivery Experience of working with case work systems / internal management of workflow No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria Technical approach and methodology (e.g. how will architecture and technical choices be determined? how will data be handled? Cloud first/API/micro-services/integrations); (7 points) How will development be undertaken (e.g. how do deployments take place?, CI pipeline) (5 points) How will research be carried out to ensure that the service meets user needs? (5 points) How will delivery be managed and priorities determined (e.g. iterative approach, MVP)? (5 points) How will user interfaces be built (e.g. accessibility, standards etc.)? (5 points) How will Alpha/Beta phases be run (e.g. prototype, test etc.)? (3 points) How will quality be assured (e.g. testing, TDD/ BDD etc.)? (5 points) How will be team be made up (e.g. what roles? Is there user research, front-end, back-end, architecture?)? (7 points) How will security be built into the solution (e.g. ISO 27001, threat vectors etc.) (5 points)? How will approach to reporting data from the service be managed? (3 points) Cultural Fit Criteria Undertaking iterative user research as part of digital service design; (4 points) Work in an agile/iterative approach aligned to Government service standard; (e.g. prototype options, test hypotheses, develop an MVP, deliver iteratively rather than in single big releases); (4 points) Working in the open, securely open sourcing code, sharing findings openly and transparently with stakeholders; (3 points) Working within a Welsh context, and of designing and developing bilingual services for users; (2 points) Managing the transitions through the service lifecycle from discovery to alpha to beta to live; (2 points) Documenting and/or training staff so that they can easily take over BaU ownership of developed systems; (2 points) Working collaboratively with the client, taking a proactive approach to issues, risks & a no blame approach at all times; Proactively identifying issues, challenges & resolving these; (1 points) Managing a remote team, and ensuring effective communication and timely delivery. (2 points) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 20% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range there is approx. £1million for delivery of alpha and beta.