Awarded to Valtech Ltd.

Start date: Monday 23 September 2019
Value: £124,150
Company size: SME

NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)

NHS Workforce User Experience Discovery

20 Incomplete applications

12 SME, 8 large

20 Completed applications

13 SME, 7 large

• Published: Wednesday 10 July 2019
• Deadline for asking questions: Wednesday 17 July 2019 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Wednesday 24 July 2019 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: The NHSBSA requires a Supplier to work with them to perform a Discovery to identify needs and opportunities for delivery of integrated digital services to NHS employees.
• Latest start date: Tuesday 27 August 2019
• Location: North East England
• Organisation the work is for: NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)
• Budget range: The maximum budget for this Discovery is £150,000 (ex VAT). Bids over this amount will be deemed not compliant and will not be evaluated.

About the work

• Why the work is being done: The NHSBSA Workforce Directorate delivers a number of services supporting NHS Employers and Employees in their work for the NHS. The Services are NHS Jobs, NHS Pension, NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and HR Shared Services. These areas of service are in different states of delivery. We believe that the NHS workforce would benefit from integrated services enabling increased engagement with the NHS from hiring to retiring in support of the wider "making the NHS the best place to work" agenda.
• Problem to be solved: The NHSBSA is looking for a partner organisation to conduct a Discovery. This Discovery is focused on user needs and opportunities for delivering enhanced and more integrated services in support of the NHS Workforce. The focus should not be in any particular service area outlined in “why the work is being done”, but rather an overall view.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: Users:NHS employees. ; Sample needs.; As an NHS employee, I need to access my information easily so that I can use the service and come back to it. ; As an NHS employee, I need to trust that the service will work first time, because I don't always have time to plan ahead.; As an NHS employee, I want to know what discounts I can get working for the NHS, because I work hard to get something back.; As an NHS employee, I want to be told of changes about my personal details, so I can be confident the change has occurred.
• Early market engagement: Two supplier days took place on the 24th June and 2nd of July. These sessions enabled the NHSBSA to further define their requirements.
• Any work that’s already been done: A short 5 week user research project was completed, to inform our requirements. This user research will be available to the successful supplier.
• Existing team: There is no existing team for this Discovery, however the supplier will be required to work with existing teams within NHS Pensions, NHS Jobs, ESR and HR Shared Services.
• Current phase: Discovery

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: The main place of work will be: ; Stella House; Goldcrest Way; Newburn Riverside; Newcastle; Tyne and Wear; NE15 8NY; ; Other locations where work may take place are in Fleetwood and Sheffield; ; Other locations within the UK will be required for user research.
• Working arrangements: The Supplier will work as a part of the overall NHSBSA Digital Delivery Directorate with a one team ethos. The team will be co-located with other NHSBSA digital teams, including teams from other suppliers, and work following Agile and GDS principles. The supplier's resources will be expected to be on site 5 days per week unless otherwise agreed in advance and will be expected to participate in team and organisational activities such as communities of practice to enable shared learning. ; The successful supplier must comply with relevant NHSBSA policies and standards.
• Security clearance: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Additional information

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

• Essential skills and experience:
  • Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities to identify user personas, deliver user journey mapping and deliver evidenced and prioritised user stories in a complex environment similar to the NHS. (4%)
  • Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities of delivering Discovery in line with the Government Digital Service Standards. (2%)
  • Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities of working in a complex environment similar to the NHS. (3%)
  • Demonstrate experience and provide examples of where you have delivered Discovery on services where there are in excess of 2 million users (2%)
  • Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities and provide examples of delivering Discovery where multiple sets of services are involved. (2%)
  • Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities and provide examples of how, when delivering outcome based projects, you have supported the development of internal capability (leaving a positive legacy) (2%)
  • Demonstrate your understanding of the complexity and structure of the NHS within the context of this Discovery. (3%)
  • Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities of working across a multi supplier environment, including the customer and suppliers of services, to deliver a Discovery. (2%)
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities of working on integrating workforce services. (4%)
  • Demonstrate experience of working with the wider DHSC workforce strategy. (3%)
  • Demonstrate your approach, with a minimum of one example, where you have delivered a digital outcome to senior stakeholders based in various geographic locations. (3%)

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria:
  • Demonstrate the proposed team have the skills, knowledge and experience for delivering this type of Discovery, including representative CVs of key roles. (6%)
  • Demonstrate your approach to knowledge and skills transfer to the NHSBSA and provide examples of where this has been successful. (4%)
  • Demonstrate understanding of the challenges of implementing user centred solutions in a government agile environment based on the GDS framework. (5%)
  • How you will optimise costs for the NHSBSA and deliver value for money. (5%)
  • Provide a proposed plan of activities with clear deliverables, milestones and dates demonstrating the ability to complete the delivery of the Discovery project within the required timescales. (5%)
  • Evidence that the proposed approach and methodology for Discovery will successfully ascertain user needs and meet specified objectives for the Discovery. (6%)
  • Approach and methodology to delivering the User Research Report. (3%)
  • Approach and methodology to delivering the Benefits case. (3 %)
  • Approach and methodology to delivering the Summary and recommendations.(3%)
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Demonstrate your ability to deliver in an open, collaborate, agile way according to the principles outlined in the Government Service Design Manual, and in accordance with NHSBSA values. (5%)
  • Demonstrate you align with NHSBSA corporate values.(5%)
  • Corporate value 1. Collaborative - We work together.
  • Corporate value 2. Adventurous - We try new things.
  • Corporate value 3. Reliable - We do what we say we will.
  • Corporate value 4. Energetic - We give everything our best every day.
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Assessment methods:
  • Written proposal
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  70%

  Cultural fit

  10%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Should all suppliers register on NHSBSA's e-tendering solution, Bravo, and if so, how can we do this?: Ideally, suppliers interested in this opportunity should register on Bravo in advance of the 26th July 2019. This will ensure that if you are short-listed, the written proposal and cultural fit documentation can be made available in a timely manner via Bravo.; ; Suppliers can register here: https://nhsbsa.bravosolution.co.uk/nhsbsa/login.html; ; For the avoidance of doubt, the DOS portal is to be used for suppliers to submit their responses to the Skills and Experience Criteria and Bravo is only for those suppliers that have been short-listed.
• 2. For suppliers who were unaware of the supplier engagement day, is there anywhere we can access the information that was communicated on that day?: The information communicated on the Supplier Days is on a PowerPoint presentation. If you require a copy of this presentation please email sophie.turnock1@nhs.net requesting the Workforce User Experience Discovery WebEx slides . Only this PowerPoint presentation will be provided via this route.
• 3. Regarding the question: Demonstrate your approach, with a minimum of one example, where you have delivered a digital outcome to senior stakeholders based in various geographic locations. Could you clarify what you mean by "digital outcome"? Could this be a presentation to senior stakeholders in different locations? Or is this referring to a digital product/service being launched?: This is a Discovery compliant with the Government Digital Services (GDS) Service Manual and Service Standard which outlines the normal expected outcomes of a Discovery. As such the outcome will not be a digital product/service being launched but may inform future development of a digital product/service. How you present your findings is your decision but we would anticipate at least a presentation to senior stakeholders.
• 4. Regarding the question: Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities of working across a multi supplier environment, including the customer and suppliers of services, to deliver a Discovery. (2%)Could you elaborate on what you mean by multi supplier environment? And who would you refer to as "suppliers of a service". Are you referring to service providers here?: We have a number of digital projects in-flight in areas that the NHSBSA Workforce Directorate is responsible for: NHS Pension, NHS Jobs, ESR, HR Shared Services, each one of these areas has partners who we collaborate with to deliver new digital services. This Discovery focusses on the user experience of the NHS Workforce across these service areas and how best we can improve that experience. The customer environment (the NHS) is multi-supplier in the sense that it is so diverse and by suppliers of service, in this context we mean the partners we are working with in the Workforce areas.
• 5. "A short 5 week user research project was completed, to inform our requirements", could you let us know who has completed this user research project?: It was conducted by a small blended team of NHSBSA people and one of our partners working in another area. The research is available to the winning supplier however we cannot release the name of the partner at this time.
• 6. Could you please provide the DHSC workforce strategy?: Please use this link to access the Interim NHS People Plan; ; https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/interim-nhs-people-plan/
• 7. One of the nice-to-have questions talks about the DHSC workforce strategy – is it published online somewhere that potential suppliers can have a look at please? Thanks.: Please use this link to access the Interim NHS People Plan.; ; https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/interim-nhs-people-plan/
• 8. Usually only one example is allowed in a 100 word response, can you confirm that multiple examples should be provided for questions that ask for 'example (s)', or if one example is sufficient given the word limit?:Usually only one example is allowed in a 100 word response, can you confirm that multiple examples should be provided for questions that ask for 'example (s)', or if one example is sufficient given the word limit?: As per the buyers guide we will not mark down a supplier if they only provide one example. ; ; https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-shortlist-digital-outcomes-and-specialists-suppliers; ; Equally we will not score a supplier down on the basis of providing more than 1 example as long as the example/s demonstrates suitable skills and experience.
• 9. In order to compare suppliers like for like, how will price be evaluated?: Price evaluation will be based on the overall price for the Discovery on a capped time and materials basis.
• 10. Will the scores from the evidencing round be taken through to final evaluation? Or will they only be used for the purposes of shortlisting suppliers?: Scores from the shortlisting stage will be carried forward into the proposal stage.
• 11. Are you able to recruit and provide access to users for the purpose of user research?: We anticipate we will jointly develop a user recruitment plan with the successful supplier drawing on NHSBSA knowledge and contacts as well as the suppliers.
• 12. Will you be able to organise access to stakeholders throughout the project?: We will provide access to NHSBSA stakeholders as required (including our existing partners if required). We anticipate we will jointly develop a user recruitment plan with the successful supplier drawing on NHSBSA knowledge and contacts as well as the suppliers.
• 13. For the first evaluation round (evidence), what would you expect to see from an answer for it to be deemed 'exceeding' and score 3 marks?: NHSBSA must adopt the scoring matrix of 0-3 in line with the DOS buyers guide which includes the terminology 0 - Not met or no evidence, ; 1 - Partially met, 2 - Met and 3 – Exceeded. ; ; The basis that we will be evaluating is that scores will be awarded depending on the level of confidence that the evidence presented demonstrates that the criteria has been satisfied. ; ; Suppliers will not receive additional points for demonstrating skills and experiences other than those that have been identified by NHSBSA in each of the published skills and experience criteria.
• 14. As per DOS guidelines 'You should only provide one example for each essential or nice-to-have requirement', are you only requesting one example per skills and experience question?: As per the buyers guide we will not mark down a supplier if they only provide one example. ; ; https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-shortlist-digital-outcomes-and-specialists-suppliers; ; Equally we will not score a supplier down on the basis of providing more than 1 example as long as the example/s demonstrates suitable skills and experience.; ; Bidders should follow the guidance on DOS and provide the number of examples they feel provides sufficient evidence on how they meet that criteria bearing in mind the word count.
• 15. Do you either require or prefer that public sector examples are cited rather than private sector examples? Or, if we have a relevant private sector example, will it be given equal consideration to a public sector example?: We are looking for demonstration of your capability to deliver against our requirements and it will be up to bidders to determine if private sector examples are relevant or otherwise.
• 16. For question "Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities of working in a complex environment similar to the NHS." are you seeking an example that is not NHS? Or would citing an NHS example be equally suitable?: An NHS example would be preferable. However if you have a relevant example in an organisation of similar complexity that would be acceptable.
• 17. For question "Demonstrate experience and/or capabilities of working on integrating workforce services" please could you expand on the sort of examples you feel would be relevant to "integrating workforce services"?: The NHSBSA support the NHS Workforce in a number of ways. In this instance the services we are considering are NHS Pension, NHS Jobs, services offered by ESR and HR Share Services. These services are presented to the NHS as separate sets of services currently. The Discovery is to investigate integration of these services into a common NHS Workforce offering. A suitable example may be where you have presented an integrated set of Workforce support services to a complex workforce.
• 18. So long as the supplier is on site to undertake and participate in all necessary research, team and organisational activities as agreed, is there flexibility in the 5 days on-site? i.e. could a blend of on- and off-site work be acceptable?: A blend of on- and off-site work is acceptable.
• 19. Would the supplier need an HSCN connection to carry out discovery?: We don’t anticipate an HSCN connection will be required to carry out the discovery.
• 20. Could you please outline your timeline for the written proposal and presentation, following shortlisting?: Provisional timetable, following shortlisting:-; - Invite the shortlisted suppliers to Bravo on the 31st July 2019. ; - Presentations to be held at Stella House in Newcastle upon Tyne on 12th and 13th of August. ; - Final written proposals to be submitted via Bravo on 14th August 2019.