Social Work England digital services development

Tender description

Summary of the work Continued development of Social Work England’s public facing website and case management system using Appian, Umbraco and C# .NET core. Solutions need to be GDS compliant and conform to WCAG 2.1. Expected Contract Length 24 months (2 years) with an option to extend for a further 6 months. Latest start date Thursday 1 April 2021 Budget Range An indicative budget of up to £3.6m is available for the initial 24 months contract term (split into £1.8m per contract year). Should Social Work England decide to exercise the option to extend, up to an additional £900k will be made available. The total contract value including any extension shall not exceed £4.5m (net). Budget approval is subject to Cabinet Office spending controls and Social Work England’s sponsoring body sign-off. Payments will be linked to delivery against agreed SoW throughout the contract lifecycle. Social Work England does not commit to any minimum or maximum spend at this point. Why the Work is Being Done Social Work England became the new regulator for social workers in England in December 2019. To date Social Work England (in collaboration with our incumbent digital supplier) have delivered a GDS compliant digital service, which includes delivery against our mandatory regulatory functions, with services such as: • A public facing website that supports social workers and members of the public (https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/) • A Fitness to Practise case management system using Appian • A Registration case management system using Appian • Continued Professional Development (CPD) functionality We now require further development of our public facing website and case management system. We have a roadmap of new services required which will improve on users’ experiences, which may include, but not be limited to: • Implementation of new identity verification service • Integration with third-party business application(s) • Implementation of Education and Quality assurance functionality • Employer portal • Fitness to Practise digest • Online learning platform • CPD / Standards app (Android / iOS) Problem to Be Solved Social Work England went live on 2nd December 2019 with a public facing website and case management system that covered the minimal viable product; enabling us to deliver on our mandatory regulatory functions. During 2020, we have continued to develop our public facing website and case management system to deliver against a backlog of user stories, However, a significant amount of work is still required to deliver all business functionality (over and above our mandatory regulatory functions). All services delivered must comply with the 14 GDS Service Standards and WCAG 2.1. Who Are the Users As an applicant: • I need to manage and complete my registration online so that I am able to practise. • I need to manage and complete my request to be restored to the register. As a social worker: • I need to manage and complete my annual registration renewal. • I need to manage and upload evidence of CPD. • I need to manage the information Social Work England hold about me. As a service consumer, member of the public or organisation: • I need to be able to raise a concern about a social worker's fitness to practise. • I need to be able to search which social work education courses meet quality standards. • I need to be able to search the register. As the Regulator, we must: • Manage and process the payment of fees from applicants and social workers. • Ensure that we deliver against the statutory legislation, to protect the public. As an employee of Social Work England: • I need to be able to manage different types of cases. • I need to be able to securely communicate and share documentation with key stakeholders through the system, to better manage relationships. Early Market Engagement We will hold a short telephone supplier event (via Microsoft Teams) on Friday 4th December at 13:00 to provide further clarifications, as required. The details of the event will appear in the question and answers section below. Similarly, suppliers are also encouraged to direct any questions that they may have to commercial.team@socialworkengland.org.uk before the latest date for questions identified. All answers will be listed in the clarification Q & A section below. Work Already Done To date Social Work England (in collaboration with our incumbent digital supplier) have delivered a GDS compliant digital service, which includes delivery against our mandatory regulatory functions, with services including: • A public facing website that support social workers and members of the public • A Fitness to Practise case management system using Appian • A Registration case management system using Appian • Continued Professional Development (CPD) functionality Discovery and Alpha phases have been completed and Social Work England is now in Beta. Further information around current processes will be provided to the successful supplier as part of contract implementation. Existing Team Social Work England are currently delivering on the development of our digital services in conjunction with the incumbent supplier. Our in-house team consists of the following: • Senior Developer • Business Analyst x2 • User Researcher To address capability gaps, we require the following skills to be available within the team of specialists: • Appian Developer • Full Stack Developer (#C .Net core, Umbraco) • Database Developer (MySQL) • User Researcher • Integration Tester • Accessibility Consultant • Website Designer • Scrum Master It should be noted that the above individuals may not be required for every sprint. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Demonstrate experience of developing solutions using Appian. • Demonstrate experience of delivering web content via Umbraco. • Demonstrate experience of delivering complex solutions in C# .Net Core. • Demonstrate experience of delivering complex solutions using MySQL. • Demonstrate experience of delivering complex solutions using Java script. • Demonstrate experience of using Azure cloud-based technologies. • Demonstrate experience of delivering complex GDS compliant services. • Demonstrate experience of how your team is able to work and supply services using 'agile' delivery methodology. • Demonstrate experience of integrating solutions with other third party services (such as GOV.UK digital services). • Demonstrate experience of working as an inter-organisational team with commissioning organisation and operating within its governance. • Demonstrate experience of delivering rapid and iterative user research and user experience activities including for users with accessibility and assisted digital needs. Nice to Haves • Demonstrate experience of producing engaging content that meets user needs. • Demonstrate experience of working with and delivery outcomes for other regulatory bodies and health and social care organisations. Work Location Social Work England is based in Sheffield but work does not need to take place within Sheffield. However, there will be instances where in-person collaboration at our offices (1 North Bank, Blonk Street, Sheffield, S3 8JY) may be required, so close proximity to Sheffield is desirable. Working Arrangments Development to be undertaken using agile delivery methods (per GDS Service Standards). To deliver requirements against our required functionality, the successful supplier is expected to offer end to end development solutions. We want to form a strong relationship with the successful supplier, collaborating to achieve successful outcomes as part of inter-organisational team. Access will be provided to all code base, infrastructure, and any other platforms that may be required to deliver the services. Deliverables will be overseen by Social Work England’s; Head of IT and Data, Programme Manager and Project Manager. Travel and subsistence expenses will not be reimbursed. Security Clearance No specific security clearance required. Additional T&Cs This contract will be subject to a break clause on 31st March 2022. Should Social Work England choose to exercise this clause, our liability shall be limited to costs reasonably incurred by the supplier up until the 31st March 2022 only. Social Work England must give a minimum of 30 Working Days’ notice to the supplier should they wish to enforce the break clause. Suppliers must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Evidence of similar digital services and outputs (in accordance with GDS Design Principles and Service Standards) being successfully delivered on time and within budget. • Evidence of successfully meeting the GDS Service Standard, delivering user research, user experience, and service design capability and activities for a digital service during an agile iterative development. • Evidence of setting up and configuring an ‘Appian system’ to deliver the end to end formal processes and therefore services of an organisation. • Describe your suggested size, shape and make-up of the proposed team. Including how you will achieve and maintain value for money during the life of the contract. • Provide an estimated timeframe for the completion of work (considering each SoW), demonstrating how you will organise work during the life of the contract. • Evidence of recommending sustainable technology choices and the delivery capability for an end to end digital service. • Evidence of connected iterative web and Appian development and delivery serving an organisation's customer service offer and formal processes. • Explain your approach to producing engaging content as a key part of the user experience that meets end user needs. Including for users with accessibility and assisted digital needs. • Explain your approach to managing risks and dependencies during the life of the contract, including innovative solutions of mitigation. • Evidence of configuring and setting up services in a secure and effective way to manage and report on data. • Evidence of integrating systems in a secure and efficient way, using appropriate architectural patterns and technology to ensure systems are loosely coupled and performant. Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate how your team will work successfully with Social Work England as part of an inter-organisational team, working remotely. • Describe your approach of collaboration with multiple organisational stakeholders with the aim to achieve service outcomes, demonstrating how your team will work with us in an open and transparent manner. • Explain how you will transfer technical knowledge and address any capability gaps to Social Work England’s team during the project. • Demonstrate your approach to engaging with internal stakeholders with low technical expertise (e.g. explaining complex issues in a clear, simple and concise manner). Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you share details of your aforementioned market warm up session? We will be holding a market warm-up session on Friday 04/12/2020 to start promptly at 13:05. This session is designed to provide more detail on the opportunity, and there will also be an opportunity for potential providers to ask clarification questions. Any questions and answers during the session will be published on the DOS advert afterwards. Social Work England representatives will do introductions, but we will not be asking potential suppliers (participants) to introduce themselves if they wish to remain anonymous. Please join us by phone: Dial-In Number - +44 (0)20 3321 5262 Conference ID - 815413814# 2. Do you have an incumbent supplier, and if so, who is it? Yes, Corporate Document Services (CDS) Limited are currently delivering services. 3. Is it CDS Ltd who carried out the discovery analysis stage? Yes – mainly. Prior to the original set-up of Social Work England’s digital services (pre-September 2018), some Discovery work was delivered by a small team of civil servants (via our sponsor organisation the Department for Education), supplemented by contractors via various suppliers. 4. Can you please provide information on the current architecture, and any change that you are looking for? We are not specifically looking for change. We have delivered (in conjunction with the incumbent supplier) a cloud-based Appian based case management system. This connects to an Azure instance which has our MySQL database, and our C#.NET core framework, connecting individual servers using APIs. This further interfaces to an Umbraco front end website.We also use a number of GOV.UK services (Verify, Pay & Notify) and interface with GoCardless for direct debit transactions. We have made the decision for platforms to be mainly cloud based. From a development perspective, we have a mature CI/CD process using Octopus Deploy. 5. Are your business processes completely evolved or is that something that you are looking to change (from a landscape viewpoint)? Our core regulatory functions are in place; we allow applicants (prospective and returning social workers) to apply to our register, we manage social worker’s registration status through our renewals process, we take payments of registration/renewal fees, we allow members of the public to raise fitness to practise concerns about practicing social workers and we review and approve social work education courses/providers. As we evolve as an organisation, the finer principles of these functions may change. 6. Are your business processes completely evolved or is that something that you are looking to change (from a landscape viewpoint)? Continued. From a development perspective, there are a number of additional needs that are required to supplement and underpin our core regulatory functions. For example, we are keen to use the data that we collect in a better way to help provide a better understanding of the social work profession. 7. What specifically do you want to do with the data that you collect, and what outcomes are expecting to achieve from better ‘use’? We are currently going through an internal process with key stakeholders from each business area to understand what sorts information we would like to see as an organisation from data reporting/manipulation, so we are unable to give a detailed picture at this stage. 8. How do you foresee the team requirements developing over the life of the contract? Are you expecting a blended model for the duration of the contract, or do you expect a blended model at the outset, before progressing to handing over development activities to internal based resource before/upon contract end? We are a small organisation with around 220 employees. Based on our current development requirements, we would require significantly more resource within our IT team than we can currently sustain. As a result, we envisage in the immediate future, that we will continue to operate a blended model (internal staff from Social Work England and external resource from a third party provider) to deliver our business needs through the delivery of software development activities.