CPD4124145 DLUHC Digital Planning Reform – Multi-Disciplinary Delivery Partner

Tender description

Summary of the work Delivery Partner(s) required to fulfil diverse requirements for digital planning reform, taking a multidisciplinary approach to deliver policy, system mapping, and digital and technology outcomes. Expected Contract Length 2 year + 6 months (extension – or up until 31st March 2025) Latest start date Friday 25 November 2022 Budget Range £9,500,000 GBP (Ex VAT) Why the Work is Being Done DLUHC is embarking on an ambitious, digital reform programme to modernise England’s planning system so that it can be more efficient, more certain and make it easier for citizens and communities to engage in planning and development. The digital reforms will shift a semi analogue planning system based on documents to one that is data-driven, standards based, and powered by modern user centred products and services. The contract will be drawn down on to meet a number of key priority areas across the digital reforms, but also the wider planning reform. Work includes: • Discoveries, alphas and betas to inform policy development and planning products and services • Support for the planning reform front door, to help prioritise digital projects within the wider programme • System Mapping to ensure ecosystem maps and user personas look professional, easy to follow and are consistent with modern service design conventions. Problem to Be Solved There is a need for a flexible supplier base to respond to urgent DLUHC requests and to access support in delivering urgent digital planning reform projects, where resources are required within 5-10 working days.  Because of the multidisciplinary nature of the work, pre-market consultation indicated an alliance of suppliers will be best placed to meet the outcomes. Resources required include: ● planning specialism ● policy development ● digital delivery management ● development of data driven and open-source planning services and products DLUHC and the delivery partner will agree and commit to a series of Statement of Works. Resource requirements and outcomes delivered will vary across the year. Examples of deliverables include: • Policy development with digital and data elements – supporting policy teams in discoveries, alphas and betas to develop and co-create policy with local authorities, such as how can we streamline the local plan process • System Mapping – support on mapping planning processes • New planning services or modernising of existing planning services – co-creating modern, data driven planning services and products with local authorities and the market • Community guidance engagement – support on creating new best practice guidance and toolkits for engagement across the planning system Who Are the Users As a Department, I need to test policy, and run and develop digital services to delivery policy outcomes. I may need a full team to complement a team I have. I need the supplier to work with DLUHC (including digital and planning teams), Other Government Departments & ALBs, and planning local authorities from a range of disciplines, including policy, service and product management, technical, and delivery management. I need knowledge to be transferred back into DLUHC so that we can improve internal capability. Early Market Engagement Two pre-market engagement events were held on the 14th July and 10th August 2022, to discuss the requirement, favourable procurement routes and bidding. The overwhelming feedback was that suppliers would like to bid as a consortium/alliance, so to cover the spread of specialisms required. DOS5 was selected as the preferable procurement route, enabling suppliers to organise themselves under a flexible framework that allows a greater number of market suppliers to lead as ‘prime’. It was agreed the ‘Prime’ will act as the administrative lead of the contract, managing payments to suppliers in the informal consortium/alliance. However, leads for each item of work will be determined at each statement of works, depending on which supplier is best placed to do so. Other routes considered: • Homes England Multidisciplinary Framework (Digital element not in scope) • CCS Spark DPS (Spark is more focused on R&D and delivery of goods) • CCS Digital Specialists and Programmes (did not provide enough flexibility given small number of suppliers) • Open procedure (DOS provides a reliable way forward where all suppliers understand the contract terms) Work Already Done We are 1 year into the Digital Planning programme and have begun remedial work such as on data via our planning data team https://www.digital-land.info/ and on development management software - https://www.ripa.digital/ and https://bops.digital/. On policy, DLUHC’s Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) was introduced to Parliament on 11 May 2022 and includes measures for planning reform, including digital, as part of wider Levelling Up and Regeneration proposals. The focus for this contract is on future policy development with data and digital elements and not on our data platform or development management software, however there will be cross overs and dependencies. Existing Team The supplier will work with DLUHC (including digital and planning teams). Knowledge transfer back into DLUHC will be required to enable DLUHC to improve internal capability to build and support the services. Where required in the development cycle, collaboration with other suppliers may be necessary. This contract will not prevent us from using other commercial arrangements, including using capability contracts, to pull together a team from a range of suppliers. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Demonstrate experience of allocating resources based on uncertain demand • Describe your business/alliance model for how you would resource specialist multidisciplinary roles, including from a wider ecosystem of skills and expertise. • Demonstrate experience of delivering complicated policy outcomes that have digital and data elements/services. • Demonstrate experience/approach to ensuring continuity of service is maintained during assignments. Nice to Haves Demonstrate recent (last 3 years) experience co-creating products or services with local government Work Location Combination of virtually and physically at 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF Working Arrangments DLUHC and the delivery partner will agree and commit to a series of Statement of Works. Resource requirements and outcomes delivered will vary across the year and the SOWs will reflect the work required. If bidding as an informal consortium/alliance, the Authority and Supplier(s) will determine the SOW lead and combination of support at the start of, and during, the works. All administration will be handled by the ‘Prime.’ The Supplier might be asked to introduce niche skills and expertise initially unforeseen at the start of the contract. We anticipate a maximum of 5-8 concurrent Statements of Work Security Clearance Baseline BPSS clearance will be required to access DLUHC's systems. To support our requirement, we will help clear prospective team members in advance. Additional T&Cs 1. There will be a break clause in the contract for 31st March 2025, pending further spend approval. The successful tenderer will be informed of the outcome by 31st March 2025, subject to DLUHC internal process. 2. All outputs will be owned by DLUHC and published openly where appropriate using a suitable open license that supports reuse. 3. All materials/outputs derived from the contract shall be the property of DLUHC. 4. GDPR requirements will be discussed and agreed once the successful supplier has been notified (as part of discussions to agree the wording of the call-off contract). No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 4 Proposal Criteria • (TECHNICAL PROPOSAL 30% see social value below) Demonstrate your approach to sourcing multidisciplinary teams within 5-10 working days, ensuring suitably security cleared staff are available when required(10% of section). • Demonstrate your understanding of the Digital Service Standard and Government Design Principles (10%). • Demonstrate your approach to deploying blended resource across established DDaT teams and integrating into their ways of working (10%). • Demonstrate where you have added value to projects you have worked on beyond the contracted outcomes (10%). • Demonstrate your approach to managing conflict resolution within the team, with subcontractors, and with external stakeholders (20%). • Demonstrate how you would add skills and expertise that sit outside your own and supplier ecosystem at the time of asking, and how would this be managed?(20%) • Demonstrate your experience of understanding the types of roles and experiences that are required to drive effective policy and digital transformation in a traditionally analogue sector (20%). • If shortlisted, suppliers should provide the following: Written proposal and day rates for example roles listed below (at SFIA levels 4 and 5, or equivalents for non-DDaT). • Pricing scores for evaluation purposes only will be calculated assuming 21 working days per month of the different types of roles listed below. • 1 x Senior Planner, 1 x Senior User Researcher, 1 x Technical Architect, 1 x Content Designer, 1 x Senior Delivery Manager • Scoring as follows: • Score 0 = Failed to provide confidence that the proposal will meet the requirements. An unacceptable response with serious reservations. • Score 25 = A Poor response with reservations. The response lacks convincing detail with risk that the proposal will not be successful in meeting all the requirements • Score 50 = Meets the requirements – the response generally meets the requirements, but lacks sufficient detail to warrant a higher mark. • Score 75= A Good response that meets the requirements with good supporting evidence. Demonstrates good understanding. • Score 100=An Excellent comprehensive response that meets the requirements. Indicates an excellent response with detailed supporting evidence and no weaknesses resulting in a high level of confidence • Bids Max 10 A4 pages size 11 font (excluding CVs) - In the event of a tie the highest score in the Technical Competence section will be used to award • Presentations – expected mid-November 2022 • SOCIAL VALUE (10% of evaluation) Questions and scoring criteria found in the cultural fit section due to DOS5 line limitations • CLARIFICATION OF WEIGHTINGS - Technical 30%, Social Value 10%, Cultural fit 20%, Price 40% Cultural Fit Criteria • CULTURAL FIT 20% - Your approach to embedding specialist teams and adapting quickly within teams with differing cultures (30% of section) • Know when to challenge or accord with the Buyer’s approach to strategy and work, giving example(s) of both (30%) • Your ability to align with public sector values (20%) • Your approach to pastoral care of core or subcontractor resource (20%) • SOCIAL VALUE QUESTIONS AND SCORING CRITERIA (posted here to manage DOS5 line limitations) • Theme2/MAC2.3 Education and Training-Tackling Economic Inequality. Support educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications. Using a maximum 500 words: • (1)Describe the commitment your organisation will make to ensure that opportunities under the contract deliver from the referenced SV guidelines.(50%) Please include: • Your ‘Method Statement’, stating how you will achieve this and how your commitment meets the Award Criteria, and • a timed project plan and process, including how you will implement your commitment and by when. • (2)Propose how you will monitor, measure and report on your commitments/the impact of your proposals to the Authority. (50%) • You should include but not be limited to: ○ timed action plan ○ use of metrics ○ tools/processes used to gather data ○ reporting ○ feedback and improvement ○ transparency • Scoring for Social Value see below: • Score 0 = The response completely fails to meet the required social value standard or does not provide a response. • Score 25 = The response makes limited reference (naming only) to the social value policy outcome set out within the invitation. • Score 50 = The response addresses most of the social value policy outcome and reporting metrics, and also shows general market experience. • Score 75 = The response addresses the social value policy outcome and reporting metrics, and also shows good market experience. • Score 100 = The response addresses the social value policy outcome and clear accountability for measurement and reporting metrics, and also shows in-depth market experience. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 40% Cultural fit 20% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. Who from your team will be scoring applications for this opportunity and what positions do they hold? Evaluation panel members are anonymous 2. Can you please provide an anticipated timeline for this procurement that includes dates for: 1) Shortlisting Notification for Stage 2 2) Submission Deadline for Stage 2 3) Presentation 4) Evaluation period 5) Award Notification Indicative/Anticipated timeline. Shortlisting – 24-26th October Second stage release – 27th October Submission of bids – 10th November Evaluation and Presentations – Week commencing 14th November Award notification – Following presentations 3. Can you confirm if shortlisted suppliers will have the opportunity to present? Yes we anticipate that all shortlisted suppliers (max 4) will be invited to present week commencing 14th of November 4. Has any external supplier been involved in the initial scoping work? If so, who? No 5. Please can you confirm your anticipated timetable for the next stages of evaluation please? I.e. When do you anticipate releasing the tender, holding presentations etc between now and your start date of the 25th of November? Please see Q 2 6. We can see that in stage 2 you will limit Social Value responses to 500 words. Will the other sections also have a word limit? Shortlisted suppliers will have 10 pages of A4 (as shown in the listing) to provide all answers to the technical, cultural and social value questions. How you apportion the word count for the other answers is your choice. 7. Hi there, Could you please share links to the pre-market engagement material for those of us who weren’t able to attend? Please use this link to view pre-market engagement documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WfSw9rpRqU8xlUplEhFm6UUJ7QrPHLpi?usp=sharing Unfortunately, the file with notes for the August session was corrupted and is unavailable. 8. Could you clarify the role intended by Senior Planner in the example team? Is that intended to be a DDAT role, or are you looking for someone with experience working in the Local Authority planning system? We are looking for a planning professional who has chartered membership of the Royal Town Planning institute. We would expect a senior planner to have minimum of 3 to 4 years of planning experience. 9. Can the Authority release the potential supplier attendance list from the events that took place on 14th July and 10th August? I have requested consent from the attendees if these details can be shared. Once all responses are back (estimated 1600 12/10/22), the list can be found by copying and pasting this link into your browser: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WfSw9rpRqU8xlUplEhFm6UUJ7QrPHLpi?usp=sharing 10. Please can you clarify what you mean by “planning specialism”? Do we understand correctly this is subject matter expertise in England’s planning system (as referenced in “Why the work is being done”)? Yes, your understanding is right. 11. For the resources required: “planning specialism, policy development, digital delivery management and development of data driven and open-source planning services and products”, what do you envisage the approximate split between each of these would be in terms of demand during the lifetime of the contract? We expect fluctuations in demand over the life of the contract and as such we will work with the delivery partner to manage this and ensure that demand can be met in a sustainable manner. A typical team may include Delivery and product managers, user researcher, designer, content designers, policy and planner support, developers and data engineer. 12. You mention that “Two pre-market engagement events were held on the 14th July and 10th August 2022,” Please can you send any material that was discussed as part of these sessions and a list of attendees? The material can be found via this link. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WfSw9rpRqU8xlUplEhFm6UUJ7QrPHLpi?usp=sharing See Q9 for reference to attendees 13. “Two pre-market engagement events were held..... to discuss the requirement, favourable procurement routes and bidding. The overwhelming feedback was that suppliers would like to bid as a consortium/alliance, so to cover the spread of specialisms required. DOS5 was selected as the preferable procurement route, enabling suppliers to organise themselves under a flexible framework that allows a greater number of market suppliers to lead as ‘prime’.” In the spirit of providing the best outcome for the Department and increasing opportunity/access to innovation, how can a supplier register their interest with others to be part of a consortium/alliance ? Please see Q9 14. in response to question “Demonstrate recent (last 3 years) experience co-creating products or services with local government” – would an example in Central Government suffice? or would it HAVE to be Local Government? If you do not have a local government example, please use an example with any other public body. 15. Please can you share a short description of your expectations for the role “Senior Planner”? We are looking for someone who has extensive planning policy experience with a broad knowledge of planning policy issues and a sound understanding of the planning system. They will work with DLUHC policy advisors, digital colleagues and stakeholders to build consensus on key policy issues and prepare evidence and reports for consultation. The ability to write high quality reports and explain complex planning issues to a wide audience is important. Excellent communication and analytical skills are required, and successful candidates will present work to internal and external audiences. 16. For question 2 Describe your business/alliance model for how you would resource specialist multidisciplinary roles, including from a wider ecosystem of skills and expertise. Please can you confirm if you want an example alongside the model we run or just the model? If you feel an example strengthens your answer, please provide this. 17. For question 4 you refer to continuity of service. Please can you confirm if you mean continuity of technical service, continuity of people assigned to a service project/SoW or both. This refers to both, and anything that you believe presents a risk to continuity of service. 18. please could you further expand no what is meant by Policy Based Outcomes? The listing gives the example "Such as how can we streamline the local plan process", but we can also point to the Levelling Up Whitepaper https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-the-united-kingdom for more info on policy outcomes/objectives 19. please can you confirm what you mean by specialist multidiscplinary roles in question 2? Are these specifically DDaT roles, or DDaT AND wider roles? These roles are described in the listing and answers above, such as planning specialists and policy developers as wider than DDaT roles. 20. In question 4, please can you confirm what you mean by ‘assignments’? This refers to any works you might have with a customer and a demonstration of how you ensure continuity of service 21. How do you see the initial period working in the sense of onboarding, people requirement (numbers and skills/roles) We will initially be setting up introductory meetings with the delivery partner to explain them our work and the people requirements. There may be some roles which need to be filled in urgently, but we will work with the delivery partner to make sure they understand the roles and SOW’s 22. Understanding that individual panel members are anonymous, can you share the disciplines that will be represented in the team scoring the applications? (e.g procurement, commercial, delivery, product etc) All evaluation panel members are suitably qualified to score the bids. 23. Do you already have a backlog of key priority areas across the digital planning reforms that you’re looking for the successful supplier to focus on first? We have our backlog of key priorities, but these are challenging times, and we may need to change our priorities, if the government's priorities changes 24. can you please confirm if the roles required to be priced for evaluation purposes will be evaluated at SFIA 4 or SFIA 5? If shortlisted, suppliers should provide the following: Written proposal and day rates for example roles listed below (at SFIA levels 4 and 5, or equivalents for non-DDaT). Pricing scores for evaluation purposes only will be calculated assuming 21 working days per month of the different types of roles 1 x Senior Planner, 1 x Senior User Researcher, 1 x Technical Architect, 1 x Content Designer, 1 x Senior Delivery Manager 25. On the basis only civil servants rather than suppliers write policy can you confirm if the policy skill requirement is in fact service design and business analysis as per GDS / CDDO standards We outlined that policy development is: “Policy development with digital and data elements – supporting policy teams in discoveries, alphas and betas to develop and co-create policy with local authorities, such as how can we streamline the local plan process”. Civil servants will be writing policy and we do not expect suppliers to write policy. To support our policy teams we do need suppliers to be able to provide expertise such as Planning expertise, analysis (including business and/or data analysis), service design and user research. 26. For your requirement of planning experience are you envisaging this individual(s) writing reports etc as singleton providers or more as business analysts supporting the design and development of digital products and services? See Q 25