Welfare and Benefits Data Analytics Service

Reading Borough Council is aiming to procure an online tool that combines analytics with local authority data to drive strategic and operational decisions in the provision of a range of welfare services. The Council wishes to gauge the potential interest of experienced suppliers for this work. The software needs to be fully interactive and enable the Council to:

• understand the cumulative impact of welfare reform on each low-income household • track the changing circumstances of low-income households to check the effectiveness of interventions, policy changes and socio-economic factors. • understand variations of income relative to household's needs and identify struggling, just managing, and in crisis households based on analysis combining household's incomes, expenditure and arrears. • identify households that are in poverty with respect to national relative and absolute poverty lines. • bring together disparate datasets to have a single view of low-income households.

Our key supplier requirements are recent experience (within the last three years) of supplying a product that can fulfil all the following criteria:

1. Can utilise data already being extracted by officers from Council systems without the need for SQL reports, add on modules or extra software 2. Can interrogate the data to show households in Reading which have been impacted by recent welfare reform as well as any future welfare reforms and the cumulative effect for individuals 3. Can reflect arrears data for council tax, rents and housing benefit overpayments so that a complete picture can be built for each household. In addition it should be adaptable enough to accept further data sets as deemed necessary in the future 4. Can highlight potential vulnerabilities and/or barriers to work with the ability to export data on those cases to support proactive support work 5. Can provide results that are easy to understand, shown in a variety of formats and be able to be interrogated down to ward, street and individual household level, ae well as easy to share with a variety of stakeholders

The Council anticipates an initial contract period of 12 months with the potential for a further extension subject to operational need and value for money considerations

Organisations who believe they fulfil the experience requirements and who would anticipate responding to an invitation to tender for the services are asked to notify the Council of their interest with a brief summary (no more than four sides of A4), of their organisational experience and capability , the functionality of the product and indicative costings.

Reading Borough Council intends to use the information supplied to assess whether suitable specialist products exist to meet our requirements.

If the Council decides that there is sufficient interest from capable suppliers we may decide to proceed with a procurement exercise via further advertisement which will formally invite tenders.

Additional information: This is an early engagement exercise as part of the development of a planned procurement. Organisations interested in responding to the consultation should download the documents which are available on the Council`s e-tendering system at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/readingbc/aspx/Home and complete as instructed.

The Portal is free of charge - to register please follow the supplier registration guidance which is available on the Portal.

Please note: you must register your interest via the Council`s e-tendering portal if you intend to submit a response. Interested parties must log onto the Council`s e-tendering portal at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/readingbc, to express an interest and download the procurement documents. All communications regarding this procurement exercise will be conducted through the Council`s e-tendering portal including requests for clarifications or general enquiries. The procurement documents will be available for download up until the closing time and date for tender submissions, it is the organisation`s responsibility to ensure that they download the documents in ample time to ensure that they can be completed and returned electronically, along with supporting documents, prior to the closing time and date stipulated. Before completing the tender, potential providers/suppliers should ensure that the e-mail address that has been used to register their organisation will be checked regularly as the Council`s e-tendering system will generate automatic notifications to this e-mail address when there are updates, changes or messages sent relating to the project. Potential bidders should also check that their organisation`s details are correct and kept up to date.

Technical questions and assistance regarding the use and operation of the Portal should be addressed to the In-Tend Help Desk - e-mail: [email protected], telephone number +44 8442728810.