DHSC Project Delivery Partner

Description

Summary of the work The Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) requires a partner to deliver digital/technical outcomes across key programmes. We require an understanding of analytical platforms and experience of working in an analytical/statistical environment. Expected Contract Length 12 months, with an optional extension of up to 6 months (if required). Latest start date Monday 24 January 2022 Budget Range It is estimated that the work can be delivered within the budget of £3,000,000. However, this is a higher limit only. Why the Work is Being Done This work is part of the government's health reform - please see the link, below, for further information. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transforming-the-public-health-system DHSC is migrating users into the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) which works to protect the public’s health against infectious diseases and external health threats and also moving staff and systems/data sets into DHSC. IMS4 is a programme to identify and onboard a new managed service IT provider. DHSC is currently in the contracting phase and will require resources to assess the on-boarding of the new supplier. Problem to Be Solved DHSC is seeking a supplier to provide design and research capability alongside technology and business-oriented roles. The successful supplier will support three Digital Discovery and Delivery programmes. 1. The move of 1,000 staff including 400 specialists and 200 data systems into DHSC (specifically the Office of Health Improvements and Disparities) from Public Health England (PHE). The move will incorporate most of PHE’s functions that directly support development and delivery of national health improvement policy, alongside existing DHSC capability on health improvement. This will include subject-matter expertise on obesity and nutrition, physical activity, tobacco, drugs, public mental health, and young people’s mental health. We will need expertise in defining solutions on complex inter-related systems/data working with analytical experts. Identifying solutions and understanding user needs, information architecture/governance, solution architecting. 2. The move of 4,500 staff, data and systems from DHSC to a newly formed Executive Agency. These staff are mainly Test and Trace but all are part of the Government’s response to Covid. 3. The on-boarding of a new IT managed service partner including the delivery of new services and exiting from the incumbent supplier. Legal requirements need to be met in terms of timeframes and the need to retire aged technologies. Who Are the Users The capacity that this procurement will provide will be used to deliver or support the three large projects currently being run by DHSC (UKHSA, Office of Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID) and IMS4 (IMS3 exit). - on-boarding and off-boarding of people/teams, and on-boarding a new supplier with the associated services. Early Market Engagement Not applicable Work Already Done All strands of work have been started. The OHID programme is in the initial phases of integration providing users with a DHSC email address/identity and corporate service access. IMS4 is in the pre-contract signature phase. UKHSA has a small portion of users who have been transferred to the new organisation. Existing Team The existing team consists of a programme director, programme managers, project managers, technical architects, business engagement, plus limited other resource. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Experience of hosting big data using Azure and AWS services and connecting advanced data science tools including opensource software • Experience to include (1) tenant-to-tenant data migration (Sharepoint, OneDrive, Teams), (2) experience of deployment of resilient IaaS, PaaS and SaaS solutions, (3) compliance with HMG security standards • Experience of designing and building analytical services for Data Scientists and Analysts including re-platforming analytical solutions hosted on large and diverse relational databases and data lakes • Building and owning stakeholder relationships, discovery (Business and Data analysis), gathering requirements, influencing Product owners, solutioning to achieve effective business outcomes • Experience of hosting big data using Azure and AWS services • Experience of delivering complex transformation programmes/projects, working in multi-supplier teams, managing cross team dependencies, risks, planning issues, management and escalation. Nice to Haves • Experience of NHS Digital, Office of National Statistics and Government analytical services • Experience of working with and hosting a range of tooling e.g. RStudio, R, Python, AWS Lamba, Azure functions, source control such as Git Work Location 39 Victoria Street, Westminster London, SW1H 0EU Working Arrangments The working pattern will mostly be remote, engaging through Microsoft Teams and preferably using video as well as voice. As Covid restrictions ease, working may well return to sites in Leeds and central London so there is the possibility that the supplier will need to be on-site too. Security Clearance All resources must be BPSS cleared as a minimum. SC clearance for certain roles. Additional T&Cs All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the DHSC Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy. All vendors are obliged to provide sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures so that the processing meets the requirements of GDPR and ensures the protection of the rights of data subjects. For further information please see the Information Commissioner's Office website https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/ No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • When the case study took place • How work was delivered from discovery to delivery • The success criteria used • The level of complexity • Cloud, hybrid or on-premise data centre • Experience of public cloud providers including Azure or AWS hosting • Resources and timescales • Project management methodologies and controls • Approach to communications and stakeholder engagement Cultural Fit Criteria • Evidence of supporting clients, encourage learning, share knowledge, address capability gaps, act on feedback (5%) • Ability to work with a multi-disciplinary in-house team, detailing how you have built collaborative relationships with team members external to your organisation, including a specific example. (5%) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Regarding 'Nice-to-have' skills of 'Experience of NHS Digital, Office of National Statistics and Government analytical services’... Can you explain how an SME can bid fairly against incumbent players with the same technical proficiency ? Please be aware that there is no incumbent supplier in place for this work. 2. Experience of hosting big data using Azure and AWS services’ has been repeated twice.`can you please elaborate ? The second instance of this criteria (fifth bullet down) is a typo and the Department apologies for any inconvenience caused. Suppliers may disregard this fifth bullet point. 3. Nice to have skills :-NHS Digital, Office of National Statistics and Government analytical services. Do you need supplier to have exposure in all the 3 departments or at least 1 of them is fine ? Suppliers should provide evidence for any nice-to-have criteria that they can meet. 4. Regarding Nice to have skills :-‘Experience of NHS Digital, Office of National Statistics and Government analytical services’...This is not complaint as per DOS guidelines where the objective needs to be stated and not the sector exposure. Please elaborate in relation to DOS guidelines? We would be grateful if you could refer us to the page and paragraph of the DOS guidelines to which you are referring and we will then come back to you with a full answer. 5. Can you please reaffirm department’s commitment for SME business in line with the government’s guidelines? Please see the link, below, from GOV.UK which explains the government’s, and therefore the Department's, support to SMEs. This includes measures such as increasing visibility of tenders and removing barriers.https://www.gov.uk/guidance/small-and-medium-business-hub 6. Can we get to know as who has won the IMS4 Contract? This information is not currently available in the public domain. 7. Regarding Answer to point 4, please find the link covering discriminatory section in Evaluation Criteria, page 8.https://assets.crowncommercial.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/RM1043.7-DOS-5-Buyer-webinar-how-to-create-an-opportunity-with-notes.docxExtracts (page -8)“It is discriminatory to suppliers to state that they must have previous experience working in the public sector or within your specific industry.What is it about the public sector that requires specific skills or experience? Suppliers may have worked for complex commercial organisations which are highly regulated (eg financial or pharmaceutical) and could therefore demonstrate the required skills and experience within a different environment.” Thank you very much for your message and for pointing this out the error in our advert. All suppliers are now advised to discard the criteria:‘Experience of NHS Digital, Office of National Statistics and Government analytical services.’ For those suppliers who have already submitted a bid that includes these criteria, the evaluation panel will not assess these criteria and nor will it count against you.Apologies to all for any inconvenience caused. 8. Are suppliers permitted to reference multiple work examples in their response (e.g. for requirements 2 and 8 where multiple, varied criteria are listed)? Yes. Suppliers may reference multiple examples in this way. 9. Regarding “Experience of NHS Digital, Office of National Statistics and Government analytical services’ can you please help elaborate if the above introduces/remove barriers for SME participation as it is very specific and supports incumbent suppliers? Please refer to Q&A, above. The Department no longer requires these criteria and suppliers should discard it from their bid. 10. In question 1 where you state “experience of hosting big data” do you mean big data in the sense of big data tech such as Hadoop etc or do you simply mean “big” as in the volume of data hosted? We mean 'big' as in the volume of data being hosted.