National Single Online Home Business Justification Paper

This paper sets out the full business case for the National Single Online Home (SOH) and seeks approval for MOPAC to act in the role of Contracting Authority and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as Host for the National Live Service and Content Team on behalf of the national Digital Public Contact (DPC) Programme. The paper also seeks approval for the MPS to commit to be a customer of the Single Online Home.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve:

• The role of MOPAC as Contracting Authority (CA) on behalf of the National Single Online Home platform.
• Proceeding to contract award with the preferred Supplier to deliver the National Platform hosting and development services, total Contract Value £8.6m funded from the National Police Transformation Fund (PTF) and other police force contributions.
• The role of the MPS as Host for the National Platform team and responsible for the delivery of the national service via a Section 22 Collaboration Agreement.
• Providing firm commitment that MPS are signing up to the National Single Online Home as delivered under the DPC Programme with formal agreement to be via signature of a Section 22 Collaboration Agreement.
• The MPS share of funding for the first two years is fully funded from the Digital Policing (DP) approved budget.
• DP will manage any risk [dependent on the number of forces on-boarding] to the MPS share of funding after year two if required through re-negotiation of funding shares, management of National Platform and team costs to balance funding and in a worst case the option to terminate the Platform Contract at the end of year two.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The national Single Online Home represents a truly transformative programme across national policing, seeking to modernise not only the way in which policing engages with the public but also how it delivers core services. The national roll out of the Single Online Home will help forces to transform their relationship with the public, reduce the amount of duplicated spend on online services across national forces and will deliver nationally consistent services to the public.

1.2. This Business Justification relates to the delivery of the National Single Online Home (SOH) under the Digital Public Contact (DPC) programme operating under the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Digital Policing Portfolio. This paper recommends contract award following a joint MPS and DPC procurement exercise and the establishment of the National Platform Live Service and Content Team to be hosted by the MPS.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The procurement exercise to secure the contract to deliver the platform hosting and development services required for the national Single Online Home was run as a Joint MPS and DPC procurement activity; with the MPS having a ‘dual key’ role in the requirements and evaluation procedures.

2.2. The successful completion of the joint MPS and DPC Proof of Concept in June has resulted in Thames Valley, Hampshire and the MPS using the single shared platform. This paper will confirm the MPS decision to remain in the National Single Online Home being delivered under the DPC Programme and contribute to the national charging model.

2.3. A Section 22 Collaboration Agreement will need to be signed prior to the launch of the National Single Online Home under the new contract. The Agreement is being finalised by external legal advisors before MPS Legal Services and MPS Head of Commercial approve.

2.4. The current MPS Website contract expires in October 2018. Onboarding to the national Single Online Home, following the joint procurement activity undertaken with MPS, will provide continuity of service. The incumbent supplier is the Preferred Bidder removing any risk inherent in a supplier transition.

2.5. The MPS have played a critical role in the Proof of Concept for the National Single Online Home; bringing Thames Valley Police, the MPS and Hampshire Constabulary onto a Single Platform. Onboarding to the national platform with a 50:50 governance stake and acting as host for the National Live Service and Content Team allows the MPS to act as a Centre of Excellence in delivering the Single Online Home and make a significant contribution to the development of the national policing landscape.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The total MPS contribution has been agreed to be capped at £1.4m, based on 20 forces taking up Single Online Home.

3.2. The MPS capital contribution to Single Online Home is £0.5m in 2019/20, with future annual contributions assumed to be £0.5m p.a.

3.3. Based on the 20 force base case the MPS contribution to revenue costs is £0.9m p.a., with the phasing of the first year Police Transformation Fund (PTF) funding delivering a £411k saving in 2018/19.

3.4. The future funding after the first two year PTF funded commitment is subject to the on-boarding of additional forces. MOPAC has the option to terminate the contract at the end of year 2 with any financial risk covered by the PTF funding licensing costs.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £181,302 or above must be procured in accordance with the Regulations.

5. GDPR and Data Privacy

5.1. All privacy issue considerations have been considered as part of the procurement process and will be addressed in the G Cloud contract to ensure compliance with GDPR regulations. A DPIA scoping exercise will be carried out prior to the implementation of the new contract.

6. Equality Comments

6.1. The design and content of the platform has been customer driven with extensive participation from members of the public through focus groups, and one to one evaluation of the product. The platform has also been built to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the MPS is currently carrying out an accessibility audit of the platform to identify if there are any outstanding issues.

7. Background/supporting papers

7.1. Report