The Home Office (National Law Enforcement Data Programme)

NLEDP 168 - Product Team 1

23 Incomplete applications

22 SME, 1 large

43 Completed applications

22 SME, 21 large

Published: Friday 26 February 2021
Deadline for asking questions: Friday 5 March 2021 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications: Friday 12 March 2021 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Off-payroll (IR35) determination
Summary of the work: The Home Office National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP) requires a Product-centric supplier to work with us from discovery through into live operation; delivering world-class capability suited to the needs of modern policing to replace legacy IT systems. The product approach we develop will be a blue-print for future delivery.
Latest start date: Monday 19 April 2021
Expected contract length: 2 years
Location: No specific location, for example they can work remotely
Organisation the work is for: The Home Office (National Law Enforcement Data Programme)
Budget range: £4.96m total contract. Rates must not exceed DDAT target rates

About the work

Why the work is being done: NLEDP is a major programme within the Police and Public Protection Technology portfolio. It will deliver Law Enforcement Data Services (LEDS) that support the operational needs of modern Policing and Law Enforcement across the UK.

NLEDP is a long running programme that is undergoing a major reset of goals and delivery approach.

To supplement our existing capability, we require an experienced product supplier to help us reshape our approach to delivery and start to deliver products, in line with the government digital standard. We are looking for a product supplier who has:

1. a proven track record in the discovery, delivery and evolution of products;
2. experience of managing complex inter-related products; and
3. has experience of legacy monolith replacement of operationally critical systems.

You should be able to demonstrate experience of iterative delivery of value as a mechanism for legacy monolith decomposition and replacement.

The Supplier will be at the forefront of a business change to a product centred delivery approach and the approach developed will create a blue-print for further LEDS products.

Suppliers will need to collaborate with Law Enforcement product owners and work alongside other digital partner teams which are developing and delivering complementary products and services.
Problem to be solved: NLEDP’s primary drivers are:

1. supporting the operational needs of modern policing throughout the UK, reliably and without interruption;
2. providing a foundation for future enhancements through innovation;
3. delivering services that will be actively maintained and incrementally evolved to meet user needs in a timely and cost-effective manner that considers the technology landscape used by policing.

The Supplier must deliver the required outcomes meeting user needs and the government digital standard by:

Establishing clarity around the technical approach, scope, product roadmap, backlog development and delivery plan;

Generating alignment, demonstrating strong stakeholder management and partnership with user groups;

Ensuring user needs are always centred in every set of product evolution;

Designing and delivering a world-class product;

Driving adoption, playing a role to help adopting forces to understand and plan for business change implicated in product adoption and supporting full scale roll out;

Ensuring transparency and visibility are key tenets of the culture, leading open and honest communications about progress, impacts and implications of their approach and roadmap, with other product and dependent teams, the programme and its stakeholders;

Evolving the product over time, while supporting continuous deployment and rollout, and supporting the product in production and in use by forces.
Who the users are and what they need to do: To meet the operational needs of modern policing, LEDS products will support the enquiries that underpin the everyday activities of law enforcement in the UK and will be used nationally, by many different organisations and personas. Product delivery will need to respond to short- and long-term changes in the policing landscape.

LEDS products will enable searching, updating, reporting, alerting and audit across the national data domains of person identity, associated criminal records, police and DVLA vehicle and driver records. The first product is expected to focus on stolen property.

The vision is for LEDS Property to become the central national source for lost/stolen or found property items. The focus should be around items where there is a high degree of provenance and initially high value items. Success would see a significant ramp up in use of the product in comparison to current practice on PNC. There is firm belief that if the system was improved and more usable this would happen.

The key benefit is that data captured as part of local law enforcement practices is shared at a national level thereby increasing the chance of recovery and/or appropriate actions being taken on discovery.
Early market engagement
Any work that’s already been done: Product-centric delivery is new for NLEDP, a key aspect of the work will be to establish a blueprint for this approach, while delivering LEDS Property.

An experienced product team is required to template working practices and approach for subsequent product teams.

However, product suppliers will be expected to work as part of the larger programme, working alongside other suppliers in a collaborative partnering manner.

Products will aim to be as independent as practicable, but product teams should expect to contribute to a shared programme roadmap with a shared set of goals and outcomes and adhere to programme and policing governance.
Existing team: The Product Supplier will work alongside other suppliers in a collaborative manner, with the Product Managers and Owners residing within Law Enforcement, with test assurance provided by QAT.

We are building a culture that is an enabler for high performing teams and that supports continuous improvement and development of internal capability. You will need to help enable Home Office people - your people should be teachers and coaches as well as skilled practitioners.

You should be comfortable working alongside Home Office people and staff from other suppliers, demonstrating how, over time, you would leave behind a more capable team.
Current phase: Discovery

Work setup

Address where the work will take place: We are seeking optimised delivery models, anticipating that remote Centres of Excellence will form part of this proposal. However, there will be a need for significant user interaction, likely on site, resulting in joined up ways of working to enable delivery in partnership. Further, physical attendance of key meetings by some team members may be beneficial on some occasions.

NLEDP operates out of Croydon, just outside London in SE England.

The Supplier team is expected to be available during standard Home Office working hours. Expenses will conform to Home Office internal policies and will not be payable within the M25.
Working arrangements: Due to the current Covid-19 situation the entire Programme is working remotely.

The expectation is that CCS Framework rates are inclusive of travel and expenses. Any extraordinary reimbursement claims will conform to Home Office internal policies and will not be payable within the M25.
Security clearance: All team members must have, or be working towards gaining, Security Clearance (SC).

Non-Police Personal Vetting (NPPV) Level 3 is also required and new members will be supported through this vetting process.

Waivers may be possible for a short interim period following the stated ‘latest start date’.

Additional information

Additional terms and conditions: HO DDAT maximum rates will be applicable.

This contract is non-exclusive. HO intends to establish a diverse Product supplier community to ensure there is capacity to deliver the required products. Statements of work will be offered periodically aligned to discrete delivery phases subject to satisfactory performance by the supplier.

The intention is that the Discovery phase will be undertaken on a T&M basis due to the nature of the work. The Programme would like to explore Capping this activity. Both Parties will work towards Fixed Price delivery of the remaining work.

IPR in any developed technology will rest with HO.

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: Expert understanding of iterative, user-centred design and delivery and how this will be applied to deliver services, working across multiple product lines, operating within an evolutionary architecture approach.

Extensive practical experience of working within a product centric team focused on developing a blue-print approach for future delivery, driving quality throughout.

A best-in-class product-centric approach, demonstrating successful delivery, deployment and adoption focused on end user value and experience.

Ability to deliver products/services to government service standards within the context of critical national infrastructure, or equivalent.

Evidence experience of strong and rapid continuous delivery practices approach to service continuity.

Ability to provide suitably skilled resource, rapidly mobilise and scale up a full team, flex resource or pause, when required.

Ability to prioritise multiple concurrent SOW demands to ensure that there is no delay to delivery timelines in this contract.

Expert approach to managing risks, within the outlined governance structure and culture, to ensure that capability requirements can be met as required so that delivery is not impacted.

Transparent financial structures and fair pricing, showing how value for money will be achieved for the duration of the contract, recognising the future use of capped and fixed pricing.
Nice-to-have skills and experience: Ability to provide SC cleared team by the stated ‘latest start date’. Individuals must have, or be willing to work towards, SC clearance.

NPPV3 clearance

How suppliers will be evaluated

All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.

How many suppliers to evaluate

Proposal criteria

Product delivery capability, expertise and ability to achieve the required outcomes and blueprint approach
Approach to the delivery of the identified product discovery phase.
Team structure, skills, experience and management of delivery across multiple product lines.
Relevant reference case studies.

Cultural fit criteria

Approach to issue management, problem resolution and improving ways of working.
Ability to work in a multi-product, high cohesion environment.
Ability to function effectively and collaborate in a multi-supplier environment.
Experience and industry best practice to provide thought leadership, and collaborative problem-solving.
Approach to Social value

Payment approach

Time and materials

Additional assessment methods

Presentation

Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

60%

Cultural fit

20%

Price

20%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Can you confirm what the HO DDAT maximum rates are so that we can ensure our rates do not exceed.: The HO DDAT maximum rates are (where "::" represents a new column in a table):

Role Type:: Maximum Daily Rates (ex VAT)::SFIA 3::SFIA 4::SFIA 5
Architecture::£600::£750::£950
Data::£550::£650::£900
Delivery::£500::£700::£850
Engineering::£450::£650::£800
IT Operations::£450::£650::£800
Product::£540::£680::£800
QAT::£460::£575::£800
UCD::£425::£575::£825

Note: HO DDaT does not believe that any resource above SFIA Level 5 is required in support of this delivery.
2. Who’s in the incumbent and how long they have been the incumbent?: As the requirement endeavours to make clear, although NLEDP is a long running programme it is undergoing a major reset of goals and delivery approach. We require an experienced product supplier to help us reshape our approach to delivery and start to deliver products.

As such there is no incumbent Product supplier. The opportunity is to both shape Product supply for NLEDP and deliver the first product. The Supplier will be at the forefront of a business change to a product centred delivery approach and the approach developed will create a blue-print for further LEDS products.
3. Who’s on the panel?: The panel will comprise expert members from both inside and outside the Programme.
4. Can the buyer clarify the intended location of the delivery team – within the UK or delivered through offshore capabilities? Would it be possible to use nearshore resources for this work: Due to the nature of the customer and the need for clearances near-shoring and/or off-shoring is not a possibility at this time. However, supplier delivery centres can be based anywhere in the UK, recognising that not all resource will be able to operate remotely due to the nature of product delivery.
5. Do you require one example for each essential requirement or will you accept more than one example per question?: Please read the Digital Marketplace guidance. Within the constraints of the response framework, Suppliers may provide example(s) that best demonstrate your skills and experience. Suppliers are required to provide at least one example for each and will not score higher or lower purely because they gave more or less examples than another supplier. The assessment will be based on content not volume.
6. In Q6 about resources are you asking us: To explain how we will “provide suitably skilled resource, rapidly mobilise and scale up a full team, flex resource or pause, when required” for this work for the Home Office? Or, Are you asking for an example of where we have done this for a different customer?": The former, but you could use the later as an exemplar.
7. In Q9 are you asking for: 1) An example of how we will (for the Home Office in this contract) provide transparent financial structures etc. Or are you asking, 2) For an example of where we have provided (to a customer) transparent financial structures etc.: The former, but you could use the later as an exemplar.
8. In Q10 are you asking for: 1) An example of how we will provide an SC cleared team to the Home Office under this contract. Or are you asking for, 2) An example of how we have provided an SC cleared team to a customer.: The former, but you could use the later as an exemplar.
9. Could you please expand upon Q11. What is it that you would like to know about NPPV3?: Similar to the stated SC 'nice-to-have skills and experience', the ability to provide an NPPV3 cleared team by the stated ‘latest start date’. Individuals must have, or be willing to work towards, NPPV3 clearance.
10. We would be grateful if you can clarify Q7: "Ability to prioritise multiple concurrent SOW demands to ensure that there is no delay to delivery timelines in this contract." Can you confirm if this is about breadth and depth to provide teams, or is it more to do with management across workstreams? Could the authority please advise does “multiple concurrent SOW demands” mean multiple SOWs within one contract, multiple SOWs across different contracts or multiple demands in one SOW?: Post discovery, there will likely be further Property related SOW to complete the journey to live operation, subject to satisfactory performance.

There may also be further Product SOW (not related to Property) that are offered as part of this contract.

In addition you will need to operate within a wider ecosystem of Product and Programme delivery, including other Product suppliers whose Products may intersect with their own. However, this is a product delivery team, not a delivery management team sitting across Product delivery.
11. In Q4 about service standards – can you give some examples of infrastructure which you see as equivalent to critical national infrastructure.: Those critical elements of infrastructure, the loss or compromise of which could result in major detrimental impact on the availability, integrity or delivery of essential services – including those services whose integrity, if compromised, could result in loss of life, taking into account significant economic or social impacts; or significant impact on the customer's ability to function.
12. Can you tell me the proposed/planned core technology stack for this product please? [Infrastructure(cloud/on-premise) – any specific supplier/provider – AWS/Azure/Openshift/Oracle and software stack list?]: The proposed architecture is based on RESTful services with micro front-end UIs, hosted on a Home Office containerised AWS platform. The product team will be able to propose the technology stack they believe best suits the needs of the product. All choices will be subject to constraints of supportability and reducing divergence with in the enterprise and governance approval. Cloud native services are preferred (e.g. API Gateway, SQS/SNS, RDS) and it is expected development will be largely java based including React and Spring Boot.
13. Does the responsibility of ‘NLEDP 168 – Product Team 1’ include both platform and application layer (or) either one?: The product team should be focused on application capabilities as it will be built on an existing Home Office AWS platform that will provide a significant proportion of platform services. The product is likely to require platform capabilities not provided by the underlying platform and the team will be expected to implement these capabilities, working with the platform team as necessary. Where the team implement additional capabilities these should be delivered so as to benefit other product teams where appropriate.
14. Can the Buyer confirm the that the successful supplier in this DOS procurement will not be precluded from future NLEDP procurements, in particular for future product teams.: As stated in the advert, the HO intends to establish a diverse Product supplier community to ensure there is capacity to deliver the required products. While this intent might feature more strongly in future product procurement, success this in this procurement will not preclude participation in future product procurement.
15. Can the buyer clarify the proposed delivery methodology for the product team, is there an intended agile methodology?: We expect suppliers to align to practices and principles that enable continuous, user-centred product delivery in a highly complex stakeholder, customer and technical environment. As such, your proposed delivery approach must cope well with ambiguity and be highly responsive and change-tolerant.
16. Please can you confirm the split of roles that you anticipate across the team structure?: The Authority require an expert proven product delivery supplier to deliver the Property product discovery phase, and then into live service.

The Authority will provide the Product Owner and Product Manager for the supplier to work alongside. The Supplier will be responsible for proposing the roles and team structure, including the engineering, design and product skills for the delivery.

As part of this delivery, the supplier will be setting the first exemplar of product delivery. You will therefore need to work with the Authority to refine and optimise our methodology into an approach that we can apply in future.
17. Please can you define what PRODUCT(s) you anticipate will be required to replace legacy IT systems?: NLEDP will deliver a number of products that allow policing and law enforcement to search and update information about persons of interest in order to establish their identities and understand their threat, vulnerability and criminal history background. The products will also provide access to DVLA data about drivers and vehicles and a lost and stolen property register. The new products will be designed to meet the current needs of users of PNC and designed to be evolved to adapt to future demands.
18. Is there a delivery road map available to give an indication of phasing?: Following the reset, there is not a complete overall road map at this point but the products to be delivered over the next year will be determined shortly. We expect to develop a fuller portfolio and indicative road map over the next three months as the programme breaks down an earlier backlog which was heavily constrained to a ‘like for like’ (to legacy) solution. The new portfolio will be designed around user centred products that are more deliverable and have an evolutionary road map that incrementally delivers value to law enforcement. Further details on property will be provided following shortlisting.
19. What are requirements for demonstrating Security Clearance (SC).: Evidence of existing Security Clearance will be requested at the written proposal stage. Current SC can be transferred from a relevant Government department if evidence can be provided. Staff cannot commence work until SC clearance has been confirmed, or an equivalent waiver been approved.
20. What is the Programme seeking when it states that it "would like to explore Capping this activity. Both Parties will work towards Fixed Price delivery of the remaining work.": The intention is the provision of a Product service with defined outcomes where the Supplier is responsible for the achievement of the required deliverables and will themselves own the associated risk and provision of individuals to deliver the outcome.

In the first instance the Property discovery may be bounded by time, recognising this has some consequence for how discovery might be conducted.

As part of this, separate day rates for services of each role will need to be supplied and details of management processes and mitigation proposed for poor service delivery, staff handover and turnover, quality maintenance and corrective actions.
21. Further to the previous question relating to the need for NPPV3 please could you confirm what the eligibility criteria are? Is the eligibility criteria similar to SC which requires staff to have been resident in the UK for a minimum of 5 years?: Please refer to the guidance at the links below:

https://www.warwickshire.police.uk/police-forces/warwickshire-police/areas/warwickshire-police/about-us/about-us/national-contractors-vetting-scheme/vetting-process/

https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/sites/default/files/files/recruitment/per68.pdf
22. Who is the current platform supplier for the Product Team 1?: The platform will be supplied by the Home Office in line with our standards.
23. Is the development environment is in secured network? If yes, will the Authority provide the development laptops(Product development team) for remote working? When office operates in normal pattern(post Covid-19 situation) will the Authority provide the work desktop within secured network in the office for product development and support activities?: The development environment will be accessed via a secure VPN over the internet. The supplier’s own devices can be used for development, subject to them undergoing the Home Office End User Device review. There may also be a need to install some client software, such as AWS Workspaces.

Arrangements for office working, when resumed, will be agreed on a case by case basis for roles requiring secure access to Home Office systems.
24. When will suppliers be notified if they are successful post stage 1 submission on the 12th March?: Supplier will be notified of the outcome of their stage 1 submission as soon as reasonably practicable following submission. The number of submissions requiring evaluation will have a major bearing upon this, but we endeavour to notify the outcome within 1 week stage 1 submission evaluation and shortlist compilation.
25. What are the timelines for stage 2 including proposal submission, contract negotiations and supplier appointment to meet the 19th April start date?: The information in support of stage 2 will be issued as soon as possible following evaluation of the stage 1 submission and the resulting shortlist. The pack will likely include additional information and three templates for your case studies, proposal response and pricing. The outline plan includes 2-weeks for the stage 2 response, with presentations and evaluation taking place in the following 2-week period, followed by award. The 19th is the target date for contract signature. Delivery commencement will be subject to clearances and on-boarding.
26. How many products has the Programme scoped for the supplier, what are these, and what are the time frames for delivering these products during the two year period of the contract?: The Programme has currently only scoped the Property discovery phase for the Supplier. Successful delivery will likely see the supplier take forward Property into live operation.

There may also be other related Product opportunities subject to satisfactory performance and sufficient financial headroom within the contract.
27. The following essential skill “Expert approach to managing risks, within the outlined governance structure and culture, to ensure that capability requirements can be met as required so that delivery is not impacted” Is this in relation to programme delivery risk, security risk, or another specific category?: All aspects of risk management associated with achieving the desired outcomes.
28. Can you outline your existing systems landscape for NLEDP and any technology preferences you have for the new products?: Please refer to the previous Supplier question and response number 12 as we believe this has already been answered.
29. The opportunity references the need to engage and collaborate with other suppliers. Who are these suppliers and what are their roles/responsibilities on the programme?: The supplier landscape is evolving and the intention is to appoint more than one Product Supplier over time. In addition some programme management teams are staffed with a combination of civil servants, contractors and client side advisers. The successful bidder will be required to collaborate effectively with all of these.
30. Does the scope of the Programme include PNC and PND, and will the supplier be asked to develop products using both systems?: The programme has currently scoped the first product and will be producing a portfolio of further products that remove reliance on the existing PNC without directly replacing it. This portfolio will not directly address the scope of PND.
31. Would decommissioning of legacy systems form part of the programme or would this be handled separately?: The decommissioning of legacy systems will not be directly achieved by the products and hence is separate to this opportunity.
32. For Question 4 “Ability to deliver products/services to government service standards within the context of critical national infrastructure, or equivalent.”, can we use a non-UK (Northern Europe) case study if it’s built to GSS equivalent government standards and is within the context of critical national infrastructure?: The supplier must determine the most suitable case studies to put forward. However, there is no requirement for all case studies to be from the UK.
33. The budget stated is £4.96m over two years, what is the estimated budget for the initial discovery phase?: This is being determined in conjunction with Suppliers as part of this procurement exercise.
34. The opportunity references a first product expected to focus on stolen property. What are the programme time frames to deliver this product? Could you provide context on the scope, users, proposed solution, any integration and/or existing risks/challenges? What are the architecture principles, and any progress made to date?: Further detail on the Property product will be provided as part of Additional Information in the next stage of this procurement exercise, following short-listing.
35. What is the role of the programme with respect to business change and adoption in regional/local customer organisations?: The programme works closely with policing and law enforcement, who drive business change and adoption. Product-centric incremental delivery driven by user needs is a new way of working for this programme and therefore our role in continuing to support these activities will be informed through this procurement and subsequent delivery.
36. Please confirm the IR35 status of this assignment for Product Team-1.: The delivery will be outcome-based so the team size and structure will be determined by the Supplier in order to achieve this. Our expectation is that, to the extent the “Off-Payroll Working Legislation (IR35)” is applicable to your team, that this would likely fall ‘outside’. However, a formal determination will be made at contract award in light of the Supplier response and finalised contract.

In addition, Suppliers will also need to make their own assessment for any resource within their supply chains, as these resources may be classified as ‘inside’ given they will likely be working at the Supplier’s direction.

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