Defence Online

Type of document: Contract Notice
Country: United Kingdom

1. Title: APPROVED PREMISES
2. Awarding Authority: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, MoJ , GB. Web:
3. Contract type: Service contract
4. Description: The Awarding Authority seeks a managed service provider to deliver a discovery and alpha to support improvements to the identification, referral and booking of Approved Premises through web-based solutions to be used by HMPPS staff.
5. CPV Code(s): 72000000, 72212000, 72262000
6. NUTS code(s): UKE, UKE3, UKE32, UKI, UKI3, UKI32
7. Main site or location of works, main place of delivery or main place of performance: Location Yorkshire and the Humber
Address where the work will take place Working remotely although occasional travel may be required to either:
MoJ Digital Studio, 32 Scotland Street, Sheffield, S3 7BS
MoJ, 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ
8. Reference attributed by awarding authority: Not provided.
9. Estimated value of requirement: Budget range up to £500,000
10. Closing date for applications 3.11.2021 (11:59 pm).
11. Address to which they must be sent: For further information regarding the above contract notice please visit
12. Other information: Deadline for asking questions Wednesday 27 October 2021 at 11:59pm GMT
Off-payroll (IR35) determination Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply
Latest start date Wednesday 15 December 2021
Expected contract length Up to 31 March 2022
About the work
Why the work is being done The MoJ seeks a managed service provider to deliver a discovery and alpha to support improvements to the identification, referral and booking of Approved Premises through web-based solutions to be used by HMPPS staff.
Problem to be solved Existing processes are complex, time consuming and has the potential for a referral to need to be handled by a high number of staff before a final decision is reached.
Probation Practitioners are dependent on manual guidance for completing referrals forms with limited pre-populated information.
There is a large variation in the quality of screening with some CRU simply forwarding referrals to the first (or next) preferred AP, whereas in others there will be checks to ensure the referral is completed, supporting documents are available and screening checklists are completed.
There is no standardised method of assessing suitability for an AP placement resulting in inconsistency in decision making.
There are a range of methods utilised across the AP Estate to manage occupancy and allocate placements. This ranges from individual AP Managers having systems local to the AP without CRU involvement to large complex trackers in Excel updated by CRU staff.
Who the users are and what they need to do Users are:
Probation Practitioners – making referrals
CRU staff – screening/checking referrals, and managing bookings and occupancy
Referral Assessors / AP Managers – Completing suitability assessments and viewing bookings and occupancy
Early market engagement N/A
Any work that’s already been done N/A
Existing team The supplier will be working with MoJ stakeholders across the prison and probation organisation. A subject matter expert will be available to work with the team but all other delivery roles are expected to be resourced by the managed service provider.
Current phase Not started
Working arrangements Most work can be completed remotely i.e. homeworking. However there will be a requirement to work with stakeholders who are predominantly based in London and Sheffield.
Security clearance The successful provider will ideally have SC clearance or will require SC clearance to complete the contract.
A minimum of Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) standard is required. Where access to live production data is necessary, Security Clearance (SC) may also be required.
Additional information
Additional terms and conditions N/A
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
Proven track record of design, development, and delivery of digital services to, and/or on behalf of, Government Agencies.
Experience of leading discovery research and analysis in an agile environment, and ability to apply agile methodologies to their work including service assessments.
Evidence of in-depth understanding and experience of presenting clear, compelling, evidence-based recommendations.
In-depth understanding of collaboratively delivering rapid/ iterative prototyping (low to high fidelity) using design systems and approaches.
Proven experience of communicating with a range of stakeholders, advocating for user needs and GDS principles, standard and working practices.
Nice-to-have skills and experience
Experience with the probation and prison environment
Knowledge of technical and security standards aligned with the Technology Code of Practice, Digital Service Standard and HMPPS and MoJ requirements.
Experience of designing, delivering a referral and/or booking system
How suppliers will be evaluated
All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.
How many suppliers to evaluate 3
Proposal criteria
Explain how your approach and methodology will ensure successful delivery of a discovery and alpha for the three digital tools.
Provide an example team structure including skills, experience, responsibilities in this approach and relevance of individuals, and explain how you will ensure the team deliver their responsibilities throughout this approach.
Provide a project plan for what your team would deliver during the timescales, how would you split the time between discovery and alpha.
Provide examples of how you have identified and taken ownership of risks, issues, and dependencies and how you have managed their mitigation and resolution.
Demonstrate how you will deliver value for money throughout this project
Demonstrate how you would document your work to ensure effective hand over to the business and a potential beta team.
Cultural fit criteria
Work collaboratively with HMPPS Digital and staff in probation and prisons
Ability to work with a range of stakeholders with varying understanding of agile methodologies.
Payment approach Capped time and materials
Additional assessment methods Presentation
Evaluation weighting
Technical competence
60%
Cultural fit
20%
Price
20%
TKR-20211021-EX-1711862