Assessment Service Information Systems (ASIS) Contract

Concepts

• information technology
• asis
• blackpool
• assessment service information systems
• disability assessment services
• it services
• dwp health assessment service
• asis contract
• 3-year extension of the service
• digital service

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

The Supplier currently provides managed IT services to the Authority under a contract due to expire on 28.2.2022 (the ASIS Contract). The ASIS Contract supports the Authority’s separate contract for health and disability assessment services (HDAS) for a range of social security and other benefits (including Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit) and requires extending for 3 years to enable the service to be safely transitioned prior to the ultimate migration to the DWP Health Assessment Service (HAS) digital service.

Total Quantity or Scope

The ASIS Contract was awarded on 9 June 2014. It was modified in 2018 to include options to extend and is currently due to expire on 28 February 2022. This notice confirms that an extension of up to an additional 3 years to 28 February 2025 has become necessary. The extension period is necessary to ensure the Department can continue to support live service for health and disability assessments, provide business continuity for the HDAS contract, ensure this digital service is able to support the Department’s future requirements for health assessment services and support the DWP’s proposed future strategy for the ASIS service which, in essence, is continued provision of ASIS through to a controlled migration to DWP’s Health Assessment Service (HAS). In order to bridge the period between the existing ASIS contract and this migration, DWP will initially need to extend the current ASIS Contract. A 3-year extension of the service is required due to the significant technical and time restrictions of all other options. Extension of the contract will provide the following benefits: • service continuity will be maintained; • implementation of the optimum solution for delivery of ASIS services post February 2025 will continue to be taken forward in the period following execution of the extension • implementation of the necessary mandatory projects required to both ensure that the ongoing services for health and disability assessments continue to be supported and facilitate transition to another provider prior to expiry of the extension . For these reasons, as explained more fully in Section IV and Annex D, the Department considers the proposed extension to be justifiable under Regulation 72 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, namely Regulation 72(1)(b). The amendments comprising the extension will not be made before the end of a period of at least 10 days from the day after the date of publication of this notice.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• 72223000 - Information technology requirements review services

Legal Justification

Additional services by the original contractor have become necessary The extension of the ASIS Contract has become necessary to maintain the service for the health and disability assessments it supports, and accommodate the changing requirements for future delivery of assessments following Covid-19. Not extending the contract would ultimately result in a virtual closure of the gateway to income replacement benefit of c.£15b of AME spend per annum. The previous DWP strategy, reflected in the last extension of the ASIS contract in 2018, was transition from the ASIS contract into a new in-house digital solution by February 2022. However, substantial changes in the direction of the Health Transformation Programme (HTP) and in the IT strategy underpinning the HTP mean that completing the transition to HAS by February 2022 is no longer achievable. The HTP has also been significantly impacted by Covid-19 and the revised strategy imposes operational constraints on the timelines and transition for the ASIS services required to support delivery of Health Assessment Services. This proposed 3-year contract extension will both maintain business as usual and enable DWP to progress its strategy of ultimately transitioning to HAS. Accordingly, ASIS services will be needed until that point. The Department is examining the options for ASIS services after the proposed extension period from February 2025 as it progresses to migration to HAS. Technical reasons prevent a change of contractor There is a complex and aged technology stack and legacy applications in the hosting environments are written in outdated software. The stack requires significant upgrading that would be extremely difficult without existing knowledge of the solution and key documentation is lacking. Due to these technical reasons, implementing a plan to guarantee transition from the legacy ASIS service to a replacement service within a shorter extension is not considered possible. The absence of a technically feasible plan for earlier transition could result in unavailability of the services under the HDAS 2021-3 Contract which underpins c.£15b of AME spend per annum. Due to the technical issues, attempting to replace the ASIS service for less than a 3-year extension period would therefore pose a very high risk of inability to provide these services effectively over that period with severe consequences and would not be viable. Change of contractor would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs Attempting a shorter delivery plan would mean DWP committing additional resources which might then impact resources to deliver DWP’s strategic integrated solution (i.e. HAS), therefore jeopardising the planned availability date for HAS. Not extending the current contract for 3 years could adversely impact the delivery of health and disability assessments as described and necessitate implementing a contingency arrangement resulting in significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs. Any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract The value of the original contract for years 1-5 was £64,823,309 and the maximum extension value is therefore £32,411,655. The value of the contract as extended in 2018 was £91,732,642.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** Suppliers Instructions: How to Express Interest in this Tender: 1. Register on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once): https://dwp.bravosolution.co.uk & click the link to register - Accept the terms & conditions & click 'continue' - Enter your correct business & user details - Note your chosen username & click 'Save'. You will receive an email with your password (keep this secure) 2. Express an Interest in the tender - Login to the portal with the username/password - Click the 'PQQs / ITTs Open To All Suppliers' link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires or Invitations to Tender open to any registered supplier) - Click on the relevant exercise to access the content. - Click the 'Express Interest' button at the top of the page. - This will move the PQQ /ITT into your 'My PQQs/ My ITTs' page. (A secure area reserved for your projects only) -You can now access any attachments by clicking 'Buyer Attachments' in the 'PQQ/ ITT Details' box 3. Responding to the tender - Click 'My Response' under 'PQQ/ ITT Details', you can choose to 'Create Response' or to 'Decline to Respond' (please give a reason if declining) - You can now use the 'Messages' function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification - Note the deadline for completion. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ/ ITT - There may be a mixture of online & offline actions to complete (detailed online help available). To submit your reply use the 'Submit Response' button (top of the page). For further assistance please consult the online help, or the eTendering help desk. DWP expressly reserves the rights(i)to use a reverse auction; (ii)to cancel this procurement at any stage; (iii)to not award any contract as a result of the procurement process commenced by publication of this notice; (iv)and in no circumstances will DWP be liable for any costs incurred by potential suppliers.