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Procurement details

Procurement details: DfE Financial Benchmarking Services for Schools

26

Applications submitted

£3877000

Indicative Budget

Outside scope

Off-payroll status

10 March 2023

Application Closing Date

1. Context and requirements

About adding context and requirements: test
Pre-market engagement: Not Applicable.
Work done so far: We have completed a level of discovery work with regards to the users of the individual tools. Further discovery work is needed to identify a more precise sense of what the users need from a joint service. We are also keen to explore all available options that could deliver this service. The discovery completed to date: • provides extensive feedback on the use of both the existing tools, including backlogs for future development. • Identifies that we must maintain transparency of the spending of public money by schools through a route that is accessible to all, whilst also having dedicated analytics and functions in VMFI that are specifically targeted at users in schools. • Identifies a specific pain point that there is an increasing confusion from school users regarding two separate tools, with separate routes in, operating in a similar way.
Which phase the project is in: Discovery
Existing team: The Schools Financial Benchmarking (SFB) tool has been developed and supported by a 3rd party provider, working alongside DfE staff, since public beta launch in 2017. The current contract is due to end 6th June 2023. View My Financial Insights tool (VMFI) was launched in 2020, supported initially both internally and with a 3rd party provider. Since April 2021, VMFI has been brought in-house, with support provided by DfE and ESFA colleagues. Existing civil service roles include Senior Responsible Owners & Product Owners. The successful supplier or consortium of suppliers for this contract will deliver outcomes in relation to roles across all job families in the Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Address where the work will be done: The Supplier shall deliver the services remotely on its own premises. The Supplier may request onsite working. The Buyer shall consider such requests and may at its absolute discretion agree onsite working arrangements with the Supplier. DfE sites include Sheffield, Darlington, London, Manchester or Coventry. There is no parking. The primary location will be detailed in each Statement of Work (SoW). All work must be conducted in line with the Buyers security policy and securely within in the United Kingdom.
Working arrangements: The Supplier will have regular portfolio and performance reviews to discuss progress against delivering the intended outcomes and will suggest/implement interventions to ensure outcomes are completed on time. Each Statement of Work (SOW) will outline the expected outcomes, associated budget and payment approach. Suppliers will need to provide clear costs to enable tracking. Each work package will set out a knowledge transfer deliverable to improve DfE internal capability, build and support the applications/services, and provide business continuity of services.
Provide more information about your security requirements: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)
Provide more information about your security requirements (optional): DfE requires all supplier staff to have Baseline Personnel Security Standard clearance – enhanced security requirements will be detailed in the individual SOW. Work must be conducted securely in the United Kingdom.
Latest start date: 2023-05-18
Enter the expected contract length: 2 years
Extension period: 1 year
Special terms and conditions: In order to participate in this opportunity, DOS6 awarded suppliers should have followed all necessary registration steps through the Public Procurement Gateway, operated by Crown Commercial Service (CCS). Please follow instructions sent to you at the email address supplied during the DOS6 application process.
Special terms and conditions: Shortlisted suppliers invited to Proposal will be issued a Financial Viability Assessment Tool and a Security Questionnaire which must be completed.
Special terms and conditions: All Supplier Staff working on services in relation to this Contract will need to undertake, as a minimum, a BPSS security check. Security checks relevant to supplier staff will be indicated clearly through each Statement of Work issued under this Call-Off Contract. Any enhanced security requirements (e.g., SC etc) will be detailed in the Statements of Work'. The Supplier shall ensure that no Supplier Staff who discloses that they have a Relevant Conviction, or who is found to have any Relevant Convictions (whether as a result of a police check or through the vetting procedure of HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard or through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or otherwise), is employed or engaged in any part of the provision of the Services without the prior written approval of the Buyer. Subject to the Data Protection Legislation, the Supplier shall disclose the results of their vetting process, immediately to the Buyer. The decision as to whether any of the Supplier’s Staff are allowed to perform activities in relation to the Call Off Contract, is entirely at the Buyer’s sole discretion. The Supplier shall be required to undertake annual periodic checks during the Call Off Contract Period of its Staff, in accordance with HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard so as to determine the Supplier Staff suitability to continue to Framework Schedule 6 (Order Form Template, Statement of Work Template and Call-Off Schedules) 5 provide Services under the Call Off Contract. The Supplier shall ensure that any Supplier Staff who discloses a Relevant Conviction (either spent or unspent) or is found by the Supplier to have a Relevant Conviction through standard national vetting procedures or otherwise, is immediately disclosed to the Buyer. The Supplier shall ensure that the individual staff member immediately ceases all activity in relation to the Call Off Contract, until the Buyer has reviewed the case, on an individual basis, and has made a final decision. Where the Buyer decides that a Supplier Staff should be removed from performing activities, as a result of obtaining information in relation to the Call Off Contract, or for any other reason, the Supplier shall promptly and diligently replace any individual identified.
Special terms and conditions: The location will be specified in the Statement of Work (Primary Location). Expenses cannot be claimed for travel to the Primary Location of work when in-office working is required. Some work may be UK wide, and travel may be required to other DfE offices. When travel to other DfE sites is required, all costs incurred must comply with the prevailing DfE Travel and Subsistence policy. Parking is not available on DfE sites. Should base location vary it will be outlined and agreed upon the individual statements of work.
Special terms and conditions: The latest start date will be outlined in each individual statement of work. Except for in exceptional circumstances, and as agreed with the buyer.
Special terms and conditions: Service provider resources must work within the United Kingdom unless agreed by the Department on an individual basis. Departmental equipment must not be taken abroad or access the departmental network whilst outside the United Kingdom unless agreed by the Department on an individual basis.
Special terms and conditions: The Department’s standard approach to pricing mechanism will be ‘Capped Time and Materials’ (CTM) however we reserve the right to use any of the other approaches as listed in the call-off charges section.
Special terms and conditions: General Information Standard Framework and Call Off Terms and Conditions will apply Suppliers must agree to all DFE security clearance policies and processes. Suppliers must comply with the Regulation (GDPR) Regulation May 2018; the (DPA) Act 2018, the Law Enforcement Directive and any subsequent amendments/changes to date including providing sufficient guarantees to meet the requirements of GDPR in line with Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 02/18 May 2018 which updates PPN 03/17 All Project-Specific IPRs (as defined) and the Deliverables shall vest in the Buyer unconditionally and immediately upon their creation.
Special terms and conditions: 1.1 The Supplier shall not, either directly or indirectly, by or through itself, its affiliate, its agent or otherwise, or in conjunction with its affiliate, its agent or otherwise, whether for its own benefit or for the benefit of any other person solicit, entice or induce, or endeavour to solicit, entice or induce, any employees of the Buyer who are employed or engaged in the performance of the Services with a view to employing or engaging the employee of the Buyer during the Call-Off Contract Period and for a period of [9 months] thereafter. 1.2 Notwithstanding clause 1.1 the Supplier may employ or engage any employees of the Buyer which have responded directly to a bona fide recruitment drive either through a recruitment agency engaged by the Supplier or via an advertisement placed publicly by the Supplier (either in the press, social media, online or in trade and industry publications).
Special terms and conditions: Please ensure that you use the response template provided, titled 'Project_9670 - Stage 1 Response Document' to provide your Stage 1 responses to the published essential and nice-to-have criteria.
Are you prepared to show your budget details?: Yes
Indicative maximum: 3877000
Indicative minimum
Provide further information: The initial contract period of two years has an indicative contract value up to £3,877,000 excluding VAT. Budget approval is subject to DfE governance and approvals. DfE does not commit to any minimum spend on this contract. A pricing template will be provided to shortlisted suppliers which will request day rates for outside IR35 at proposal stage.
Confirm if you require a contracted out service or supply of resource: Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply
Summary of work: DfE requires a single supplier or consortium of suppliers with exceptional experience of building data products/services to bring together our financial benchmarking offer (currently across two separate systems), improve processes and redesign how this is presented to provide one clear offering to users. The successful supplier will need to design a service that will: • prepare for circumstances where the running of the benchmarking offer is undertaken largely (or entirely) by civil servants, using standardised systems which work seamlessly with DfE processes. • Respond to user feedback as it arrives and changes to policy development within 8 weeks of agreement with the product owner to ensure the service’s continued relevance. During the development of the new service, access to the current systems is still required, so users can continue to manage their financial resources effectively and efficiently; the Supplier will therefore also need to maintain the two separate systems, ensuring they: • Update the two existing systems to meet any new GDS standards as they arise; include the Academy Trust and maintained schools data in Summer 2023 and Autumn 2023 respectively and include accurate Ancillary data (as available) • Provide user support to answer user queries, including data amendments if required; standard maintenance and bug resolution as well as test maintenance and security activities. Work will be outside the scope of IR35.
Where the supplied staff will work: No specific location (for example they can work remotely)
Who the organisation using the products or services is: Department for Education
Why the work is being done: This project forms the next phase of the Data and Transparency strand of the School Resource Management (SRM) portfolio – a programme designed to provide schools with the insights they need to support their financial decision making. The Data and Transparency strand is a suite of data visualisation tools that primarily analyse financial information collected from schools, local authorities, and academy trusts. The intended outcome is to integrate two existing products, Schools Financial Benchmarking (Schools Financial Benchmarking GOV.UK ) and View My Financial Insights (View My Financial Insights GOV.UK ) , which are currently run separately, into one. This work will primarily address feedback from users regarding the need for a single route into the DfE’s Benchmarking Services and will also create internal process efficiencies. The new tool will support a wide user base of internal users (DfE staff members) and external users (schools, local authorities, multi-academy trusts, governors, parents etc.) and their differing needs. The Schools Financial Benchmarking (SFB) site receives circa 20,000 hits per month and the View My Financial Insights (VMFI) site has been used by just under 11,500 users since it went live in 2020. The new tool will need to consider the different access requirements the existing systems have. There will be aspects of the data visualisation which can be viewed publicly, SFB visualisations, as well those which would need to be protected for more in-depth analysis, VMFI visualisations. The key stages of the tool’s development is anticipated as follows: • August 2023: Production of an alpha prototype • February 2024: MVP version of the new service launched • November 2024 : Enhanced version launched including additional metrics and functionality For the education sector - the new service will provide clear and accessible support for professionals at school, trust, and local authority level to make efficient spending decisions, by being able to: • compare their use of resources against other schools, • interrogate their own financial data • identify areas of improvement to support better financial planning and improved outcomes for pupils. • Support Governors & Trustees in their role in holding the organisations to account in terms of managing their resources effectively and creating a sustainable cycle of efficiency challenge etc. The new service will support several of the Government & Department’s priorities which includes reducing the burden on the school sector, driving efficiencies in and effectiveness of our internal processes to make every pound count (value for money), driving toward digital delivery. The new service will further support the Department in meeting its internal transformation aims of - Being data, evidence and expertise driven; empowering yourself and others; delivering joined-up results, which will in turn put children and learners first as the new service will help schools in their decision making to help them give children the best education.
The business problem you need to solve: There are currently two main products within the Data and Transparency strand – 1. the Schools Financial Benchmarking (SFB) website - our public facing tool, giving any user, information relating to the spend of public money and 2. View My Financial Insights (VMFI) – which sits behind a log-in, so it enables more nuanced messaging and analytics to be given to the school. Each tool uses the same financial information, but cannot be run through the same data pipeline as: 1. the core SFB database, launched in 2017, does not sit on the Department’s infrastructure. It relies on excel downloads and an external third party managed service to update the website. 2. VMFI, launched in 2020, has been built on the Department’s infrastructure and data flows are pipelined through a technical solution using Microsoft Azure by the DfE Data Directorate. There are 2 main objectives to this project. Objective 1: The primary outcome is to integrate the two separate products into one, ensuring that the new service reduces confusion within the sector and provides significant efficiencies for the DfE. Confusion will be reduced providing a single route into the DfE’s Benchmarking Services and by tackling the differences in how comparators and RAGS are currently reported in the two separate systems. Efficiencies for the DfE will be provided by bringing the two tools together to share resources and streamline the processes taken to update and maintain a single tool. The new service needs to support a wide user base and their differing needs. It will need to provide both a public facing view, as well as a protected view for more in-depth analysis. Creating a standardised system which works seamlessly with the DfE’s processes and infrastructure, responds to user feedback as it arrives to ensure the service’s continued relevance, responds to changes to policy development, including ministerial requests, within 8 weeks of agreement with the product owner, will improve the user experience. The new service must be future proofed, so for example it can be adapted to reflect any changes in data collection sources and requirements, it can create new insights and be extended to provide insights back to academies using much more granular data submitted through an automated data collection route that provides ledger code level detail based on the Academies’ Chart of Accounts. Objective 2: The supplier will be required to support and maintain the current systems, to ensure users continue to view their data so they can continue to make informed decisions regarding the use of their resources during the development of the new product. It is anticipated that the key part of this work will be the uploading of data expected in Summer 2023 (Academy Trust data), Autumn 2023 (Maintained school data) and other ancillary data if available. Whilst amendments to the systems is expected to be minimal, there may be regulatory reasons as to why the existing systems need changing, this includes but is not limited to changes in GDS requirements, changes to the DfE data requirements for example. The supplier will also be required to respond to user queries and support requirements, standard maintenance and bug resolution and security testing. It is anticipated that this will form part of the supplier’s discovery work for the new service regarding the data format, the data requirements and user needs.
First user type: School Users
First user type: Multi-Academy Trusts (MAT)
First user type: Governors
First user type: Local Authorities
First user type: Parents
First user type: 3rd Parties supporting schools.
First user type: DfE Staff
Enter more details about this user type: As a headteacher, I need to have access to a simple, intuitive site that assists with efficient benchmarking and provides downloadable reports, so I can share with teachers to encourage them to share knowledge. As a School Finance Director, I need direct access to up-to-date academy accounts produced in a range of useful ‘takeaways’ in a downloadable pdf format, so that I can carry out a strategic overview of finances and comparisons. As a school business manager, I need the facility to create/save benchmarking groups to provide data to the Governors at the annual finance review which benchmarks my school against similar schools. As a school business manager, I need to be able to contact others to make collaboration easier and more acceptable.
Enter more details about this user type: As a Chief Finance Office of a MAT, I need a system which is simple to use, so that I can effectively manage my time around providing this data and other business as usual activities. As a Chief Finance Officer of a MAT, I need to have access to accurate and consistent reporting and benchmarking information and insights so I can manage the trust’s finances effectively and sign off the MAT’s accounts. As a Chief Finance Officer of a MAT, I need to have the ability to benchmark my schools’ income and expenditure against that of similar trusts and schools, so I can test how well my trust and schools within my trust, are performing against others, identifying what we are doing well, and making informed decisions on where improvements could be made. As a Finance Director of a MAT, I need to make MAT to MAT comparisons in a simple digestible format so that I can increase finance efficiencies and ensure headteachers within the MAT can focus on academic performance. As a Business Manager of a MAT, I need to be able to gather and align information from several academies, so I can use my time efficiently to balance all tasks.
Enter more details about this user type: As a governor, I need to select specific similar schools and download reports in an easy to view format so I can provide the head teacher with relevant benchmarking statistics. As a governor, I need to be able to understand how my school is doing compared to similar schools, so that I can engage in productive resource management conversations with the school leadership team. As a governor, I need to be able to contact other schools to share knowledge and best practice.
Enter more details about this user type: As a Local Authority School Finance manager, I need to manually choose specific and similar schools from anywhere in the country, to create benchmarks so that I can accurately compare academies and maintained schools, using the most up-to-date data, displayed in a range of useful ‘takeaways’ in downloadable pdfs to show schools. As a Local Authority School Finance manager, I need pre-calculated statistically similar schools to be chosen so that I can quickly access insights about how efficiently schools across my LA are operating. As a Local Authority School Finance Manager, I need an overview of all the schools within my LA, so I can see how they are performing so I can make informed decisions on how improvements would be best addressed, and resources prioritised.
Enter more details about this user type: As a parent of children at a school, I need to investigate the school’s financial position and benchmark against those in the local area so that I can be assured that the school is managing their finances well and better than those in the local area.
Enter more details about this user type: As an Audit Manager of an audit firm, I need to be able access insights into the position of the school and compare them to similar schools, so I can provide the school with the support they have requested. As a School Resource Management Adviser, I need to be able to temporarily access data for the schools I am deployed to, so I can help produce robust efficiency recommendations for the school.
Enter more details about this user type: As a DfE member of staff, I need to have access to a simple, intuitive site that allows me to choose different combinations of schools, trusts, regions etc in downloadable reports/dashboards, so I can share outputs of analysis during conversations with schools and trusts to improve their financial management. As a DfE member of staff, I need to have access to a site that allows data to be uploaded quickly and accurately, so users can have access to the data to timely and accurate data to inform their decisions. As a DfE member of staff, I need access to a site which allows corrections to errors in data to be made easily, so that changes are reflected in the tool in a timely manner and users can promptly see the updated data to help inform decisions.

2. Assessment Criteria
About assessment criteria: test
Select your pricing model: Capped time and materials
Additional assessment methods: Presentation
Additional assessment methods: Reference
Additional assessment methods: Interview
Additional assessment methods: Case study
Create your scoring criteria: 3
How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
Technical competence: 40
Cultural fit: 10
Social value: 10
Price: 40
Essential skills and experience: 17
Nice-to-have skills and experience (optional): 3
Technical questions: 80
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Proven evidence of successful business analysis development and agile delivery of digital products/services to a regulated standard, e.g., GDS or equivalent, over the full product lifecycle (e.g., discovery to Live).
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 13
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Proven experience in successfully delivering data product/services for agile projects using open-source tools and languages, e.g., Power BI, web application .NET core and Microsoft Azure technologies (such as SQL database, Azure Analysis services, data factory etc.)
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 15
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Demonstrable experience in successfully delivering user experience (UX), testing and UX design outcomes on a project-basis , providing examples of how the testing was conducted to identify user needs, and how those user needs were used to successfully develop and deliver digital solutions resulting in great user outcomes.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 15
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Demonstrable experience of successfully managing complex projects to tight deadlines, providing evidence of rapid prototyping, and delivering at pace and the approach and control mechanisms used to update stakeholders and to reduce/mitigate delivery risk.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 12
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Demonstrable experience in successfully communicating insights and findings to audiences with differing levels of data literacy. Providing evidence of the types of reports, models and dashboards used and how the success of these tools was measured.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 10
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Demonstrable experience of your approach to successfully ensuring that transactional data loaded into your solution is loaded accurate, complete, and to sufficient quality.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 10
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Demonstrate evidence of providing flexible services to multiple projects, with demonstration of approach to effectively scale resources up and down to deliver successful outcomes.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 15
Describe the essential skill or experience:: Evidence of how you identify and analyse failure within a service and your approach to identifying and successfully resolving root causes whilst advocating change through documentation
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 10
Describe the nice-to-have skill or experience:: Evidence of awareness and understanding of delivering digital services in the education sector or similarly challenging environments.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 35
Describe the nice-to-have skill or experience:: Evidence of awareness and understanding of financial data and how this has been applied to the delivery of digital products/services in the past.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 35
Describe the nice-to-have skill or experience:: Evidence of how you successfully coach people with the skills and tools developed, including outcomes you have helped them achieve.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 15
Describe the nice-to-have skill or experience:: Experience of transferring knowledge to permanent staff within a client organisation.
Enter a weighting for this skill or experience in whole numbers, for example 30: 15
Explain the technical question:: Skills capacity and mobilisation: Methodology and approach to implementation and mobilisation.
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 20
Explain the technical question:: Technical Merit (Software Development).
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 20
Explain the technical question:: Technical Merit (Design).
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 20
Explain the technical question:: Methodology and approach to delivery of Multi-Capability Services, including Risk, security, good practice and standards
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 10
Explain the technical question:: Methodology and approach to Data Handling.
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 10
Explain the technical question:: Methodology and approach to Working Practices / Stakeholder Engagement.
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 10
Explain the technical question:: Methodology and approach to Innovation and Value for Money.
Enter a weighting for this technical question in whole numbers, for example 30: 10
Your question: Methodology and approach to collaboration, transparency and knowledge transfer
Enter a weighting for this question: 35
Your question: Methodology and approach to drive behavioural and cultural change
Enter a weighting for this question: 30
Your question: Methodology and approach to driving high quality delivery and working with clients with differing levels of technical expertise
Enter a weighting for this question: 35
Explain the social value question: Support innovation and disruptive technologies throughout the supply chain to deliver lower cost and/or higher quality goods and services.
Enter a weighting for this question: 100

3. Timeline
Publication of stage 1: February 21, 2023, 12:00 AM
Clarification period closes: March 3, 2023, 5:00 PM
Deadline for suppliers to submit their stage 1 responses: March 10, 2023, 5:00 PM

Clarification questions and responses

There are no questions and clarifications relating to this opportunity.

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