Further development of common tools to support case work with residents

Tender description

Summary of the work To effectively develop and iterate on the work the Council has started to improve workflow tools to support cross functional service delivery for residents. Expected Contract Length 6 months Latest start date Sunday 18 July 2021 Budget Range This procurement is to the maximum total value of £500,000 excluding VAT in order to ensure maximum flexibility. However, we expect to agree to small statements of work for each £80-£100k so that we can align investment to clear outcomes for users. Why the Work is Being Done Following the cyber attack last October, the Council has been developing a suite of user-centred cloud-native applications to help teams perform common tasks in the processing of service requests from residents. This part of our recovery work is accelerating Hackney’s move to modern, cloud services in line with our strategic direction before the attack. We’re developing these solutions natively in the cloud, using open source technologies so we will be able to deliver value more quickly and prioritise security, user experience and reduce the overall revenue of costs of delivering the tools. Since January we’ve been developing a suite of tools across council services (housing, social care, customer services) that support core business processes. These reusable components will ensure we can provide simple, secure, scalable technology that helps us work collaboratively to deliver better services for residents and enable future redesign of services to meet our residents’ needs. Problem to Be Solved Building on the first phase of work to develop common tools, we are now looking to understand how these tools can work across multiple services. We have incurred some technical and design debt due to working at pace and in crisis response following the cyber attack. Therefore the next phase of this work will unpick some of this, deliver further functionality that our services need and help us build a foundational product roadmap for further development of our common tools. Key objectives to meet in this phase - Reduce admin time for staff that record resident information - Enable residents to work with their workers through shared plans - Make it easier to share information across services - Reuse of core Hackney products like document evidence store Who Are the Users Primary users are our frontline practitioners and business support staff from council services where their work covers the following patterns: - Refer a user for specialist help - View and manage my cases that need action - Understand resident context and collaboratively plan their support We have described the above as services that likely exist as a complex web of components. We’re focussed on delivering the core, most used functionality first while carrying out research about next steps as we go. We would expect iterated and detailed user stories to come out of research and planning sessions. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done Project Documentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dWElDD1Y8ChJFe3uh30mVehPYCh_O8oFFV9IOszzY-k/edit?usp=sharing We have developed beta tools for a single view (https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/housing-needs-single-view-ui), shared plan (https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/housing-needs-shared-plan ) and two way messaging tool (https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/housing-needs-collab-casework-ui) We have a form builder to collect data (https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/remultiform) We have a beta for a document upload and evidence store (https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/document-evidence-store-frontend) Existing Team We will operate a blended team from HackIT and the successful bidder. From Hackney we have the following roles to support this work: programme director, delivery manager, product manager, user research, service designer, data experts, limited front and back end development. Current Phase Live Skills & Experience • Demonstrate an understanding of the user needs associated with the delivery of one or more local authority services • Demonstrate a track-record of user-centred design and Agile approaches to delivery • Experience of developing applications that have been assessed as meeting a government Service Standard • Experience of working collaboratively with an in-house team, building skills and capabilities to support a smooth handover • Have experience of working with .NET core, CircleCI, AWS and Terraform, mongodb, postgres as well as react and next.js for frontend • Have experience of developing ‘in the open’ - using tools such as Github • Have experience of designing and developing minimum viable solutions • Have experience of designing to meet the public sector accessibility guidelines • Demonstrate track record of working to established standards (eg pattern Library, API standards) and show how you will contribute to the further development of these standards • Demonstrate how they put security first in their work Nice to Haves • Demonstrate an understanding of Hackney’s approach to technology and data • Demonstrate how they provide opportunities for apprentices and junior members of in house teams • Experience of working with clients in critical situations and strong track record of working with stakeholders through change processes Work Location Hackney Council offices in Hillman Street, E8 (remotely during Covid-19 restrictions) Working Arrangments This work can be done remotely but will require fortnightly reporting (eg via show & tells) to involve key stakeholders and regular engagement with practitioners through video conferences. We will provide access to key systems to project team members where required. Security Clearance All people working on this project will need a DBS. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Understanding of the brief • Clarity of the approach • Experience from a similar project • Team structure, including skills, experiences and relevance of individuals • Identification of risks and plan to mitigate them • Blended day rates of the team Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Share knowledge and experience with team members and the wider service • Hackney Council is a diverse organisation, reflecting the diversity of our borough. Describe how you would successfully work as a team with Hackney and other suppliers in a diverse environment Payment Approach Time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 5% Price 35% Questions from Suppliers 1. Hi, you seem to have a stated a Sunday 18th July start date. You left one week between end of phase 1 of procurement and start date, is this correct? Start date for this phase of work is Monday 19th July, not Sunday as listed. 2. Is there an incumbent supplier? Yes, FutureGov Ltd 3. Who is currently providing the development services? As above, we have an incumbent supplier - FutureGov Ltd 4. Could the Authority please share the Procurement timetable? We are looking for a supplier to start by July 19th and will assess as per the details on digital marketplace the week before. 5. Would alternatives to.NET be considered? Using .net aligns with the HackIT standard and means handover and ongoing maintenance will be easier.We will always consider alternatives given a compelling reason. 6. Can you provide likely timescales for the second stage – proposal submission? We would look for suppliers to submit the second stage by 15th July most likely 7. Do you expect the incumbent supplier to re-apply for this opportunity, given their obvious advantageous position The opportunity is open to all biddersThe code is open on Git and the contract is structured to avoid lock in to incumbentsWe have successful experience of onboarding new agencies through this approach