CAID Combined AI Classifiers Harness 2

Tender description

Summary of the work Deliver a harness that integrates the predictions of 2 or more AI classifiers of Indecent Images of Children (IIoC) and produces a final more accurate outcome-based prediction. Where optimal engagement is made of human experts to further enable the best outcome. Expected Contract Length 2 Years + 6 Months Latest start date Monday 6 June 2022 Budget Range The Home Office Mandated Rate Card will be used. The Home Office Rate Card will be published on 28.01.2022. We envisage that this work will fall Outside IR35, however a full IR35 Determination will be concluded prior to contract signature. Fixed Price. Why the Work is Being Done The aim of the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) is to continue to provide UK law enforcement with an image database and associated tools to aid investigations into indecent images of children. Over the coming years, the CAID Transformation Programme aims to expand CAID in line with policing priorities and provide new capabilities utilizing AI and advanced automation to examine and categorize large volumes of images and videos to streamline the investigation and prosecution of offenders and help to safeguard children from abuse. Problem to Be Solved During a child sexual abuse investigation all files on a device not previously known to CAID need to be assessed for illegal imagery of children. An existing AI is already deployed that aids this process. We seek a supplier to deliver a combined AI classifier harness to bring together the predictive outputs of 2 or more classifiers to produce better classification outcomes with significantly less burden on Police Officers. Who Are the Users The users of CAID include UK Police Forces, the National Crime Agency, and the Internet Watch Foundation. Law Enforcement Organizations need to assess illegal images and videos of children so they can safeguard victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse and prosecute offenders. Once the assessment is complete victim identification officers review any new material. As an assessor in a child sexual abuse investigation I need to assess every previously unknown to CAID image and video on a seized device so that the offender can be correctly prosecuted to the level of their crime. As a victim identification Officer in a child sexual abuse investigation I need to have access to correctly assessed images and videos, identified as new to CAID, so that I can help identify any new victims in order that they can be safeguarded. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done The CAID Transformation Programme will have 2 AI Classifiers to assess indecent images of children (IIoC). The “1st AI Classifier”, and “The “2nd AI Classifier” Existing Team The CAID programme comprises of a portfolio of projects across strategy & transformation, products & projects, and technical release workstreams. The service will primarily be client-side and operate in partnership with Home Office civil-servants, suppliers and policing. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Experience of working with law enforcement or government and, with this, the knowledge of expected controls and governance arrangements. • Experience of evolving and upgrading legacy systems, decoupling boundary interfaces to enable new capabilities to be integrated one new service at a time. • Experience of providing project leadership and support for projects with multiple and complex dependencies. • Proven knowledge and expertise in data governance for the public sector where data sensitivity and security are a major consideration. • Experience in providing a flexible resource profile that can efficiently adapt to the demands of the programme, meeting short- and long-term resourcing needs. • Evidence of seeking the best capabilities available in the industry, looking to build on the best of open-source tech or potential consortium delivery with a specialist supplier. • Experience of continuous delivery and how best to break down a project into tangible delivery steps, monitoring benefits realized and implementing continual improvement practices throughout. • Experience of maximizing knowledge retention and skills transfer, including advancing knowledge sharing, documentation, and the use of enterprise repositories. • Experience in integration technologies and orchestration, data processing pipelines and the load balancing of data processes. Nice to Haves • Human machine workflow optimization. • Specific experience in policing, public sector and/or CAID. Work Location The CAID Team are based in Croydon, London. The team must be able to onboard and work remotely with occasional travel to other UK locations that include London, West Yorkshire, and Croydon. Working Arrangments The supplier will provide team members to deliver and manage the required outcomes. Team members will be protected from exposure to the imagery stored on CAID but discussing the subject matter could be still distressing. The team must be flexible to work remotely or from Home Office locations within the M25 area. Some UK based travel may be required. Pricing will be based on a hybrid of T&M, fixed price, and milestone payments. Day rates must be aligned with the Home Office-mandated rate card. Security Clearance The service requires resources who either have or are prepared to apply for and obtain SC or NPPV3 (Non-Police Personnel Vetting level 3) clearances. Additional T&Cs The Home Office expect to own all project specific foreground IPR including the source-code for the Combined AI Classifiers Harness. The Home Office will not pay expenses for travelling from Supplier work locations to Home Office or other locations within the M25 area. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Approach to flexible working, assigning multi-skilled personnel to meet CAID goals. • Leverage 3rd party commercial, open-source, and in-house capabilities in delivery. • Approach to sharing knowledge and skills transfer with the customer. • Approach to through-life product management - in particular ambition toward evolving the capability as a long-term product. • Identification of risks and dependencies and offered mitigation approaches. • Demonstrate how you would understand CAID user and stakeholder requirements to deliver capability that meets business needs. • Value for Money. • Skills and expertise in human factors, including any research or experience in combining AI with human expertise. • Overall technical solution. • Source code handover. • Other: • Experience of working with public sector organizations. Share knowledge and experience with other team members. • Genuine enthusiasm for tackling child sexual abuse. Work as a team across our organization and with other suppliers. • Be adaptable and flexible and able to deliver against changing priorities. Be inventive and look to build a solution that utilizes the best of human experts with AI. • Proactive issue management, problem resolution and improving ways of working. Be transparent, have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes. • A commercial desire to use this opportunity to develop or enhance a product that helps combat child sexual abuse, where consequently the product will be improved and evolved over time. • An operational staff wellbeing policy detailing the support available to staff involved throughout the length of the project. Cultural Fit Criteria • Cultural Fit, WILL NOT form part of the Assessment Criteria at mini-competition stage. However Social Value will be instead assessed at 10% out of the overall scores available. • The Home Office adhere to the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-value-act-information-and-resources) which requires commissioners who procure services to consider social, economic and environmental benefits. • The Home Office practises social value procurement to help communities: • •recover from the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19), • •tackle economic inequality, • •fight climate change, • •promote equal opportunity and wellbeing, • For further guidance refer to: • https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/940828/Social-Value-Model-Quick-Reference-Table-Edn-1.1-3-Dec-20.pdf Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Case study • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 10% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Hi is there an incumbent? There is no incumbent provider, this is a new requirement. 2. Does the off-payroll guidelines also apply to Small business with less than 50 employees bidding for the project ? f the 50 individuals are classified as Associates and not on your payroll (i.e. they have their own limited company) then the Off Payroll rules applies. If your 50 employees are on your payroll and your Finance department manages income Tax deductions, employee National Insurance deductions etc., pay these to HMRC, then Off Payroll rules will NOT apply. Some Guidelines below. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-off-payroll-working-ir35 3. Can you define what you mean by “harness”? In other-words, do you see this as being primarily a data-science project whereby we need to understand how the two existing AI-classifiers work “under-the-hood” in order to develop a third “parent AI classifier” that combines the two? Or do you see this as being primarily a data-engineering and integration project whereby the two existing AI classifiers are “black-box” and we need to develop integrated workflows (including human assessment), data pipelines and APIs to combine the outputs from the two existing classifiers into an user-interface/dashboard of some sort? Or all of the above? Primarily a data-engineering and integration project whereby the two existing AI classifiers are “black-box” and the supplier needs to develop integrated workflows (including human assessment), data pipelines and APIs, to combine the outputs from the two existing classifiers, and publish these to an existing COTS platform through it’s API interface. The existing COTS platform will store the harness results, and provides the UI for users to view the updated information. The harness rules and business workflow will be defined by Home Office, and will change during the life of the contract. 4. As a small business we do not hold resource in bench and can onboard external resources only after issuance of contract.How quickly will you need all the resources to be deployed for the project from the contract signing date? Would you allow staggered resource deployment ? We would be expecting any company to be able to onboard suitably security SC cleared staff that meet the appropriate technical requirements within a couple of weeks of contract award. We would expect a core contingency of staff to start straight away with a plan showing a timeline of how it will ramp up to full capacity. 5. Hi Team,Request your clarifications on below questions:1.Is the requirements for ‘Automated or semi-automated workflow to bring together the predictive outputs of 2 or more classifiers2.Request you to share the details on current infrastructure setup with respect to AI models development, deployment, API integration, CI/CD pipeline for legacy and non-legacy systems.3.Request your clarifications on how the legacy systems is related/connected to the AI classifier workflow requirements.Thank you. 1.Yes, the requirement is for automated or semi-automated workflow to bring together the predictive outputs of 2 or more classifiers2.We cannot provide details of the current infrastructure. The request is too broad and covers classified information. We can state it is hosted in a secure data centre, connected with a secure network. 3.The legacy, and AI systems, are all COTS platforms, accessed using API calls. CAID currently has no deployed integration or orchestration platforms, but plans to deploy these over the life of this contract. Suppliers are expected to plan and propose integration at their discretion. 6. Short listing criteria (total scores available - 100%) 1 of 2 Essential 1.Experience of working with law enforcement or government etc. (15%) 2.Experience of evolving and upgrading legacy systems, decoupling boundary interfaces, etc. (25%) 3.Experience of providing project leadership and support etc. (2.5%) 4.Proven knowledge & expertise in data governance for the public sector (2.5%) 5.Experience in providing a flexible resource profile that can efficiently adapt to the demands of the programme etc. (5%)6.Evidence of seeking the best capabilities available in the industry, looking to build on the best of open-source tech or potential consortium delivery with a specialist supplier. (7.5 %) 7. Short listing criteria (total scores available - 100%) 2 of 2 Essential Cont'd7.Experience of continuous delivery and how best to break down a project into tangible delivery steps, monitoring benefits realized etc. (7.5%)8.Experience of maximizing knowledge retention and skills transfer, including advancing knowledge sharing, documentation, and the use of enterprise repositories ( 5 %)9.Experience in integration technologies and orchestration, data processing pipelines and the load balancing of data processes. (25%)Nice-to-have 1.Human machine workflow optimization. (2.5%)2.Specific experience in policing, public sector and/or CAID. (2.5%) 8. What lead time will be provided to recruit SC cleared staff ? Does it apply only to Developers or the entire team ? We expect any company to onboard suitably vetted staff that meet the technical requirements within a couple of weeks of contract award. We expect a core contingency of staff to start straight away with a plan showing a timeline for full capacity.Latest vetting information as per 07.02.2022In line with College of Police publications, the requirement to work on a police system is to have NPPV clearance, opposed to a National Security Vetting clearance such as SC. Therefore, prior to anyone joining CAID they will require a minimum of NPPV Level 2 clearance to have been processed and approved. 9. Please can you provide the “Home Office Mandated Rate Card" Indication of Home Office rates: Architect; £585 (SFIA3), £735 (SFIA 4) , £930 (SFIA 5)Delivery; £490 (SFIA3), £685 (SFIA 4) , £830 (SFIA 5)Engineering; £440 (SFIA3) , £635 (SFIA 4) £780 (SFIA 5)The above rates are the Home Office Mandated Target Rates. There will be other roles such as Analysts, which will be covered during the mini-competition stage.