PCD 1256 - Serious Incident Management Toolkit (Bounce Agency) Financial Year 22-23

PCD 1256  - Serious Incident Management Toolkit (Bounce Agency) Financial Year 22-23

Bounce Agency were originally contracted to develop a Serious Violence Toolkit in April 2019, which could be used by a range of stakeholders when responding in the aftermath of a serious incident of violence. Since then, Bounce Agency received additional funding which enabled the app to evolve into an on-line resource with app type functionality, that is used by community safety practitioners. The app is now recognised as the “Serious Incident Manager” and has been piloted at Waltham Forest borough.  

The Serious Incident Manager has been welcomed by London Heads of Community Safety across London as a resource that could be used to keep the local community and key partners informed & the Metropolitan Police Service are considering the option of adopting the system, so that they and local partners can jointly respond to a critical incident through a single seamless system.  

This report is seeking approval to direct award a contract to Bounce for 9 months in order for the VRU to run a procurement process for a 2 two- year Software as a Service (SaaS) contract which will include maintenance, hosting, training, support and further software development and updates of the current Serious Incident Manager. This will ensure that there is a continuation of service as Bounce has built the Serious Incident Manager, has unique knowledge of the subject matter acquired over 3 years, understands the community safety environment, and needs of professionals.  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC)  is recommended to approve  

• A direct award of a contract for the duration of 9 months from 31 July 2022 to 31 March 2023 to Bounce of £170,000 funded via 2022-2023 Home Office funding, for full spend in-year.  

• Approval to run a competitive tender for a two- year Software as a Service (SaaS) contract from 1 April 2023 to 31st March 2025. The total budget for the contract is £230,400. This will be funded from Home Office funding. 

• Approval to delegate the award of the contract following a competitive tender exercise to the Director of the VRU. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background 

1. Bounce Agency were originally contracted to develop a Serious Violence Toolkit in April 2019 (PCD 673), this toolkit was to be used by a range of stakeholders (community safety partnerships, schools, voluntary organisation and individuals) when responding in the aftermath of a serious incident of violence. The toolkit was presented to London Heads of Community Safety, who felt that this would work much better if it was developed into a digital version on a responsive website application to improve accessibility and user ability. 

2. Through a previously awarded grant agreement (PCD 776 & PCD 945), Bounce have developed a Serious Violent Incident Toolkit, that is available for use by community safety partnerships as a point of reference for advice and guidance, whilst managing critical incidents of violence. It is also a useful reference source for other agencies and communities. Bounce through its existing grant, has developed unique knowledge of community safety operational requirements and national best practice in critical incident management, as well as the specialist technology capability to build bespoke technology platforms on which to run the toolkit. 

3. This has resulted in the development of an on-line resource with app type functionality, that is used by community safety practitioners in the field. The Bounce Agency has further developed the on-line app by adding in incident management functions, so that the toolkit is not only used as guidance for practitioners but also allows them to use it to allocate actions to staff and manage resources in the field.     

4. The app is recognised as the Serious Incident Manager and has been piloted on Waltham Forest. Over the next nine months Bounce will deliver the following: 

1. Consultancy strategy, working with the MPS and Local Authorities  

2. Onboarding of the Serious Incident Manager across a minimum of nine Local Authorities  

3. Training for administrative and team members within the Local Authorities 

4. Maintenance, hosting and security (to multiple ISO & IEC standards) 

5. Support via phone, chat facilities and email 

6. Liaison with Local Authority IT departments where necessary 

7. App version of the system 

5. A procurement exercise will be carried out during this period, the contractor will    deliver the following: 

1. Two- year Software as a Service (SaaS) Contract which will include maintenance, hosting, training, support and further software development and updates of the current Serious Incident Manager 

2. Support will consist of contact options which will provide the users 24-hour support 

3. Local Authority Training on how to use the system 

4. Onboarding and training for each local authority  

5. Cyber Security, hosting and facilities 

6. Map features which should include setting a cordon area and creating specific lists from within that area – could include businesses, schools, residential or faith locations 

7. Auto-emailing / auto-texting to those lists.  

8. Cross-borough working on single incidents 

9. Quick input of residents into the Stakeholder Messaging system 

10. Standardisation of police report inputs 

11. User-specific social media style feed 

12. Police ability to pushing incidents to single or multiple Local Authorities 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. Having produced the toolkit, Bounce the agency has attained an in-depth consultative research base and unique knowledge of the range of services and access points to enable a Community Safety Partnership to respond to a serious incident of violence. The current contract has come to an end in March 2022. This report is seeking approval to direct award to Bounce in order to continue with the roll out across all 32 boroughs. 

2. Council staff need to have access to 24/7 technical support to the system, should they have technical difficulties, plus there is the need to update the system and add in additional functions.  

3. Currently the VRU has received a significant level of buy-in from local authorities, there is a risk to the VRU losing the support of local authorities at a time when the need for roll out is critical if we are unable to direct award to Bounce. The Metropolitan Police have also shown an interest in adopting the system but that could be lost if there is a delay in implementation. 

4.  If Bounce do not undertake this work, the programme would be stopped for around six months to appoint a provider and clear their staff with local authorities and the Metropolitan Police Service, followed by around a further six months to familiarise as per the point above. A delay of progress for 12 months would be unviable both for public safety and partnership relations. 

5. If any other provider were to be awarded this contract, they would need to spend at least six months familiarising themselves with the subject matter and building the liaison and training networks required across London. 

6. Financial Comments 

7. The contract award to Bounce will commit the VRU to £170,000 expenditure. The cost will be funded from the VRU’s 2022/23 Home Office £12.7M grant allocation.   

8. Subject to separate approval, award of the tender for a two-year Software as a Service (SaaS) contract will commit the VRU to £230,400 expenditure. This cost will be funded from 2023/24 and 2024/25 Home Office Funding. The contract is a one-off commitment to support the pan-London rollout, the VRU is not committing to future years funding.   

4. Legal Comments 

1. Paragraph 8.2 of the MOPAC Contract Regulations 2018 states that the tender requirement for all contracts with the total value of £50,001 to the EU Threshold is an Invitation to Tender to at least four Tenderers. The VRU is looking to waive this requirement as there is a strong justification to not undergo a tender process. The main reasons have been provided in the ‘Issues for Consideration’ section of this report. 

2. Paragraph 3.1 of the MOPAC Contract Regulations 2018 states that MOPAC has power to waive any requirements within these Contract Regulations for any project (but it cannot waive any statutory obligation or other rule of law such as Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or any later enactment). 

3. Paragraph 3.4 of the MOPAC Contracts Regulations 2018 states that For all exempted contracts likely to exceed £100,000 prior approval of the DMPC, in line with the agreed procedure, must be sought. The VRU is therefore seeking DMPC approval to direct award a contract to Bounce for an interim period in order to carry out a compliant procurement exercise.  

4. The report is also seeking the approval to carry out a competitive tender exercise by carrying out a mini competition using the G Cloud Framework. This framework is owned by the Crown Commercial Service and all Suppliers have been approved by CCS following a compliant procurement tender process. 

5. MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Chief Executive has delegated authority for;  

1. As per Paragraph 5.5, the approval of: Business cases for revenue or capital expenditure for MOPAC expenditure of £50,000 to £499,999   

2. As per Paragraph 5.12, The approval of: The procurement strategy for all MOPAC revenue and capital contracts of a total value of between £50,000 and £499,999. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. This report seeks approval to direct award a contract to Bounce in order to provide maintenance and improvement services to the Serious Incident Toolkit. Regulation 32 allows a direct award of a contract without publication (a direct award) when for “reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority” there is not enough time to undertake one of the procedures under the PCR. The reasons to direct award meets this criteria due to the need to continue the service in order to provide an essential service to Local Authorities and the MPS. 

2. In order to ensure that the VRU is obtaining value for money a competitive tender exercise will be carried out during the 9 month period using the G-Cloud CCS Framework. This Framework includes multiple benefits including: 

1. The G-Cloud framework is an OJEU compliant route to market. 

2. MOPAC will enter a contract which includes clauses related to IT Solutions. 

3. A quicker procurement process as the tender return window can be shortened  

4. The long-term plan for the Serious incident Toolkit is for Local Authorities to re-commission an organisation to continue to support them with the following functions: 

1. Maintenance, hosting and security of the App 

2. Support via phone, chat facilities and email 

3. Liaison with Local Authority IT departments where necessary  

4. Development and updates  

6. Public Health Approach  

1. London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is taking a public health approach to violence reduction, that is contextual; looking at the context and influences that impact on individuals at significant points in their life. 

2. Evidence-based practice is fundamental to the implementation of a public health approach to reducing violence. Therefore, more research including the delivery and gather of good practice and ‘what works’ is required to deepen and broaden the evidence base around violence reduction, diversion and prevention in London. The delivery to date for these programmes still requires further support to address the ‘what works’ question and support ongoing good practise. 

7. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. As this is an extension to an existing project, there are no changes to GDPR implications. 

2. MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities 

8. Equality Comments 

1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 

2. All programmes being extended have had initial screening around equality impact and it was established that a full EQIA was not required. Initial screening for new programmes will be undertaken to establish if a full EQIA is required. 

3. The VRU, along with MOPAC, have commissioned EDI consultants to work with the teams to develop training, awareness and recommendations for future work programme and action plan developments to ensure the VRU are developing their equality, diversity and inclusion work practices as much as possible going forward. For both the team and stakeholders, as well as for the Londoners we serve. 

9. Background/supporting papers 

1. None