Electronic Case Management System (Fitness to Practise)

YOU MUST READ THE FULL EXPRESSION OF INTEREST NOTICE, AND YOU MUST COMPLETE THE EXPRESSION OF INTEREST QUESTIONNAIRE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY (both documents are attached to this notice and are also available at: optical.org/en/about-us/get-invo… ↗). The Expression of Interest Questionnaire MUST be uploaded to the electronic postbox facility on this mytenders.co.uk site. We will not accept any other form of submission.

We are the regulator for the optical professions in the UK. Our purpose is to protect the public by promoting high standards of education, performance and conduct amongst opticians. We currently register around 30,000 optometrists, dispensing opticians, student opticians and optical businesses. All individuals (and optical businesses that meet certain criteria) must be registered with the GOC to be able to carry out clinical practices that are restricted by law to registered persons.

A brief description of our four core regulatory functions is:

• Setting standards for optical education and training, performance and conduct.
• Approving qualifications leading to registration.
• Maintaining a register of individuals who are qualified and fit to practise, train or carry on business as optometrists and dispensing opticians.
• Investigating and acting where registrants’ fitness to practise, train or carry on business is impaired.

Our website is at: www.optical.org ↗

We are seeking to procure a supplier to develop an electronic Case Management System (CMS) to support the management of Fitness to Practise (FtP) cases by our Regulatory Operations directorate. The CMS must cover all areas of the FtP process.

We have developed a working list of needs (Annex A to the Expression of Interest notice document), but we stress that this is not a final specification document (more detailed specifications of our requirements will be provided within the ITT pack at that stage of the procurement process). This working list is provided at this stage to help you to understand the extent of our CMS requirements, so that you can decide whether to express an interest.

We require a CMS that, in meeting our overarching list of needs (Annex A), provides the GOC with the following benefits:

• improvements in case progression timeliness, through:

a) automated workflow management

b) fewer keystrokes

c) enhanced management control, oversight and reporting

d) automatic escalations

e)configured user dashboards

• reduction in lost hearing days, achieved through semi-automated scheduling and improved conflict checking.
• resource efficiencies, achieved through significantly leaner processes
• tangible customer service improvements (leading to excellent customer service), achieved through:

a) automated updates

b) fully documented processes

c) modern customer feedback processes

d) reduction in risk via automatic draw-through of data across areas of work

• reduction in data breaches through automation of templates

All the above go towards our overarching objective to protect the public.

This list of potential benefits is a work in progress and a final benefits map will be provided at ITT stage.

We anticipate that there will be two phases to the CMS build, with a go-live date for phase one (‘must have’ and ‘should have’ requirements) of no later than 30 June 2023, and with phase two (‘could have’ requirements) being subject to (a) successful completion of phase one and (b) an internal GOC benefits validation process in respect of the phase one build.

This means that there is likely to be a gap between the end of phase one and the commencement of phase two, and that a phase two build will be contractually at the GOC’s discretion.

Ongoing technical support for the developed system (both phase one and phase two product) will be required to 31 March 2026, with an additional 12-month support extension option available to the GOC. This support aspect will be contractually contingent upon the GOC accepting the build product(s). Additional information: A reminder that you MUST complete the Expression of Interest Questionnaire and upload it to the electronic postbox facility on this site if you wish to be considered for full tender selection.