UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

This Request for Information (RFI) seeks information relating to design, prototyping and testing of a range of digital consumer experiences and publisher services on web, apps, and social media platforms for GOV.UK, part of the Government Digital Service. It also seeks information relating to work to review and suggest progressive updates to the GOV.UK brand. The Government Digital Service Strategy for 2021-24 includes the mission of making GOV.UK the single and trusted online destination for government information and services. Significant progress has been made in delivering product improvements, and on delivering against the government's priority objectives during Brexit and COVID. Record levels of public use of GOV.UK has been seen during this time. The existing GOV.UK roadmap outlines current priorities and work in progress. Work is now progressing to update these near term priorities to maximise the value that can be delivered for users, and to update strategic aims for the period beyond 2024, taking into account changes in the digital landscape and wider society. The Customer is looking for one or more Suppliers to deliver the following aims: A new vision and future proposition of GOV.UK is being defined. The goal is to visually describe an achievable but ambitious future GOV.UK proposition, that can be used by the GOV.UK team, and our stakeholders, to provide inspiration, clarity of direction and a framework for how we test and measure our progress. Lot 1: Solution ideation, design and prototyping support In order to progress rapidly and in a user centric manner, an agile prototyping approach is being used. We will be supplementing existing internal design and development teams to work on specific discovery projects where we will test design assumptions for future products and services. Lot 2: Brand Guidelines review and update GOV.UK has an established, recognisable brand, with consistent brand recognition scores. We want to ensure that this brand carries / covers through new strategy, includes all demographics and supports the growth of GOV.UK so are looking for formal review and suggested next steps / designs / prototypes that align with current delivery and future strategy. [See attachment - RFI/Expression of Interest] - Only those that respond to the RFI may be considered for this opportunity.

The purpose of this competition is to procure a market leading push notification system that can be integrated with the GOV.UK App and operate at a UK national scale.

In 2023, a new strategy for GOV.UK started to grow the value it represents to the UK. Building on the existing foundational pillars of accessibility, user-centricity and continual improvement. A new GOV.UK app is at the heart of this strategy. Discovery and a technical proof of concepts are ongoing in this area. Mobile push notifications are a key component of the strategy and will be required ahead of beta and public launches. The purpose of this competition is to procure a market leading push notification system that can be integrated with the GOV.UK App and operate at a UK national scale. Please see the 'Bid Pack.zip' attachment for further details including Schedule 2 - Specification. Please submit your tender or clarification questions by email to :gds-digital-buyer@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk Responses to raised clarifications questions will be published as an attachment to the contract finder notice by the deadline date set in Attachment 1 - About the Procurement

GOV.UK Notify is a digital communications platform, developed and run by the Government Digital Service (GDS). Notify allows public sector service teams to send notifications (text message, email and post) to their users. The notifications are typically status updates, requests for action, MFA codes, receipts of applications or supporting information, and reminders. The messages are sent via an API or manually through a web interface. Currently there are over 8,700 service teams using GOV.UK Notify, from over 1,500 public sector organisations across central and local government and the NHS. Notify sends an average of 3 million SMS fragments a day, regularly achieving peaks of 7 million. Many Notify services send messages that are longer than one fragment and the average message sent via Notify is 2 fragments long. Notify SMS messages have a high average delivery rate of 95.7%. Notify uses two concurrently integrated SMS suppliers to ensure a resilient service. Typically, traffic is shared between the two based on supplier performance (speed of processing) and load. Ultimately GDS reserves the right to allocate work between suppliers at its absolute discretion and there is no guarantee of volume as it's influenced by both government policy and how the services choose to use Notify.

GOV.UK Notify is a digital communications platform, developed and run by the Government Digital Service (GDS). Notify allows public sector service teams to send notifications (text message, email and post) to their users. The notifications are typically status updates, requests for action, MFA codes, receipts of applications or supporting information, and reminders. The messages are sent via an API or manually through a web interface. Currently there are over 8,700 service teams using GOV.UK Notify, from over 1,500 public sector organisations across central and local government and the NHS. Notify sends an average of 3 million SMS fragments a day, regularly achieving peaks of 7 million. Current forecasting work indicates that Notify will send 3.8 billion SMS fragments during FY 25/26 and 3.9 billion SMS fragments during FY 26/27, as Notify continues to work closely with the NHS, however this figure may vary significantly due to changes in demand. Many Notify services send messages that are longer than one fragment and the average message sent via Notify is 2 fragments long. Notify SMS messages have a high average delivery rate of 95.7%. Notify uses two concurrently integrated SMS suppliers to ensure a resilient service. Typically, traffic is shared between the two based on supplier performance (speed of processing) and load. Ultimately GDS reserves the right to allocate work between suppliers at its absolute discretion and there is no guarantee of volume as it's influenced by both government policy and how the services choose to use Notify. We're looking to procure SMS suppliers for 2 years, with options for contract extension. The unit price for a single SMS fragment will be fixed throughout the duration of the contract, independent of volume. To meet Notify's SMS redundancy requirements the suppliers should utilise independent computing and network infrastructures throughout their respective end-end services, avoiding any single points of failure that could simultaneously impact both providers. Suppliers are asked to provide sufficient information in their responses to enable GDS to evaluate this. In the event the top 'two' scoring suppliers share the same sub-processors, The Contracting Authority reserve the right to either; (a) Withdraw the second contract from this competition and re-tender, or (b) Award the second contract to the next best scoring supplier that uses a different sub-processor. This is to ensure service resilience is maintained through use of different sub-processors to the top scoring tenderer. Prospective tenderers must read the attached documentation and return via email as per instructions, to gds-digital-buyer@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk

Government Digital Service (GDS), currently part of Cabinet Office is seeking a payment service provider to underpin the GOV.UK Pay platform, specifically for processing credit and debit card payments and pay by bank (open banking) payments made by end users to services operated by local government, police, the armed forces and some other public sector organisations. GDS is therefore undertaking this procurement as a central purchasing body using the negotiated procedure in accordance with regulation 37 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended).

Government Digital Service (GDS), currently part of Cabinet Office is seeking a payment service provider to underpin the GOV.UK Pay platform, specifically for processing credit and debit card payments and pay by bank (open banking) payments made by end users to services operated by local government, police, the armed forces and some other public sector organisations. GDS is therefore undertaking this procurement as a central purchasing body using the negotiated procedure in accordance with regulation 37 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended). Background Information GOV.UK Pay ('Pay') is a digital payments platform, developed and run by GDS. Pay is a payments product, providing a quick and easy way for the public to make payments for services online and via telephone. Pay currently supports central government, local authority, police forces and NHS teams to take payments for their services digitally. It automates financial processes and reduces the administration burden on teams, saving time and money that can be reinvested in important public services. The platform has processed over 94 million transactions since September 2016, with a total value of £6 billion GBP. Services using GOV.UK Pay include HM Passport Office's Apply for a passport. Pay is a common tool that is built once and used many times by more than 1,000 different public sector services, saving the public sector time, money and reducing duplication of effort. It also offers a consistent, trusted and accessible user experience making it quick and easy for citizens to pay for public sector services. Pay has achieved significant realised benefits, saving public sector money. Whilst the current contract handles only 17% of payments currently going through GOV.UK Pay it is used by more than 70% of all our services currently taking a payment and is the only option available which enables teams to start taking payments within one working day. Opportunity Details The Contracting Authority, Cabinet Office, intends to partner with a successful supplier chosen by means of a Competitive Negotiated Procedure. The services are described in Attachment 3, Statement of Requirements. The contract will be for an initial 36 month period from early July 2025 - July 2028, with 2 x 12 month extension options. The Contract values represent an estimated maximum value with no commitment to spend and no guarantee of any volumes of usage under the contract. The Contract will be between the successful Supplier and the Contracting Authority. The Contract is being offered under HMG's 'The Mid-Tier Contract' as adapted for this procurement and attached as part of the Bid Pack, which will govern any resultant Contract. The Contracting Authority is managing this Procurement in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Contracting Authority is seeking proposals for a partner supplier. The full specification is in Attachment 3 (Statement of Requirements). Additional information: All clarification questions and bids should be emailed to gds-digital-buyer@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk, referencing WP2236 'Clarification' or WP2236 'Bid' in the email Subject.