Metropolitan Police Service (MPS): Unified Services Procurement (USP) for the Digital Public Contact Portfolio

Description

The contracting Authority ('Authority') in relation to this notice is the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The scope of services has been structured into key service areas and outlined below. It is important to note that all services listed are anticipated to be delivered by the successful Supplier, but amendments may be introduced, by the Authority, between this notice and the UK4 Tender Notice. The core services are expected to remain relatively static during the term of any contract created through this procurement and will ostensibly be required to be delivered on the current software platforms, as detailed elsewhere in this notice. However, these services may evolve during the contract term, driven by anticipated police reform. The Authority will present further considerations regarding these changes within the market engagement event. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), which hosts the National Police Chiefs Councils' (NPCC's) Digital Public Contact (DPC) portfolio, is hosting a Pre-Market Engagement event for its forthcoming Unified Services Procurement (USP). This event will provide a comprehensive overview of the strategic vision, current capabilities, and future development of the DPC platform, Single Online Hub (SOH), enabling suppliers to understand our ambitions and contribute to shaping the future of public contact in policing. The MPS is also seeking to solicit market feedback through the means of a Market Sounding Questionnaire (MSQ), to help inform and shape its approach to this procurement. The DPC platform provides critical national capabilities, serving policing organisations and the public across England and Wales. It enables each force to deliver a range of nationally consistent online services to the public while maintaining their distinct own local identity. Communities are empowered by also having convenient access to information, advice and services that they need. The proposed scope of this procurement encompasses the front-end website, the delivery and operation of the integration hub supporting website services, dashboards and analytics used internally and shared with forces and other stakeholders, and chat services functionality. This procurement aims to deliver as its priority (and under a single supplier), a minimum level of run and maintain service in a more efficient manner for its stakeholders and end users. It also seeks to consolidate and enhance existing delivered services thereby streamlining delivery, modernising key components, and strategically positioning the platform to support significant policing reforms and future service evolution. The DPC programme is guided by the following key strategic imperatives: 1) Policing Reform: Adapting to significant structural changes, including potential force consolidation and the formation of a National Police Service. (For further details, please refer to the 'From local to national: a new model for policing' white paper.) 2) Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Embracing AI to enhance public contact through AI-based reporting, AI analysis, conversational AI, and intelligent assistance. 3) Identity and Personalisation: Moving towards authenticated, personalised, and context-aware services, leveraging user accounts (with user authentication via GOV.UK One Login) for tailored experiences. 4) Channel Convergence: Achieving a consistent and unified experience across web, chat, and voice channels for "first contact" with policing. The core service delivery for the USP primarily involves the provision and maintenance of the DPC platform current capabilities, specifically: 1) Website Services: Providing websites for over 40 police forces and organisations, including the national police.uk site (collectively referred to as the Single Online Home - SOH). 2) Public Data Capture: Online crime and incident reporting via forms, integrated with payment and mapping services. 3) Integration Platform (iHub): Facilitating data exchange between public-facing services and force/national systems, using a Standard Data Model. 4) National My Police Portal (NMPP): Enabling authenticated users to track crime reports and communicate with officers. 5) Chat Services & AI-Assisted Engagement: Offering chat services and developing AI-based solutions for natural language reporting, triage, and guidance. 6) Public Data & Neighbourhood Information: Managing and publishing open data about crime and policing (data.police.uk) and local neighbourhood information. 7) Analytics and Dashboards: Providing various dashboards for demand, usage, and performance metrics. 8) Security and Edge Services: Protecting and accelerating services with edge security and traffic management. 9) Shared Services & External Integrations: Utilising services like GOV.UK One Login, Notify, Pay, and mapping services. The existing DPC platform leverages a mix of technologies. Key tooling includes Optimizely Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for website content management, a bespoke React-based forms engine for public data capture, and an AWS integration platform. The National My Police Portal (NMPP) is built on AWS, utilising GOV.UK One Login for authentication and GOV.UK Notify for communications. Chat Services use Cisco Webex Engage or locally provisioned products. For analytics and monitoring, tools like Power BI, Google Analytics 4, Splunk, and Azure Sentinel are in use. Development is supported by Azure DevOps, and Cloudflare provides essential security and edge services. While this landscape reflects our current environment and does not require re-platforming at this time, specific components may necessitate modernisation during the contract term. Beyond the end of the contract that this market engagement is aiming to deliver, it is anticipated that the single supplier delivery model will provide a robust foundation to support the Home Office reform agenda into the National Police Service (NPS) and any future procurement strategies or objectives at that point. Within the forthcoming tender, in addition to the core services outlined above, the Authority intends to present bidders with a list of optional future changes. These changes are expected to be priced separately, allowing the Authority discretion to proceed if or when with them during the contract term. These optional areas may evolve between now and the tender issuance and will be influenced through the market engagement process.

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