DHSC: Adult Social Care - Capacity Tracker System Users - User Research

Description

Summary of work DHSC require digital expertise to undertake an extensive piece of discovery work to understand Adult Social Care care home and care home provider users in greater detail, including Local Authority users, data quality practice and current digital application interaction. Where the supplied staff will work No specific location (for example they can work remotely) Why the work is being done Prior to the pandemic most Adult Social Care (ASC) data was collected annually, with significant time lags and varying quality standards impacting consistency of the data collected. There were several acknowledged data gaps, particularly regarding data on care users in privately funded care and on quality of care. Data on ASC comes from a number of different sources, including from Local Authorities, directly from care providers, and from care users via care surveys, with no standardisation in how this data is collated, shared and used. During the pandemic we have established near real-time data collection from ASC providers, which has demonstrated the benefits of timely data to target support and respond to emerging issues. Currently, DHSC has a ‘one data set fits all’ approach with Capacity Tracker, which unrealistically assumes that one data set will apply to every provider. By better understanding how different groups of people use and interact with Capacity Tracker, we would be able to improve services for those who use it. The ability to tailor future systems to different characteristics of users would reduce the burden on them and free up their time to provide high-quality care, as their specific needs are being realised and catered for to a greater extent. Observing how users interpret data items would also support improvements to data quality. The business problem This work is being commissioned because we do not currently have any directly employed staff that meet the requirement, skills and experience of the user researcher or service designer roles in order to produce robust recommendations. An external user research specialist would have the expertise and skills to carry out high quality user research and draw the appropriate conclusions from this. Without the necessary expertise, we may rely too heavily on assumptions or confirmation bias in attempting to guess what providers want and these may lead to inaccurate conclusions being drawn. The people who will use the product or service User type: As a care provider, Definition: I need to be able to gather and submit relevant data once, in the least burdensome way possible, so I can prioritise delivery of care and reduce the time spent submitting data. I need to see the data I have submitted and assess my performance against other providers in my area and be able to use the data to plan ahead. User type: As DHSC, Definition: I need to gather data in order to have a clear and single view of the situation in the care sector, from a care provider's perspective, for monitoring and assurance purposes. I need a single source of good quality, timely and standardised data to produce evidence to make informed policy decision, monitoring and assurance. User type: As a local authority, ICS or NHS Trust, Definition: I need to be able to receive timely and accurate information from providers about their capacity and occupancy levels in order to allocate care services to care users, but also performance data to improve quality of care. I need data from one single source to have coherent information and improve collaboration between stakeholders in my area. Any pre-market engagement done No early market engagement has been carried out. Work done so far DHSC has already done some engagement with the ASC sector in order to understand different actors' needs in terms of provider level data, understand how data is currently shared/collected and to get an idea of provider's preferences. NHSE, who are leading work on digital social care records, have also engaged with care provider software suppliers and are developing a adult social care data standard which will eventually influence the development of the new provider level data collection. We can look to share, in confidence, summary reports of the various engagement pieces done so far with shortlisted suppliers Which phase the project is in Not applicable Existing team The existing team consists of 2 Statisticians, 1 analyst and 1 Section Head, The supplier would also expect to work with North England Commissioning Support Unit (NECSU), who built and develop the application. They would need to work with NECSU Regional Leads to source participants and would also likely need to present findings to a "Provider Data Assurance Group", comprising of data users and stakeholders, such as provider representative groups, local Government and other Central Government Departments. Address where the work will be done Remote In-person meetings (location TBA) Restrictions around Data Access would require UK operation Working arrangements The supplier will be expected to attend fortnightly meetings, remotely, with the DHSC to update on their progress. The supplier will be asked to attend in-person meetings, where possible, towards the beginning, middle and end of the contract (location TBA) The supplier will be asked to attend a final meeting, to present the final findings. Security and vetting requirements Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Latest start date 16 December 2024 Expected contract length Contract length: 0 years 3 months 0 days Optional extension: 0 years 1 months 15 days Special terms and conditions special term or condition: All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the Department of Health and Social Care's Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy. Expenses will not be payable by DHSC where the resource is home based or where working at primary work locations stated in the SoW (London DHSC office 39 Victoria Street SW1H 0EU, or Quarry House, Leeds LS2 7PD) special term or condition: All vendors are obliged to provide sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures so that the processing meets the requirements of GDPR and ensures the protection of the rights of data subjects. For further information please see the Information Commissioner's Office website https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/ Budget Indicative maximum: £100000 Indicative minimum: The contract value is not specified by the buyer Further information: Up to £100,000 budget for the initial 3 month term Contracted out service or supply of resource? Contracted out service: the off-payroll rules do not apply Terms and acronyms Term or acronym: PQP Definition: Price per quality point (PQP) is an evaluation technique designed to fairly compare bids of varying quality and price. PQP is calculated for each bid by - determining the quality score for each bid, expressed as a whole number rather than as a percentage - dividing the bid price by the quality score to give an output price per quality point. We will be using PQP to evaluate submissions at Stage 2 rather than the 50%/20%/10%/20% split that the DOS forms force us to select. More information will be supplied at next stage but the quality aspect will be split 60% Technical, 30% Cultural Fit, 10% Social Value.