C17692 Ongoing digital transformation of Animals in Science Regulation Unit's operations

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The newly developed licensing management system is in its infancy, with a backlog of features that will stabilise and enhance its offering. ASRU is currently dependent on several legacy systems and processes for certain critical operations. These systems and processes need to be decommissioned, meaning the critical operations they currently support need to be built into the new licensing system. This will provide ASRU and external users with a single, well-designed and secure system for carrying out all functions required for regulating and complying with regulation. Problem to Be Solved ASRU and establishments rely on several sub-optimal processes for carrying out their necessary duties. Among other things, we need to find a way to better support inspection and compliance reporting, better support establishments in going through their necessary ethical review processes, publish non-technical summaries quicker, and reduce the burden put on establishments when submitting their annual returns. Who Are the Users Licence applicants/holders work at universities and bioscience companies across the UK in pharmaceutical development, academic research and safety testing. Various named officers within establishments have roles in the application and management of licences. In 2019: • there are more than 2,500 active project licences, • there are 17,800 active personal licences • there are 150 active establishment licences Home Office staff assess and process applications, inspect establishments and respond to Parliamentary questions and FOIs. Annual returns are processed by a separate stats team within the Home Office. Early Market Engagement Work Already Done Over the last two and a half years, a new licence management system has been built that supports the application and assessment of, and the amendment to licences required to carry out regulated scientific procedures on protected animals in Great Britain. There is an extensive backlog of development in place to improve and optimise this into a mature and stable system, and design and research groundwork has been laid to add further functionality to support licence holders and ASRU staff. Existing Team The incumbent supplier provides a multidisciplinary team of developers, designers and user researchers. The new team is expected to have a similar make up, with professions as described in the Government’s service design manual. A team of civil servants will remain on the project, holding key roles such as product manager and service owner. Current Phase Beta Work Location The Animal Science Regulation Unit is based in London and Croydon. There’s flexibility with location, but close cooperation with ASRU and some co-locating will be necessary – particularly for show and tells. Contextual research is essential, so travel to the various universities and companies around the UK will be required. Working Arrangments The team must use agile methodologies, with regular stand ups and show and tells. Contextual research should be recorded and stored securely so the research assets can be given to the Home Office. User research must be carried out in accordance with the Market Research Society’s code of conduct (https://www.mrs.org.uk/standards/code_of_conduct ). Security Clearance All supplier staff working on the project will need to undergo a CTC security check. This will be sponsored by the Home Office. Additional T&Cs Travel and accommodation payable outside M25 when pre-approved and in line with HO T&S policy. Subsistence will not be paid. Exit Activities. Rate caps - rates over £1000 per day are excluded. SFIA 7 level resource is excluded. SFIA 6 is excluded for 'hands on' delivery roles. Skills & Experience Accessibility and assisted digital: Evidence recent (since February 2018) experience building inclusive services that everyone can use. Multidisciplinary team: Evidence recent (since February 2018) experience of providing a multidisciplinary team of developers, designers and user researchers. Prototyping and usability testing: Evidence recent (since February 2018) experience of taking a user-centred approach to iterative design Data—led decisions: Evidence recent (since February 2018) experience of making evidence-based design and build decisions rather than any based on the loudest opinions or hunches Government delivery: experience of (or detailed understanding of) successfully designing, testing and building of digital services for government Government service design: experience of (or detailed understanding of) using the digital service manual and design patterns, following the technology code of practice and style guide Technology stack: experience of building and deploying nodejs services into kubernetes infrastructure Live service support: experience of supporting and maintaining software in a live environment Nice to Haves Agile phase and service assessments: experience of (or detailed understanding of) taking digital services though beta and live assessments No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Essential Skills and Experience (stage 1) (4%) Approach and methodology (25%) Case Study (10%) Capability – organisation and team (16%) Added value (5%) Cultural Fit Criteria Ability to work openly together, honestly track progress, share problems; and open to learning from the mistakes made along the way (4%) Open-minded, collaborative approach to problem solving, showing recognition in the value of everyone’s contribution and a willingness to challenge the status quo (3%) Demonstrable evidence-based approach to decision making; using analytics data or insight from user testing to influence designs, rather than it being used to validate assumptions (3%) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Case study Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range