London Borough of Hackney

Develop Hackney Works service to support job opportunities, online applications and adult learning

9 Incomplete applications

7 SME, 2 large

13 Completed applications

11 SME, 2 large

Published: Friday 3 April 2020
Deadline for asking questions: Friday 10 April 2020 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications: Friday 17 April 2020 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Summary of the work: Further improvements to the digital service that supports Hackney residents to access pathways into employment & Adult Learning. The service provides a more personalised and trusted service than commercial recruitment sites.
Latest start date: Monday 4 May 2020
Expected contract length: 12 months
Location: London
Organisation the work is for: London Borough of Hackney
Budget range: £140,000 - £200,000
The development will be delivered in sprints over a 12 month period

About the work

Why the work is being done: Hackney Works launched its digital service in April 2018. Since then, the number of clients using the service has increased by 48%, and continues to grow. The success of the digital service so far means we want to invest in its continued improvement
The improvements include :
- Digitise the Councils adult learning offer and integrate with the current system;
- Enable improved collaboration between partners around employability provision, particularly on an area/place basis to better respond to residents and community needs
- Develop a content management system (CMS) for the Hackney works digital service
Problem to be solved: The current live system contains core functionality and delivers an end-to-end digital service.

The service:
- advisers notify their clients who then express their interest in training and/or opportunities.
- provides personalised information, advice, guidance to users
- notifies users through the journey via email /SMS
- enables advisers and clients to create a shared action plan to set out and monitor progress.

This phase will provide additional components to improve service:
-Digitalise the Council's adult learning offer and integrate with the employment & skills digital platform
-Driving footfall to opportunities
-Enabling clients to directly apply for opportunities
-Improve efficiency and value for money (enable Employer Engagement team to manage vacancies and applications more effectively)
Who the users are and what they need to do: As the Employment and Skills team, we need to promote all opportunities to members of the public in order to receive sufficient submissions to fill the opportunities.

As a candidate I need a simple process to access the Council's adult learning offer

As a resident I want to see the range and diversity of employment and skills opportunities and support available in my local area

As a Hackney Works adviser I need a simple submission process to submit my client for opportunities.

As the Employer Engagement team, we need to see key management information in order to manage and improve operations.

As a job seeker I need a homepage that is easy to navigate to find the information I need.
Early market engagement
Any work that’s already been done: The Discovery phase was run in-house, the MVP and Phases 1 & 2 were built in partnership with FutureGov.
The software:
(https://github.com/wearefuturegov/ways-into-work-copy)
is open source to enable any agency to understand the current functionality and the supporting documentation provided.

Below is the link to the business plan detailing the improvements required to the system:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uYS68QpbL4cUFVtGtvq8M0kHLOD85zLLLS2B94MA6eo/edit?usp=sharing
Existing team: 3 Lead Employment & Skills advisors, supported by the team manager and empowered service manager
1 ICT Delivery Manager
Current phase: Live

Work setup

Address where the work will take place: Hackney Service Centre, 1 Hillman Street, E8 1DY and the Hackney Works hub in Woodberry Down
Working arrangements: We would prefer a team onsite for 3 days a week, most weeks in order to engage with ICT and Hackney Works colleagues and build broader engagement with the style of working (eg through show and tells). This would include spending time at the Hackney Works Hubs as well as time on the main campus.
Security clearance

Additional information

Additional terms and conditions

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: Have experience of developing a similar employment opportunities service

Have knowledge of user needs for the service

Have experience of working to the GDS service design manual

Combine user research, service design and developer expertise

Must meet the GDS Technology Code of practice

Work to user-centered, iterative, Agile principles

Have experience designing services for a wide range of digital skills and confidence

Consume from and present to Hackney’s new API layer

Understand how to meet the needs of a diverse range of users
Nice-to-have skills and experience: Be prepared to share risk and/or reward with the council if the service is attractive to other authorities

Employ an apprentice who is a resident in the Borough

Promote user-centred design and Agile across the Council

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Promote user-centred design and Agile across the Council
How the approach or solution meets user needs
How the approach or solution meets our goal
How they’ve identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them
Team structure, including skills, experiences and relevance of individuals
Clarity of approach

Cultural fit criteria

Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions
Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes
Take responsibility for their work
Share knowledge and experience with team members and the wider service
Work openly
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

Capped time and materials

Additional assessment methods

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

60%

Cultural fit

Price

33%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Is there a particular tech stack that would be favoured over others? (ie. Python on AWS): We build our AWS infrastructure via terraform. We are currently switching our logging mechanism as AWS cloud watch & cloudtrial and our API alerts are set up via statuscake.
2. Given the current covid situation can this be delivered remotely: Yes, due to Covid and the lockdown, we will expect the supplier presentation and project kick off through development to start remotely. Work arrangements will be reviewed in due course
3. What is the technology stack of the current service?: The previous version of Hackney's works was done on Ruby on rails with AWS and APPsignal for logging. However, going forward we would like to have the react front end done using the hackney pattern library with API (if required) to be built as per API playbook along with Docker and AWS.

https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/API-Playbook-v2-beta
4. Under nice-to-haves, you have asked us to.. "Employ an apprentice who is a resident in the Borough". Can you clarify please.. i.e... When do they have to be employed by ? Do they have to be related to this opportunity? Do they have to be a "Tech" related apprentice? Any guidance appreciated. Thanks: This is a nice to have - not essential so if you do already, that's great. If you have other evidence about how you support getting people into the digital and technology industry that'd be great too. We can help you set up an apprenticeship opportunity if you are based in the borough (we have a wider Hackney Apprenticeship network of employers), or if you’re not based in Hackney, your local authority may also have that scheme. Is your culture and approach conducive to working with one of our apprentices - sharing knowledge and upskilling as part of the project?
5. Does the need to following the API playbook, as mentioned, mean that if an API is required, it needs to be implemented using.NET within a Docker container or is any web framework acceptable as long as it is containerised?: It is our preferred choice as our team are .net developers. We support ruby on rails apps and some our APIs are serverless API written in node.js.
6. Is the Hackney “recruitment platform” used for internal recruitment at Hackney Council or do you also use it for your jobseeker clients?: Hackney uses the same recruitment system for all the internal and external recruitment in the council.
7. When you talk about improving footfall are you talking about: a. Attracting more users to opportunities on the website, b. Increasing the number of clients who get to the interview stage? c. The ability for users or employers to highlight certain opportunities in order to drive more traffic to that specific opportunity?: a. Attracting more users to opportunities on the website,
Yes
b. Increasing the number of clients who get to the interview stage?
Yes
c. The ability for users or employers to highlight certain opportunities in order to drive more traffic to that specific opportunity?
Yes
8. In order to understand benchmark the current service levels against desired improvements. Please provide information about: a. Number of unique users using the service per month b. Number of employers in the programme / on the platform c. Number of live opportunities on average each month d. Number of opportunity views per month e. Number of applications to opportunities per month f. Number of successful vacancies filled, generally and by Hackney residents g. Number of interviews taking place each month h. Number of registrations in the past 12 months: a. Number of unique users using the service per month
120 to 150
b. Number of employers in the programme / on the platform
Currently this is not monitored
c. Number of live opportunities on average each month
30 to 35
d. Number of opportunity views per month
Not monitored
e. Number of applications to opportunities per month
10-12 roughly
f. Number of successful vacancies filled, generally and by Hackney residents
Roughly 80-90 per month
g. Number of interviews taking place each month
Not monitored
h. Number of registrations in the past 12 months
890 in last 9 months
9. What other key management information do you wish to see in order to manage and improve operations?: Please refer to business plan; measurable benefit column
10. What do you see as the potential to grow the service in terms of employer organisations, opportunities and job seeking clients?: Partnership working
Area based approach
11. When you talk about a desire to improve efficiency – “enable employer engagement team to manage vacancies and applications more effectively”, is there any appetite to create an employer self service portal? And is there a desire to allow straight through processing (integration) with the employers systems? And is there any appetite to accept payment through such a portal?: We desire to create an employer self portal. The Employment & Skills is a free service.
12. When you say you wish to develop a content management system (CMS), do you have a set of requirements for this CMS and would you rather leverage a commercial / open source CMS or create a bespoke solution?: We would like to create a bespoke solution
13. Is there a preference to evolve the FutureGov solution from Phase 1 and 2 into a more robust solution with expanded capability? Or do you consider phase 1 and 2 as a learning exercise and remain open to using a different implementation if it makes sense?: Our preference is to expand the phase 1 and phase 2 into a more robust solution with expanded capacity
14. Do you see there being a consistent demand for a team over the next 12 months or do you envisage the work patterns will fluctuate in that period or a need to pause between certain packages of work?: The development is expected to take a maximum of 12 months. It will be broken down into sprints. We can not advise on how many sprints there will be or the exact plan. This will be agreed with the successful supplier
15. Is there a desire to improve the Hackney API Layer, where opportunities arise, or do you wish to simply work with what is there?: We are currently working on building our Platform APIs to make API first strategy more secure, reusable, data model specific and sustainable. These APIs will be resilient, responsive, domain modeled, well defined with API specification available on our API hub and scalable comparatively.
For more info please refer to https://github.com/LBHackney-IT/API-Playbook-v2-beta
16. You mention being “prepared to share risk and/or reward with the council if the service is attractive to other authorities”. What do you have in mind? And do you want detailed proposals of a partnership at this stage or simply a willingness to work together?: All our developments are open source and we encourage other Councils to share in the services we develop. At this stage, we want a show of willingness and a very short summary of where this has been achieved
17. Is there a desire to integrate with third party job boards so that you can expand your reach for certain job advertisements?: Yes
18. When assessing the “Cultural fit criteria” do you simply want yes no answers or do you want a short / long statement about how we meet the criteria?: We expect a short statement on how you meet the criteria
19. Who will support the service once it is live? If the supplier, should we budget effort to support and develop the service or will that form part of a separate managed service, perhaps with SLAs?: Hackney's internal teams will be supporting the system. It will be supported by our applications support and development teams.
20. Regarding the hypothesis of “Hackney Works employment advisers to focus on providing face to face support for residents most in need”. What channels do you have in place to engage with the residents in need in order to meet with them face to face? For example, outbound calling, referrals from other council appointments, etc?: Most of our referrals are self referred but we advertise our services via social media, leaflets, council site etc.
21. Do you already have an electronic list of local businesses in Hackney? Perhaps from the businesses paying business rates? Is another department already responsible for managing this data?: Yes to both questions
22. If you intend to re-use any of the existing solution do you have any in house expertise on the solution already built or will you make an SME available to handover or answer questions?: We have in-house expertise on the live solution and an SME will be available to answer any questions
23. When you say you wish to “Promote user-centred design and Agile across the Council”, which specific stakeholders do you want to bring on the Agile journey? Are you talking about the end users?: Product owners and other staff members. We will expect to carry out user research with the end users
24. Do you plan to nominate an internal Hackney Product Owner or do you wish for the supplier to fill this role?: We already have an internal product owner for this project
25. The tender states "All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.", however we could not see a place to upload a proposal document and it seems that you simply want text answers in response to specific requirements. Can you please clarify if you wish to receive any other supporting material?: A detailed written proposal will be requested at the next stage of the process for shortlisted suppliers
26. The tender states "All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.", however we could not see a place to upload a proposal document and it seems that you simply want text answers in response to specific requirements. Can you please clarify if you wish to receive any other supporting material?: A detailed written proposal will be requested at the next stage of the process for shortlisted suppliers
27. Could you please clarify which members of your team that you expect to work on this project?For example, in your response to question 5, you mention that your team comprises.net developers. Will they be working on this project also?: We will work in partnership with the chosen supplier. We expect the supplier to have a full compliment of staff and skills for the project and will work together to transfer skills and knowledge.
28. Can you please provide more clarity on the current/target submission process for submitting a client for opportunities?: We don't have any targets for the submissions. The potential applicants are submitted via Hackney Works site.
29. Can you please provide more information about the “Recruitment Platform“? Is it a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system or an in-house developed system, is it strategic or will it be replaced and what is the mechanism for integration i.e. REST, File, SOAP, real-time message based?: The Hackney works system was developed by a third party partner. The intention is to enhance what we already have. We follow Rest API first strategy at Hackney
30. Can you please provide more information about the “Learning Platform“? Is it a separate system to the Adult Learning Web module and is it a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system or an in-house developed system, is it strategic or will it be replaced and what is the mechanism for integration i.e. REST, File, SOAP, real-time message based?: Currently the Adult learning courses are advertised on different sources and the aim is to integrate the adult learning offer with our current Hackney Works digital service.
We follow Rest API first strategy at Hackney
31. Can you please provide more information about the “Employment & Skills Digital Platform“? Is it strategic? Or will it be replaced by the Hackney Works solution? Is it a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system or an in-house developed system, and what is the mechanism for integration i.e. REST, File, SOAP, real-time message based?: The Hackney Works digital service is the current Employment & Skills platform.
We follow Rest API first strategy at Hackney
32. Do you have an Identity Management Solution (IDM) in place for holding user information. If so which one? And does your current Hackney Works registration process integrate with your IDM solution?: We authenticate via table in postgres database in Heroku and roles are attached accordingly
33. Do you have a Role Based Access Control (RBAC) solution in place for ensuring that only specific users or roles are able to access ?: We authenticate via table in postgres database in Heroku and roles are attached accordingly
34. Are you dependent on the API Key as your main security mechanism? An API Key is typically used to uniquely identify a consuming application but it is not typically used to uniquely identify an individual user and does not hold session information? Typically a JWT token is used for this. Is this something that you would like to add support for or do you have another means to achieving this?: We are happy to evaluate a JWT token
35. Are you dependent on the API Key as your main security mechanism? An API Key is typically used to uniquely identify a consuming application but it is not typically used to uniquely identify an individual user and does not hold session information? Typically a JWT token is used for this. Is this something that you would like to add support for or do you have another means to achieving this?: We are happy to evaluate a JWT token
36. What level of analysis has taken place for the integrations required between various systems? Has a gap analysis been done to ensure the information that is required to be consumed and published is available between each system? Also, what message formats are used for integration between the various systems of record? i.e. Bespoke XML, JSON, or an industry standard?: We follow agile at HackIT. For every integration to be considered via Platform API or Service API we go through the process of presenting the needs to the API governance group by explaining the needs in the project brief. Once the governance group agrees with the brief we go through the discovery phase to understand the dataset and come up with a data model for API specification to draw on. The message format for integration we use is JSON.

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