Awarded to PA Consulting Services Limited (UK)

Start date: Monday 5 August 2019
Value: £243,496
Company size: large

The Department for Transport.

Traffic Regulation Orders and Associated Data: Policy Alpha

6 Incomplete applications

5 SME, 1 large

29 Completed applications

20 SME, 9 large

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

Overview

• Summary of the work: Undertake user research to identify current/future user needs for users of TROs and associated data.; ; Develop and iterate a legislative MVP system for making TROs, to meet needs and enable provision of digital TRO data.; ; Present the prototype to help enable potential legislative change.
• Latest start date: Wednesday 17 July 2019
• Expected contract length: 16 weeks
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: The Department for Transport.
• Budget range: £200,000 to £250,000. Capped at £250,000 excluding VAT

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) are legal orders which define the rules of the road network; ; A report from North Highland Consultancy in 2018 recommended streamlining and digitising TROs. It found the TRO-making process labour-intensive, time-consuming and costly.; ; This work contributes to the UK Industrial Strategy. As part of the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge within the Strategy, Government has prioritised providing a regulatory framework that evolves with transport technology. The Future of Mobility Urban Strategy advocated data sharing to improve transport system operation.; ; A Discovery, as yet unpublished, completed in June 2019. It provided recommendations for future work on TROs.
• Problem to be solved: Identify any additional users of the TRO-making process and TRO data to those found in the Discovery. Identify the needs of these users. Consider how users and their needs may change due to new mobility forms.; ; Develop and iterate an MVP legislative process for making TROs which meets current and future user needs, and enables the provision of digital TRO data. Rigorously test this process with users to inform iteration. Provide a design for a new process and evidence to support recommendations. ; ; Provide robust assessment of the impact of the iterated legislative process to inform potential policy changes to TROs.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: • Applicants (e.g. Local Highways Authorities, utility companies, event organisers) who need to change the network for activities including road works and managing traffic.; • TRO Makers (i.e. Local Highway Authorities) who need to manage their road network to comply with legal duties.; • Statutory consultees (e.g. emergency services, bus operators, transport associations) and non-statutory consultees (e.g. road users, local residents) who want information on proposed TROs to express opinions and/or know about network changes.; • TRO data users (e.g. map makers, navigation system providers) who want TRO data to inform users of network changes and/or rules/restrictions in place.
• Early market engagement: No early market engagement has taken place with suppliers for this requirement.
• Any work that’s already been done: A TRO Discovery has been undertaken by DfT, GeoPlace, Ordnance Survey and the British Parking Association. More information can be found here. It is providing user personas and journeys for most of the key affected parties. It is also providing a series of recommendations informed by user research. ; ; Any work conducted in this Alpha should build upon the recommendations and research conducted to date. A redacted version of this research will be provided to shortlisted suppliers prior to the second stage of supplier submissions.; ; The North Highland Local Transport Data Discovery precipitated the TRO Discovery.
• Existing team: Suppliers undertaking this requirement will work alongside the Department for Transport’s Traffic and Technology Division. The Division will provide policy expertise and product ownership, as well as providing continuity of knowledge from the previous discovery.; ; The core team will be:; Anthony Ferguson – SRO – Head of Traffic and Technology; Sally Kendall – Service Owner – Head of Street Works; Tom Pinchbeck – Product Owner – Pothole Strategy Delivery Manager; Gereint Killa – Subject Matter Expert – Senior Engineer, Street Works Policy
• Current phase: Discovery

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: The majority of the work should be conducted at the supplier’s own site; however the team should also have the ability to travel to other locations and agencies as required to meet users. Expenses will be paid in accordance with DfT rates.; ; We would expect the Supplier to work at our offices when agreed and required. Exact days will be discussed and agreed as part of the statement for work decided with the supplier, once the contract has been appointed.; ; Address: Department for Transport, Great Minster House, Horseferry Road, SW1P 4DR or Highways England.
• Working arrangements: We expect full-time engagement from delivery teams to deliver the required outcomes. ; ; We would like the Alpha kick-off completed within approximately 6 weeks which may include:; - Mobilisation/Validation of previous work ; - Additional user research where required; - Further definition of MVP/Alpha Backlog; ; We would then like the Alpha completed within approximately 10 weeks, consisting of sprints to demonstrate, iterate and present a prototype legislative process. This should deliver a well-evidenced proposal for potential legislative change.; ; Exact milestones will be determined with the supplier, post appointment. ; ; We require weekly updates detailing achievements of milestones and issues that may impact timescales/cost.
• Security clearance: All contractors’ personnel must currently hold Authority security clearance level BPSS at minimum and be available to begin immediately following award. Evidence of clearance will be requested at written proposal stage.; ; Personal data collected during Alpha will constitute an information asset. Suppliers will be required to appropriately protect this asset.

Additional information

• Additional terms and conditions: CVs will be requested from shortlisted suppliers. ; ; Suppliers may be required to complete a security questionnaire prior to award.

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:
  • Demonstrable experience of identifying the needs of diverse users through both larger group sessions and one-to-one interviews.
  • Experience of testing internally and with end users with a clear identification of what this might include.
  • Proven track record of delivering projects at speed with clearly identified deliverables and ability to meet 16-week Alpha timetable
  • Demonstrable evidence of excellent planning, coordination, communication and project management skills.
  • Demonstrable Agile project delivery understanding including evidence of undertaking Alpha phases that: Delivered the expected outcome; Met GDS service manual criteria: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile-delivery;Helped shape system/process developments
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Experience working with Central Government and/or with Local Authorities.
  • Demonstrable evidence of transport sector experience
  • Demonstrable experience of working in a culture of continuous delivery and improvement
  • Demonstrable experience of communicating between technical and non-technical teams.
  • Demonstrable experience of using innovative techniques to speed up identification of user persons and user needs
  • Experience in conducting stakeholder analysis where knowledge gaps were identified and plans implemented to address the shortfall.
  • An understanding of the policy and approach the government and the data community are taking with data and open data and of the benefits this provides.
  • Knowledge of data platforms and technical architecture

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 6
• Proposal criteria:
  • Proposed methodology and approach to taking forward the Alpha phases including the main stages, activities proposed (each stage), and how the findings from the previous Discovery phase will be adopted(20%)
  • Demonstrate how the requirements of users such as road users, Central Government, Local Authorities, utility companies, statutory consultees, and data users will be integrated into the project (20%)
  • Demonstrable experience of how you have identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them (10%)
  • Proposed team structure, including details of resource, positions and responsibilities throughout Alpha and their CVs (10%).
  • Ability to meet the 16-week timeframe for delivery of the MVP (10%)
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Experience of transparent and collaborative decision making (2.5%)
  • Evidence of strategic thinking striving to deliver best possible solution/concept possible (2.5%)
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Assessment methods:
  • Written proposal
  • Case study
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  70%

  Cultural fit

  5%

  Price

  25%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Was there an external incumbent supplier for the discovery phase, or was this delivered entirely internally?: No, there is no incumbent supplier. As noted in the advertisement, the DfT worked on a TRO Discovery with GeoPlace, Ordnance Survey and the British Parking Association.’; ; However, There was a link in the original document to the landing page for the external suppliers work. That you may find useful; ; It can be found at https://www.geoplace.co.uk/trodiscovery
• 2. Can you please confirm this engagement is for Discovery and Alpha Phases to be delivered within 16 weeks?: A discovery has already been conducted in partnership with GeoPlace, Ordnance Survey and the British Parking Association. ; ; We anticipate that some validation or additional user research may be required to support the findings of this discovery, however a full discovery phase will not be required.; ; This engagement is therefore for an Alpha phase with the potential for some initial user research validation. The timeline for all of this work is 16 weeks
• 3. If you have a preferred technology stack, what are the main technologies?: The Department does not have a preferred technology stack for this work. ; ; We would also like to clarify that the Alpha is for development of a legislative process to support the provision of TRO data
• 4. Is a system to be built to demonstrate a future process with TRO data to inform legislative change, or does the MVP need to be built with the infrastructure and technology that would be used for a Beta development?: This engagement requires development of a potential new legislative process for traffic authorities to follow when making TROs that meets user needs, along with the provision of evidence to support the proposals. The supplier will need to consider whether legislative change is required to make the data stored in TROs open, however suppliers will not be required to develop a digital system for the making of TROs or produce a prototype
• 5. • Where are you in terms of the Discovery?• What are you looking to achieve in Alpha?• Based on supplier question 2, is the total supplier time spent on Alpha 16 weeks? Also does any potential additional Discovery time required fall into the 16 week Alpha?: The Discovery has completed its research activities and provided initial findings. A redacted version of this research will be provided to shortlisted suppliers prior to the second stage of supplier submissions. The full report will be provided to the successful supplier upon award.; ; Suppliers will be required to develop and iterate proposals for a new legislative process for making TROs. They will also need to present these proposals with supporting evidence to help enable potential legislative change.; ; The total supplier time of 16 weeks should include both the Alpha and any research validation required to support the Alpha
• 6. We read that over 300 organisations were consulted during discovery. What proportion of these would be in scope for further research?: Over 300 organisations responded to surveys conducted within the TRO Discovery. Users have been grouped for development of representative personas, journeys and needs. ; ; Suppliers will need to identify user groups that require additional research using the redacted version of Discovery report. The report will be provided to shortlisted suppliers prior to the second stage of supplier submissions. Suppliers will need to identify ways to engage with representative samples of these groups. The Department will support the successful bidder by helping facilitate any user research.; ; The Department does not anticipate that further research would be required for every user group
• 7. Who would be responsible for recruitment of participants for further research and testing?: The supplier will be ultimately responsible for the recruitment of participants for further research and testing.; ; The Department will support this recruitment as far as is practicable via our existing contacts in the relevant user groups. The Department will also inform existing research participants from the TRO Discovery of the next stage of this work to encourage their engagement
• 8. How have the user/organisational needs been documented?: The TRO Discovery has identified a series of key user groups. For each of these groups, user personas including responsibilities, needs, journey and frustrations have been produced.; ; A summary version of these user needs will be provided to shortlisted suppliers prior to the second stage of supplier submissions. The full user personas will be provided to the successful bidder
• 9. Has any other supplier been engaged with this project so far?: The TRO Discovery has been undertaken by the Department in partnership with GeoPlace, Ordnance Survey and the British Parking Association. GeoPlace have led on drafting the user research report.
• 10. What roles are you expecting suppliers to provide? In addition, are you expecting all roles to have the ability to be full time: We would expect the supplier, as part of their proposal to suggest a team they feel capable of delivering our solution. How this is resourced is for the supplier to determine.
• 11. In order to compare suppliers like for like, how will price be evaluated?: Price will be evaluated on total price excluding VAT
• 12. 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?: Stage 1 evaluation scores are only used to shortlist suppliers as per the Digital Outcomes and Specialist Framework Guidance.
• 13. Will your Product Owner be allocated full time to this project?: The TRO Alpha will be the Product Owner’s primary focus, however they will also have some parallel responsibilities. The existing DfT team will look to be supportive and flexible in the way they engage with the TRO Alpha.
• 14. Are you able to continue straight into the next phase of this project with the same supplier with no air gap between phases?: This opportunity is solely for the Alpha phase with some initial validation work. Any subsequent phases would be subject to additional procurement activities.
• 15. As there is a duration and budget specified, can we assume work has been limited and prioritised?: Prioritised recommendations for the Alpha will be provided in the redacted Discovery report which will be made available to shortlisted suppliers prior to the second stage of supplier submissions. We would expect any supplier to work with the Department to prioritise their work through the duration of the Alpha.
• 16. Will you be able to organise access to stakeholders throughout the project?: The supplier will be ultimately responsible for the recruitment of participants for further research and testing.; The Department will support the accessing of stakeholders as far as is practicable via our existing contacts in the relevant user groups. The Department will also inform existing research participants from the TRO Discovery of the next stage of this work to encourage their engagement; ; Please note this is basically a copy and paste from q7
• 17. Will you be able to organise access to stakeholders throughout the project?: The supplier will be ultimately responsible for the recruitment of participants for further research and testing.; The Department will support the accessing of stakeholders as far as is practicable via our existing contacts in the relevant user groups. The Department will also inform existing research participants from the TRO Discovery of the next stage of this work to encourage their engagement; ; Please note this is basically a copy and paste from q7
• 18. Are you looking for an organisation with GDS assessment experience or just certain individuals proposed in the supplier team?: We will consider both whether the organisation and relevant individuals have GDS assessment experience. The important factor is whether the GDS assessment experience exists within the organisation bidding for the Alpha.
• 19. 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?: DfT follow the Digital Outcomes and Specialist scoring guidance as follows:; Score Description; 0 Not met or no evidence; 1 Partially met; 2 Met; 3 Exceeded; ; We are unable to provide you with more detailed information as we expect bidders to demonstrate and evidence their knowledge and experience as noted within the evaluation criteria set out within the advert.
• 20. 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?: We are only requesting one example per skills and experience question. Where there are multiple aspects of a single criteria, please provide one example that provides evidence for all aspects.
• 21. How would you like suppliers to present expenses (separate rechargeable or included in day rates based on assumption for travel)?: Expenses should be identified separately. They should be based on DfT standard rates, e.g. second class rail travel, only additional expenses can be claimed.
• 22. 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?: In general, private and public sector examples will be given equal weight when evidencing the ‘essential’ and ‘nice-to-have’ skills and experience. However, please note that certain criteria make specific reference to public sector skills and experience, in these cases public sector examples will be required.
• 23. Could you please clarify that the criteria set out in "How suppliers will be evaluated" is relevant for the 2nd stage of award?: The section setting out the Proposal and Cultural fit criteria will be tested at Stage 2 evaluation. For the avoidance of doubt the Essential Skills and Nice to have skills will be tested at stage 1.
• 24. Could you please clarify that the criteria set out in "How suppliers will be evaluated" is relevant for the 2nd stage of award?: The section setting out the Proposal and Cultural fit criteria will be tested at Stage 2 evaluation. For the avoidance of doubt the Essential Skills and Nice to have skills will be tested at stage 1.
• 25. Which countries in the United Kingdom will be in scope? Will it apply to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, or a smaller subset?: Only England is within the scope of this work
• 26. Considering the essential skill/experience of "Experience of testing internally and with end users with a clear identification of what this might include", please could you clarify whether this applies to user testing, user acceptance testing and/or usability testing (and indeed any other forms of testing?). Also, please could you confirm the profile/nature of internal stakeholders?: All three forms of testing cited could be acceptable evidence of meeting the criteria. Internal stakeholders will include the TRO policy team and the TRO casework team within DfT who have user needs associated with the TRO process
• 27. Are DBS certificates sufficient for the contractor personnel or are BPSS certificates essential?: BPSS is the minimum security standard that is sought for from contractors. We will require all contractors to have current BPSS security standard by the start date of the contract. Evidence that BPSS clearance will be obtained by the start date will be sufficient to meet the criteria in the advert.
• 28. Will organisations who proceed to the second stage of submission receive both the North Highland and TRO discovery reports?: A redacted version of the Discovery report will be provided to shortlisted suppliers prior to the second stage of supplier submissions. The North Highland Local Transport Data Discovery is already available online here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/730787/local-transport-data-summary.pdf
• 29. What types of evidence are you expecting to support the new legislative process proposals?: The evidence to support the proposal for the new legislative process should provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the key impacts on the main affected user groups. The risks and assumptions associated with the evidence should also be identified
• 30. Will the MVP process need to pass a GDS assessment?: The need for a GDS assessment will depend on the solution identified at Alpha. If a transactional service is proposed by the supplier, an Alpha assessment will be required. You can find more information in the service manual here: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-assessments/check-if-need-to-meet-service-standard