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Challenge 7.8: How can technology aid parents through the admissions process for an ever-changing statutory entitlement to early learning and childcare?
Challenge summary
All 3 and 4 year olds, and some 2 year olds, have a statutory entitlement to early learning and childcare (nursery education). There are council run nurseries and partner providers. Within each setting we offer different options for patterns of attendance, and the entitlement can be split between providers. The challenge is to find a solution to manage the application process. We need to allocate places fairly in line with our placing guidelines and parents / carers need to be kept informed about the progress of their application. We need the solution to be straightforward for staff and parents / carers to use.
Key information for applicants
Please note: you must apply for this Challenge via Public Contracts Scotland
Launch date
Tuesday 31 May 2022
Questions may be submitted until
16:00, Tuesday 21 June 2022
Closing date
Midday, Tuesday 28 June 2022
Exploration Stage interviews
Wednesday 27 July 2022
Exploration Stage
15 August to 2 September 2022
Accelerator interviews
Wednesday 7 September 2022
Accelerator Stage
3 October 2021 to 27 January 2023
Maximum contract value
£650,000
Q&A session
A live Q&A session was held with the Challenge Sponsor team on Thursday 9 June 2022 at 15:00. A recording of the session can be viewed here:
Why does this Challenge need to be solved?
All 3 and 4 year olds, and some 2 year olds, have a statutory entitlement to early learning and childcare (nursery education). In order to meet this requirement, West Lothian Council needs to be able to receive applications and place children in nurseries (we currently have 4100 children in attendance). Parents often need to change their choices due to changing circumstances. There are currently 66 nurseries which we run and around 40 which are partner provider nurseries and childminders. Children can split their entitlement between establishments. We have different patterns of attendance and we have different eligibility dates for children as they turn 3. Parents need to be able to give us 3 choices so that we have a better chance of giving most people one of their choices. We want to be able to manage waiting lists, and to prioritise applications in line with our policies when we have too much demand for a given nursery or pattern of attendance. We also need to be able to allow parents to buy extra hours where we have enough spare capacity. We need a range of reports which will allow managers to make decisions about staffing and placements, and to show how the applications are being processed and to monitor availability/outcomes.
We do have a system which does a lot of this at the moment but there are a lot of admin tasks for staff to operate the system. We rely on one person who knows how to maintain the system and this is a significant business risk and unsustainable in the long term.
We need to be able to change what we offer as the Scottish Government is continuing to make changes to the entitlements for children. Recent examples include an increase of hours which meant we needed to offer new patterns of attendance to enable all of the children to receive the hours they were entitled to within our nurseries, and the requirement for children to be able to split their entitlement between providers.
How will we know the Challenge has been solved?
No single point dependency
Reduction in manual admin required to maintain the WLC's database / reduction in admin tasks relating to data / management reporting admin
reduction in complaints relating to how an application has been processed
staff and stakeholders will be able to easily access relevant information about the progress of the application cycle
Who are the end users of the solution likely to be? title
Parents and carers
Schools and nurseries
West Lothian Council staff including Pupil Placement, ELC team, call centre, child protection and educational support
Private partners including childminders, playgroups and private nurseries
Has the Challenge Sponsor attempted to solve this problem before?
We have tried on multiple occasions to identify a suitable solution over the years but have drawn a blank.
On two occasions we have put a specification out to tender but did not find a suitable solution.
We have also had demonstrations from a number of suppliers but identified no viable solutions.
We have looked at all of the systems currently being used within the Authority to see if any could be adapted for this purpose, but nothing suitable was identified.
We have undertaken benchmarking with other Local Authorities and found no viable solutions, rather we discovered that many other Local Authorities also have similar problems with ELC placements.
Are there any interdependencies or blockers?
SEEMIS ELC – any solution will need to interact but new SEEMIS ELC is not yet available.
Will a solution need to integrate with any existing systems or equipment?
SEEMIS
One Scotland Gazetteer
Mygov.scot
Parentsportal.scot
Payments systems
Potentially WLC’s CRM
Any technologies or features the Challenge Sponsor wishes to explore or avoid?
The data must be cloud based to comply with Council strategy, and the system must be accessible from the browser on multiple device types.
Our team members should be able to customise the system to cope with policy / procedure / service changes, e.g. the addition of a new establishment or a new pattern of attendance.
We are dealing with sensitive data regarding children and families, so the system must meet the requirements for GDPR to process our confidential personal data and be reliable.
We would like to explore whether parents / carers can have some self-service options e.g. where we have determined the availability and that there are no reasons to restrict applications, can a parent see what is available, apply and be granted a place without our staff having to do any manual tasks?
The solution should provide open, secure and documented APIs (webservices) to enable access to core system functions from other systems.
What is the commercial opportunity beyond a CivTech contract?
Potential market of 31 other local authorities in Scotland.
Potential market beyond for local governments, other childcare providers e.g. large private nursery providers.
Who are the stakeholders?
Parents and carers
Children
WLC Councillors and senior officers
WLC Senior Management Team
WLC Head Teachers
WLC Additional Support Needs Team
WLC Social Work and NHS
WLC Education Central staff
WLC Operational Services – Council department in charge of cleaning, catering and facilities management.
WLC Finance, IT, Media and Procurement.
Who’s in the Challenge Sponsor team?
WLC Digital Transformation Team, Education Services staff and IT Services staff