Strategic Partner for the digital transformation of Eye Care and other specialities

Tender description

Summary of the work NHSX are working with national and local NHS organisations to support a bold but grounded modern digital approach to transformation. We are looking for a supplier who can provide the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to provide external support and delivery on strategy, digital transformation, capability building and stakeholder management. Expected Contract Length 12 months Latest start date Monday 17 May 2021 Budget Range Up to £800k (plus VAT) Given the agile nature of the work, deliverables will be broken up into a number of statements of work. These will be agreed on fixed price or capped price basis with agreed deliverables. Why the Work is Being Done NHSX are working with national and local NHS organisations to support a bold but grounded modern digital approach to transformation. NHSX is seeking a partner to provide strategic and practical support to this ambitious user centred transformation work. Through our work transforming Eye Care, to improve clinical outcomes, patient experience and productivity, we will create a replicable model for NHS digital transformation. This will be focused on what opportunities for improvement should be embraced and how to scale their adoption across a federated system. Problem to Be Solved We are seeking an expert partner on this ambitious transformation work who can provide necessary strategic and practical support. This will involve providing expert advice, senior advocacy, stakeholder management and delivery of specific work. In addition, there are a number of specific deliverables to enable the scale and adoption of the approach across other areas. These will seek to translate what is being learnt by the delivery teams in practical, reusable things which can be used by others. This will cover: 1. Designing and documenting methods and reusable templates that can be used as a resource to standardise, scale and formalise delivery of digital transformation. 2. Development of content and materials for formal and informal training and coaching packages for selected teams across local, regional and national organisations to build awareness of the work and develop capability in specific to deliver digital transformation. Supporting the building of communities of practice. Who Are the Users NHSX staff, national and local health and care organisations, patients and the public Early Market Engagement None Work Already Done NHSX, NHSE/I and partners completed initial work into Eye Care transformation in January 2021. This has led to the setup of a number of discovery phases with delivery teams working on a number of different areas of the service. Existing Team A NHS led mixed team of in-house staff, contractors and an agency. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Successfully working with organisations to change their way of working by introducing modern digital ways of working such as agile and user-centred design methodologies • Demonstrable experience of supporting organisations in the public sector to apply the principles of user centred design and agile delivery methods to the digital transformation • Demonstrable experience of using service design or user research to influence organisation strategy or the approach of senior/board level decision makers • Full understanding and demonstrable experience of supporting organisations to use a range of research and design methodologies to deliver digital services for a diverse mix of users • Demonstrate recent (within the last 2 years) experience of recruiting a diverse workforce and promoting a supportive and inclusive culture. • Demonstrable and recent experience (within the last 2 years) of supporting organisations to develop digital services that meet the Government Service Standard. https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-standard Nice to Haves • Demonstrable experience of working in, and an understanding of, the challenges of digital transformation in the health and care sector. • Demonstrable experience of supporting teams in organisations to use different types of and fidelity of artefacts to communicate and get buy in from stakeholders. Work Location The work can be performed from any location, but it will be coordinated by staff in NHSX London Offices. Working Arrangments A flexible approach is required to meet the needs of each individual project. Work may be carried out from multiple locations including the Supplier’s offices. Attendance at NHSX offices in London and in other locations around England may be required for meetings. Given the potential impact on local services over the next few months, user research and design activities might need to be carried out remotely. Security Clearance Not Required Additional T&Cs Expenses will be paid in alignment to Department of Health and Social Care terms and conditions No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Essential skills from stage 1 (20%) • Describing how your approach and methodology to user centred service design and digital transformation support meets our needs (10%) • Approach and methodology to deliver generic and targeted support packages to build capability in user centred design and digital delivery (10%) • Approach and methodology to develop and test a range of resources to support teams to deliver user centred digital transformation (10%) • Provide a case study which demonstrates how your approach has supported the digital transformation of an organisation and what sustainable benefits this has enabled (10%) Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate how you have established trusted advisory relationships with senior stakeholders in large, complex organisations (5%) • Outline your approach to working with a range of stakeholders including ones with little knowledge of agile or user centred design, with examples of established productive, collaborative relationships (5%) • Provide examples of how your company has delivered social value e.g. created new jobs, reduced the disability employment gap, tackled workforce inequality or improved health and wellbeing (10%) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Reference Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. is there a current incumbent? The current provider Public Digital, have delivered the initial phase of work and have provided strategic support to the setup of the programme. This work is time limited and has defined deliverables. This procurement has not been discussed with them and they will need to sign an ethical wall before they are eligible to bid. NHSX operate fair, open and transparent tender processes, and bids are assessed purely on the information provided at each stage of the process. 2. Is there a credible incumbent in place for this opportunity based on the previous work carried out? The current provider, Public Digital, have delivered the initial phase of work and have provided strategic support to the setup of the programme. This work is time limited and has defined deliverables. This procurement has not been discussed with them and they will need to sign an ethical wall before they are eligible to bid. NHSX operate fair, open and transparent tender processes, and bids are assessed purely on the information provided at each stage of the process. 3. Can we see the output from the initial work that was completed in January? This will be shared with suppliers who are invited to Presentation. We will be doing Presentations for this ask, apologies this step was omitted from the DOS advert in error. 4. Can we see the requirements/scope for the discovery phases of work? This work is not just one discovery, there are a number of delivery teams working in different parts of the eye care programme. Although the work we need is discovery activities, as well as strategic support, it is not possible to share a specific scope at this stage. Any opportunities identified will be advertised if we are procuring them outside of this procurement 5. Will any of the in-house team/ resources be made available to the delivery partner, or will they be removed at the end of the discovery phase? There are a number of teams which have been stood up and will continue to support 6. Will NHSX (or appropriate other agency) provide a Product Owner or is that expected role expected to be provided by the delivery partner? The product owners will be in house staff 7. What would be involved in coordination activities? There are already a number of delivery teams and project teams working on different eye care deliverables. The supplier will be supporting NHSX's work to coordinate and align these activities behind a user centred understanding of the end to end service. 8. Can you confirm what you mean by ‘design methodologies’ in Q4; does this refer to relationships between different aspects of design (e.g. service design, content design, interaction design) or different design approaches (e.g. design thinking)? The question is referring to different design approaches rather than the different disciplines within design. So for areas which cover both, like 'service design', we are interested in how you have built knowledge and expertise of the methods and approaches rather than recruiting or supporting professional service designers. 9. Why is there no presentation stage in the bid for such a strategically important piece of work? There will be a presentation stage for this work - this should have been included in the advert, apologies this was omitted in error. 10. Is there a capped day rate for this opportunity? We are still considering but our intention is to a blend of outcomes and capped time and materials. 11. Please can you advise who the existing agency that you have been working with is. The existing agency is Public Digital 12. Hello, we cannot see any question to respond on costs. Is this required at this stage? Thanks We are evaluating the first stage on skills and experience. Successful suppliers will be asked to provide information on costs and rate cards for the next stage. 13. Within Essential Skills and Experience, you mention: Demonstrate recent (within the last 2 years) experience of recruiting a diverse workforce and promoting a supportive and inclusive culture. Would this relate to our own team or to a clients team? Within the client's team 14. You mention you have been working with an existing agency and contractors. Can you please outline how long you have been working with those partners and why you might be looking for another partner at this point? Our internal teams have been supported by an agency, Public Digital, since January 2021. The initial phase of this work has been to scope the deliverables and put in place the team and operational structures for delivery. This short term phase of work has a clearly defined end point. So we are competing this next opportunity to ensure we obtain VFM and ensure we have the right supplier for the next phase of work. 15. Please can you provide details of what the next steps are following this initial application i.e. deadlines for the written proposal/if there will be an interview and when? Following moderation, successful suppliers will be invited to stage 2 - a written proposal and interview. Moderation is currently scheduled to take place the week commencing 26th April and interviews the week commencing 17th May. 16. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold at NHSX? The panel will be made up of senior digital transformation and design staff from NHSX. 17. Can you please provide your understanding and expectations of the balance of work between the practical support (e.g. deployment of individuals or teams to deliver specific pieces of work) and strategic support (e.g. expert advice, senior advocacy, stakeholder management, capability development)? There will be a need for strategic support throughout the contract period and a number of specific deliverables which will need to be done over the first 6-9 months of the contract period. 18. At this point in time (Stage 1), we are planning to only respond to the initial 8 questions (Essential and Nice-to-have skills & Experience) by April 23rd. Please advise if otherwise That is correct 19. From the initial completed work into Eye Care transformation, have you identified any priority local health and care locations or regions? We are planning on working with three regions though we are still identifying them 20. Who are the stakeholders? There are a lot of stakeholders for this work, including senior execs in NHSE/I and NHSX, other teams delivering digital projects or transformation work, specific eye care stakeholders and local areas. 21. With respect to “NHSX are working with national and local NHS organisations to support a bold but grounded modern digital approach to transformation. NHSX is seeking a partner to provide strategic and practical support to this ambitious user centred transformation work.” 'bold’ and ‘ambitious’ also imply risk. Can you provide any further breakdown of what is bold / ambitious / risky about the opportunity? One of the ambitions for this work is to show in reality the benefits of taking an agile, iterative, user centred approach to service transformation. This is not the traditional approach for transforming health and care services. So the 'boldness' refers to the need to demonstrate the value of these ways of working and as we are working at a large scale on real clinical services. 22. With respect to “NHSX, NHSE/I and partners completed initial work into Eye Care transformation in January 2021.” Can we see the output of the 2021 discovery work? This will be shared with suppliers who are invited to Presentation. We will be doing presentations for this and apologies that this was omitted from the DOS advert. 23. With respect to “Demonstrable experience of supporting teams in organisations to use different types of and fidelity of artefacts to communicate. Can you give examples of ‘artefacts’ to help clarify this? We are referring to artefacts like service blueprints, user journey maps or roadmaps 24. Are there target areas and/or current benchmarks for Digital Transformation that you can share? No 25. With respect to “Through our work transforming Eye Care, to improve clinical outcomes, patient experience and productivity. What mechanisms currently exist to measure patient experience and productivity? Do they need to be delivered in a project SoW? Some exist but others will need to be defined through this work 26. With regards to the pre-qualification questions – are these the only form of criteria that will be used to assess the supplier submissions, or would there be additional submissions/stages required following pre-qualification? If so, would these be due ahead of the 23 April deadline? There will be a presentation stage for this work - this should have been included in the advert and apologies this was omitted in error 27. How does this fit into the wider NHS Strategy, is the intention to use this transformation as a blue print to other NHS services and if so which services? The intention is to use this transformation as a blue print for other health and care services. We have not decided the next areas of focus. 28. We recognise the role as a strategic partner to enable digital transformation, are you able to provide any further detail on the ambition of transformation and scope of deliverables? Should we be successful, what will be the next step after this written submission? The deliverables will focus on supporting the scale of these transformation approaches e.g. the development of a blueprint or playbook. There will be a presentation stage for this work - this should have been included in the advert and apologies this was omitted in error 29. With reference to the essential skill “Demonstrate recent (within the last 2 years) experience of recruiting a diverse workforce and promoting a supportive and inclusive culture.” does this refer to internal recruitment or helping our clients to recruit a diverse workforce and support an inclusive culture? Within the client's team 30. With reference to the problem to be solved and the first point on expectations of suppliers “Designing and documenting methods and reusable templates that can be used as a resource to standardise, scale and formalise delivery of digital transformation”. Please can you give an example of what you mean by this and the outcomes you’d be looking to achieve as a result. There are a number of barriers and challenges to good digital delivery so intention is to make it as simple as possible for other teams or local areas to copy our work and reduce the time or effort it takes for them to transform. Examples could include, how to setup teams, financial governance models, roadmaps, service blueprints. 31. Existing work describes a combined approach including an agency. Please can you share who that agency is. The existing agency is Public Digital 32. What is the turnaround time between stage one and two of the bid – e.g. after submitting on Friday 23 April, when are written proposals expected for the 3 shortlisted suppliers? Following moderation, successful suppliers will be invited to stage 2 - a written proposal and interview. Moderation is currently scheduled to take place the week commencing 26th April and interviews the week commencing 17th May. 33. What is the cadence of speciality discovery exercises to the work we would be expected to do? We currently have three delivery teams starting with discovery phases for different aspects of the service and there is the potential to stand up more teams. Also, the work to design and document reusable methods will need to take a user centred design approach. 34. Over the course of a 12 month period – how many sprints would this programme expect to deliver? Unknown 35. In the essential skill “Full understanding and demonstrable experience of supporting organisations to use a range of research and design methodologies to deliver digital services for a diverse mix of users” – please clarify exactly what “diverse mix of users” means. Does this include providers across the system, patients, staff etc.? Diverse mix of users' covers both the different types of users in the health and care system (e.g. patients, staff, providers, commissioners, third sector) and diverse groups of those users. 36. Within the scoring methodology it states ‘Essential skills from stage 1 (20%)’. Do all Essential Skills from stage 1 carry an equal weighting in relation to the 20% scoring or are there specific skills that have a higher score weighting? The first two skills have a higher weighting (4% each) and the final four skills have the same weighting (3% each)