Defence Online

Type of document: Contract Notice
Country: United Kingdom

1. Title: ALLOCATING & SCHEDULING ACTIVITIES IN PRISONS
2. Awarding Authority: Ministry of Justice Digital & Technology Team (MOJ), GB. Web:
3. Contract type: Service contract
4. Description: Allocating & Scheduling Activities in Prisons.
5. CPV Code(s): 72000000, 72200000, 72260000
6. NUTS code(s): UKI, UKI4, UKI42, UKE32
7. Main site or location of works, main place of delivery or main place of performance: Location No specific location, for example they can work remotely
Address where the work will take place UK Based. The aligned teams are based in Sheffield & London
8. Reference attributed by awarding authority: Not provided.
9. Estimated value of requirement: Budget range Up to £4m including VAT
10. Closing date for applications 1.2.2022 (23:59).
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 Tuesday 25 January 2022 at 11:59pm GMT
Latest start date Monday 2 May 2022
Expected contract length Up to 24 months.
Why the work is being done he MOJ has a bold strategic vision for the delivery of digital, data & technology in Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service which includes:
replacing prison legacy systems with simpler, clearer, faster digital services by 2024
capturing, storing and sharing high quality data across services leading to better and faster decision-making
The current legacy system for managing activities is not fit for purpose and the MOJ requires a partner to design and implement an intelligent scheduling, matching and allocation digital service.
Research has shown that prisoners who take part in meaningful activities are less likely to be or become involved with drugs, violence or self harm. Those prisoners that get the right help and support in prison are less likely to reoffend when they leave.
Problem to be solved Daily prison regime is prisoners attending activities including medical appointments, workshops offending behaviour programmes,visits. Majority of the c80,000 population, in non COVID times, attend activities twicedaily.
The Allocations process is there to ensure:
activities are scheduled correctly and allocated to those in greatest need
prisoners are booked onto their highest priority activity
prisoners are unlocked at the right time and taken to the right place attendance is recorded and, where appropriate, passed for payment.
MOJ requires a partner to design and implement an intelligent scheduling, matching and allocation digital service, including taking ownership of the data and business logic related to the allocations and scheduling domain from the legacy system.
The process is complex and the systems and support in place are inefficient. MOJ requires a partner to design and implement an intelligent scheduling, matching and allocation digital service. The service will take ownership of the data and business logic related to the allocations and scheduling domain from the legacy system.
Contract will start at discovery to understand user needs,technical landscape and constraints, current processes and policy intent, including an assessment of whether to incorporate an existing digital service, build a full /bespoke solution or use third party paid option.
Who the users are and what they need to do The Activities Team in Prisons who need to:
Assess the risks of prisoners attending a particular location or activity
Manage activities – including
creating activities, visits, programmes
managing capacity of related resources – rooms, equipment, activity leaders
prioritising clashing activities
matching available opportunities to relevant prisoners
allocating a prisoner to a task
forecasting and capacity planning
managing waiting lists
recording attendance & activating payments
Measure the performance of the processes & impact of the activities
Residential Prison Staff who:
Escort prisoners to and from their cells to activities
Activity Leaders who:
Prepare locations and lead the activities
Mark prisoner attendance and additional information
Regional & National Headquarter Staff who:
Collate and report regional and national statistics
Assess the performance & impact of activities on reoffending
Early market engagement
Any work that’s already been done HMPPS D&T has built a digital service, Whereabouts, which is used by the majority of prisons and solves part of the problem but does not provide an end to end service. An assessment of whether to incorporate or rebuild this service is within scope of this contract.
Existing team The supplier will be working with MoJ stakeholders across the prison and probation organisation. A product manager, subject matter experts and a policy lead 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 applicable
Working arrangements There will be a requirement for visits and interviews to prisons, regional offices and teams in London headquarters. There may also be a requirement to travel for meetings in Sheffield or London. Outside of these visits and any meetings, there is no requirement to be office-based and individuals can work from home.
Security clearance A minimum of Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) standard is required. Where access to live production data is necessary, Security Clearance (SC) will also be required.
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 to the government digital service standard (5%)
Experience of leading investigative user research into problems & opportunities, gathering & analysing information and producing clear, compelling, evidence-based recommendations (5%)
In-depth understanding of collaboratively delivering rapid/ iterative prototyping (low to high fidelity) using design systems and approaches. (5%)
Experience of digital service and interaction design and agile, incremental software development that delivers value early and iteratively. (5%)
Proven experience & expertise of collaborating across teams and departments and transferring ownership and knowledge to in-house teams. (5%)
Nice-to-have skills and experience
Experience within the probation and prison environment
Experience of working within a complex public policy and service environment
Working within a government programme that requires close working with other civil service teams and managed services
Knowledge of current & emerging reporting technology & techniques
How suppliers will be evaluated
All suppliers will be asked to provide a written proposal.
How many suppliers to evaluate 5
Proposal criteria
A recent case study of a similar project that explains your approach and methodology and how it can ensure successful delivery (10%)
Provide examples of how you have used innovative techniques to investigate and solve problems and how you have identified and delivered value early and iteratively (5%)
Provide an example team structure including skills, experience, responsibilities and the relevance of individuals. Explain how you will ensure the team delivers their responsibilities throughout this approach (5%)
Provide a project plan for what your team would deliver during the timescales, how would you split the time between the project phases – e.g. discovery, alpha, beta etc (5%)
Demonstrate how you will deliver value for money throughout this project (5%)
Demonstrate how you would ensure an effective hand over to the in-house team. (5%)
Cultural fit criteria
Work collaboratively with HMPPS Digital and staff in probation and prisons including stakeholders with varying understanding of agile methodologies (2.5%)
Considers the needs of all users of varying backgrounds and abilities (2.5%)
Is innovative and forward thinking, shares knowledge, experience and honest feedback with clients and takes responsibility for the quality of their work (2.5%)
Able to demonstrate the value of their approach and understands the value of data and analytics (2.5%)
Encourages new entrees to their digital professions and upskills and develops their workforce (5%)
Encourages diverse representation in their workforce (5%)
Payment approach Capped time and materials
Additional assessment methods
Case study
Presentation
Evaluation weighting
Technical competence
60%
Cultural fit
20%
Price
20%
TKR-2022119-EX-1757545