Support to the Armed Forces Reward and Incentivisation Review (AFRIR)

As set out in the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (16 March 2021), the security threats and challenges facing the UK are increasingly complex and uncertain. If the Armed Forces are to defend the nation from these in future, Defence must manage its service personnel more effectively. Furthermore, the world and workplace are changing rapidly, with the pace of change accelerated by technology. Because of this, society's expectations and the labour market are also changing and becoming less aligned to how Defence has worked in the past. What Defence offers to service personnel must therefore be adjusted by adopting more sophisticated and differentiated approaches to managing and rewarding their skills and talents. However, the unique opportunities military service provides should be preserved to prevent the creation of a transactional relationship with our people.

The Defence Command Paper (22 March 2021) commits Defence to establishing an independent review to examine these issues. This review, known as the Armed Forces Reward and Incentivisation Review (AFRIR), will consider all aspects of the Offer to our people: financial reward in the form of pay and pensions; and benefits such as housing, healthcare, childcare, family support and career flexibility, and many others. Further details of the Offer can be found in Our Finest Asset: what it means to serve in the 21 Century (22 March 2021).

The Review is expected to publish a report by Spring 2023, which will set out recommendations to make military terms and conditions of service fit for the future. These will look out to the 2030s and beyond to ensure that Defence can recruit and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce with the right skills to meet its requirements - mindful of prevailing and expected labour market conditions and assuming the Department overall will have an operating budget that remains the same in real terms.

The AFRIR has been designed to take a wide perspective: it will be led by an independently appointed Chair and apply the tools and lessons of global best practice. The Review, in conjunction with DSTL and the MOD's Analysis Directorate, will draw on Defence-specific and multi-disciplinary research and benchmarking, and apply existing and new analytical frameworks to model or simulate scenarios. External Assistance (EA) is required to complement and build upon the skills and capacity available in Defence to deliver Review. There are four areas of work where EA is required:

a) Conceptual Development. This package of work will provide support to the creation of a Reward & Incentivisation Strategy for Defence, focussed at Armed Forces Personnel, set in a 2035 context. This will draw heavily on knowledge and experience of global best-practice benchmarks on reward approach, philosophy and strategy. We are looking for fresh thinking to challenge the status quo. But it must also support us to successfully translate this into

Additional information: The purpose of this Notice is to invite potential suppliers to a period of market engagement prior to the commencement of future competitions for the AFRIR requirement. The Authority may use feedback from interested parties to further shape its approach and commercial construct.

Interested parties should note that this is an accelerated programme with constrained timeframes, and should be prepared to work in an agile way to ensure timeframes are met.

As part of this engagement, the Authority intends to hold a virtual industry day on Tuesday 9 November and share the following documents with interested parties:

- High level technical specification; and

- Level 1 procurement plan showing stages and timeframes.

The Authority would welcome your feedback on these documents before the period of market engagement ends on 22 November.

Suppliers who are interested in participating in the period of market engagement, which includes attending the virtual industry day on 9 November and receiving and commenting on the documents listed above, should write to the Authority at McLean, Iain Mr (Def Comrcl-HO BP3-2b) [email protected] and include the following:

a) details of your company name; and

b) two (2) points of contact and their contact details (name, phone number, email address, postal address).

The deadline for writing to the Authority for this purpose is 28 October 2021.