Notice Information
Notice Title
Procurement of Source code licence
Notice Description
The Department for Education (DfE) wishes to take a licence of from RM Education plc (RM) of the Source Code (Portland code 16-18 and DCAM Under and Overmatch checks) to relating to the provision of the National Pupil Data Achievement and Attainment Tables (NPDAAT).
Lot Information
Lot 1
The Department for Education (DfE) wishes to take a licence of from RM Education plc (RM) of the Source Code (Portland code 16-18 and DCAM Under and Overmatch checks) to relating to the provision of the National Pupil Data Achievement and Attainment Tables (NPDAAT). Taking the licence is time-critical, for reasons of compliance with reporting requirements. DfE wishes to rely on Regulation 32(2) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended) as justification for taking a licence of the Source Code direct from RM. DfE believes that such direct purchase is justifiable on the basis that: * competition is absent for technical reasons (relying on Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii)); and/or * RM has exclusive rights, including intellectual property rights, in the Source Code, meaning that the Source Code cannot be replicated (relying on Regulation 32(2)(b)(iii). * DfE believes that no reasonable alternative or substitute to the Source Code exists, and that the absence of competition is not the result of any artificial narrowing down of the parameters of what should be a competitive procurement. The reasons for this belief are set out in this notice. * In 2020, RM was the only supplier to bid in the final stage of the procurement for the NPDAAT service. Since then, several contract modifications have taken place and, on each occasion, details of them were published. No other suppliers reacted to the published modification notices. * The service to which the Source Code relates is highly bespoke, and only RM has delivered it for the past fifteen years. As such, DfE considers that only RM, as incumbent supplier, can provide the existing technical solution required (namely that embodied in the Source Code). * The Source Code represents the business rules of DfE's policies (as encapsulated in source code and database objects) and that, as such, the Source Code is only relevant in the context of DfE's specific system and for its specific purpose * The intellectual property in the Source Code is vested in RM.
Procurement Information
DfE believes that competition is absent for technical reasons and/or as a result in the exclusive rights held in the Source Code by RM. DfE believes that no reasonable alternatives to, or substitutes for, the Source Code exist, for the following reasons. (i) It is not technically possible for there to be an alternative or substitute to the Source Code, or to the overarching service provided by RM. The Source Code represents a very small, specialised and bespoke element of the overarching RM service. For example, the Source Code relates to: o the matching of learners from educational attainment data. More specifically it helps identify false and positive learner matches, but within a very specific range of data and values. o the performance measures data for 16-18 year old learners. The Source Code represents the end-to-end process for the application of the rules and how the performance measures should be calculated. These are DfE policy rules that are extremely unlikely to exist in any other system. (iv) The NPDAAT service to which the Source Code relates is aligned with the England's education system, which is unique to England. Therefore, the ability to replicate the Source Code is unlikely to exist elsewhere. (v) For the 16-18 age group, there are around 1,700 'indicators' that are driven by DfE policies and rules. The total extent of code for these indicators is estimated to range from 85,000 to 170,000 lines of code. (vi) For the over/under matching code there are 15 datasets, 15-20 scenarios per dataset, 50-100 lines of code per dataset so 11,000 - 30,000 lines of code in total. (vii) Whilst the Source Code represents a small component of the wider NPDAAT service, it is bespoke to DfE policies and rules, and is a highly nuanced technical subset of the overall NPDAAT system. (viii) The Source Code (specifically) is proven to work at scale in a production environment, and has done so reliably for the past fifteen years. (ix) The code has been refined to deal with anomalies that have occurred while processing live data over that fifteen-year period. No other code set that might be similar can possibly have the same level of testing and reliability achieved during this period. (x) The Department produces a range of measures to assess pupil and school performance for students aged 16-18. This data is shared with schools and colleges in October each year to inform their own target setting and ahead of wider publication and use by the Department and Ofsted. It is critical that the performance measures data is produced by the end of September to meet this established timetable and shared with schools/colleges ahead of the school holidays at the end of October. Therefore, there is insufficient time to conduct production testing to prove that any previously unknown code might be reliable
Notice Details
Publication & Lifecycle
- Open Contracting ID
- ocds-h6vhtk-046c3b
- Publication Source
- Find A Tender Service
- Latest Notice
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/016817-2024
- Current Stage
- Award
- All Stages
- Award
Procurement Classification
- Notice Type
- Award Notice
- Procurement Type
- Standard
- Procurement Category
- Goods
- Procurement Method
- Limited
- Procurement Method Details
- Negotiated without publication of a contract notice
- Tender Suitability
- Not specified
- Awardee Scale
- Large
Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)
- CPV Divisions
48 - Software package and information systems
-
- CPV Codes
48000000 - Software package and information systems
Notice Value(s)
- Tender Value
- Not specified
- Lots Value
- Not specified
- Awards Value
- Not specified
- Contracts Value
- £270,000 £100K-£500K
Notice Dates
- Publication Date
- 29 May 20241 years ago
- Submission Deadline
- Not specified
- Future Notice Date
- Not specified
- Award Date
- 28 May 20241 years ago
- Contract Period
- Not specified - Not specified
- Recurrence
- Not specified
Notice Status
- Tender Status
- Complete
- Lots Status
- Not Specified
- Awards Status
- Active
- Contracts Status
- Active
Buyer & Supplier
Contracting Authority (Buyer)
- Main Buyer
- DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
- Contact Name
- Not specified
- Contact Email
- commercial.ddat@education.gov.uk
- Contact Phone
- Not specified
Buyer Location
- Locality
- LONDON
- Postcode
- SW1P 3BT
- Post Town
- South West London
- Country
- England
-
- Major Region (ITL 1)
- TLI London
- Basic Region (ITL 2)
- TLI3 Inner London - West
- Small Region (ITL 3)
- TLI35 Westminster and City of London
- Delivery Location
- Not specified
-
- Local Authority
- Westminster
- Electoral Ward
- St James's
- Westminster Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster
Further Information
Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)
View full OCDS Record for this contracting process
The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.
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