Introduction

This document provides further information in support of the Change Management and Roadmap Content ancillary document and should be read in conjunction with that and the relevant parts of the Catalogue Agreement.

The ancillary document describes:

• the Standards and Capabilities Model within the operation of the Catalogue Agreement
• the nature of Catalogue changes and the Roadmap
• the manner in which changes will be made to the Roadmap
• the management of Urgent Change within the Catalogue
• the provisions associated with Managed Capacity
• Opportunity Items and associated change.

This page sets out additional detail which builds on these descriptions, in particular regarding the information to be included on the Roadmap, versioning of Standards and Capabilities and the processes of the Catalogue Authority in managing change. 

Standards and Capabilities Model

Capabilities

Capabilities are the distinct functions a business needs, and often directly map to modules or functions which a Solution may provide. This is a step change away from having Principal and Subsidiary systems. The introduction of Capabilities for GP IT Futures is intended to allow Suppliers to innovate by being less prescriptive and also to segment the requirements in a way to allow more flexibility and choice for buyers. The scope of what historically made up the Principal Clinical Systems has now been broken down into Capabilities.

Structure of a Capability

Each Capability will have an ID, title, description, outcomes, epics and acceptance criteria and then potentially other elements to give more detail as necessary. This section describes the structure of a Capability and the information within it.

Capability ID

Each Capability has a unique identifier composed of one letter followed by a number. The letter C indicates a Capability. The number is arbitrary and does not have any additional meaning such as priority, sequence or inter-relationships. This allows for the identification of Capabilities in a consistent manner.

Capability version

Each Capability has a version number. Version numbers will iterate depending on the nature of the change (e.g. major, minor, patch) impacting the Capability. There is no relationship between the version numbers of different Capabilities and Standards.

Capability description

A concise description of the purpose of the Capability.

Outcomes

This describes the main users of the Capability and the outcomes they want to achieve from using the Solution.

Epics and acceptance criteria

These describe the requirements of the Capability at a high level and will be used to assess the suitability of Solutions from suppliers at the Capabilities Assessment stage of onboarding.

The Epics are written as high level user stories with Acceptance Criteria describing the conditions which can be demonstrated for the user stories to be considered achieved.  The collection of Epics which make up the qualifying component of each Capability description, simply describe the minimum functions that a Catalogue Solution must be able to demonstrate in order to be classified as achieving the Capability in question.

Suppliers will be assessed against 'Must' Epics only. 'May' Epics may be detailed for information.

Use of Capabilities

Capabilities will be used by:

• NHS Digital to express the business needs during the procurement
• NHS Digital for the initial assessment of Solutions for onboarding to the Buying Catalogue
• Suppliers to categorise their products and to see market opportunities
• Buyers to search for products that meet their needs on the Buying Catalogue

Suppliers do not have to provide a Solution that delivers all Capabilities and are free to design and build solutions that meet one or more of the Capabilities. By looking at the Capabilities, Suppliers can see where their product portfolio fits, either by making tweaks to existing Solutions where required or building new solutions to expand the Capabilities that they provide for. For example, Supplier 'A' may build a solution that delivers 'Document Management', 'Workflow' and 'Patient Information Maintenance' Capabilities, whereas Supplier 'B' may choose to build a system that just delivers Document Management.

Foundation Capabilities

A set of Foundation Capabilities have been identified which will be the access point for GMS funding. These are a subset of the wider set of Capabilities mandated in the NHS England GP IT Operating Model.  The Foundation Capabilities are clearly identified on the Capability and Standards Model.  Suppliers do not have to supply any of the Foundation Capabilities and can choose to provide one or more.  Buyers will have to take all of the Foundation Capabilities in order to access central funding.

Standards

Standards describe the technical or operating conditions required to achieve Catalogue Compliance

Classes of Standards

There will be three classes, or types, of standards:

1. Overarching Standards (e.g. Information Governance) 
   These will be applicable to all Supplier Solutions and are NHS Digital Standards reasonably agnostic of care setting.
2. Capability Specific Standards (e.g. Appointments Management - GP)
   These are only applicable to Supplier Solutions delivering a particular Capability and may contain business rules, data items and best practice.  
3. Context Specific Standards - these Standards are only applicable to some Supplier Solutions depending on the implementation and scope of Capabilities they are supporting.  Suppliers will have to go through compliance against these Standards per Solution offering.  These include:
   1. Interoperability Standards (e.g. GP Connect APIs, IM1, PDS, eRS and ePS integration etc.). These cover various mechanisms for interoperability and national integration.  Each entry will be mapped to one or many Capabilities. 
   2. Common Reporting - applicable to any Solution providing a Capability that has reporting requirements.
   3. Management Information Reporting - supports the collection and submission of information to NHS Digital.
   4. Citizen Access - applicable to any Solution providing Citizen facing Capabilities.

With regards to the terminology, it is acknowledged that there are formal publishing Standards bodies like ISO, PRSB and NHS Digital. Where possible we will always refer out to existing national and international Standards, but as a Programme will be using the word Standard(s) to refer more broadly to a collection of requirements that ensure a level of safety, security, quality and interoperability that Suppliers will be mandated to comply with in order to maintain compliance with the Catalogue Agreement.  

For new Capabilities we will explore if there is a need for any Standards and if so, these will be developed concentrating predominantly on security, safety and interoperability. 

We will stay closely aligned to the Standards publishing bodies and flag the development of new Standards via the Roadmap.

Structure of a Standard

Standard ID

Each Standard has a unique identifier composed of one letter followed by a number. The letter S indicates a Standard. The number is arbitrary and does not have any additional meaning such as priority, sequence or inter-relationships. This allows for the identification of Standards in a consistent manner.

Standard Version

Each Standard has a version number. Version numbers will iterate depending on the nature of the change (e.g. major, minor, patch) impacting the Standard. There is no relationship between the version numbers of different Capabilities and Standards.

GP IT Futures will regularly review and update the Standards with an iterative model to ensure they stay relevant and reflect the current needs of General Practice.  Suppliers will have to remain compliant with Standards in order to fulfil their obligations on the Catalogue Agreement.

Standard Type

Where applicable this defines the type of standard which includes:

• Capability specific Standard
• Context specific Standard
• Overarching Standard

Effective Date

Those Standards which are mandated under the Catalogue Agreement will have an Effective Date by which suppliers must comply with the Standard.  

Suppliers will need to have achieved compliance against all Effective Standards (see Status below) in order to onboard on to the Catalogue and be awarded a place on the first GP IT Futures Framework

Status

Each Standard will have one of five statuses:

• Draft
• Published 
• Effective
• Deprecated
• Retired

These terms and the life-cycle of a Standard are described in more detail in the Definitions section below.

Requirement ID

Each requirement within a Standard will have a unique ID so it can be recognised during compliance.

Requirement Level

As defined in RFC 2119.1, the Change Management and Roadmap Content ancillary document and the Master Glossary

Use of Standards

Standards will be used by:

• NHS Digital to express the business needs at the most granular level when needed
• Suppliers to understand what is expected of them in order to be compliant and to onboard onto the Buying Catalogue
• NHS Digital Solution Assurance to assess Supplier Solutions against in order to award compliance
• Buyers to assess various Suppliers against each other (levels of compliance / functionality) for competitive procurements.

Standards will always be mapped to Capabilities.  This mapping will be managed and displayed to Suppliers (via Confluence initially) and inherently in the Buying Catalogue so that Suppliers and Buyers can clearly see compliance of a Solution.

During the Compliance phase of onboarding to the Buying Catalogue, Suppliers will have to evidence how they will meet all of the Standards applicable to their Solution, dependent on the Capabilities they will provide.  

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The Capabilities and Standards Model represents the scope of the first GP IT Futures Framework.  It is represented in a clickable form on the Confluence Overview page in order for all stakeholders to navigate through.

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Publication of Capabilities and Standards

Confluence will be used to publish all Capabilities and Standards.  This may change in the future.

The live site can be accessed GP IT Futures Capabilities and Standards - Home

Introduction

This document provides further information in support of the Change Management and Roadmap Content ancillary document and should be read in conjunction with that and the relevant parts of the Catalogue Agreement.

The ancillary document describes:

• the Capabilities and Standards Model within the operation of the Catalogue Agreement
• the nature of Catalogue changes and the Roadmap
• the manner in which changes will be made to the Roadmap
• the management of Urgent Change within the Catalogue
• the provisions associated with Managed Capacity
• Opportunity Items and associated change.

This page sets out additional detail which builds on these descriptions, in particular regarding the information to be included on the Roadmap, versioning of Standards and Capabilities and the processes of the Catalogue Authority in managing change. 

Change Management

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Definitions Definitions

Definitions

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• A single gated point of entry point for all change requests relating to GP IT Systems in order that Suppliers should only receive requests for system change from a single source 
• A fair, objective and consistent approach to assessing change requests which includes a balanced and comprehensive set of assessment criteria 
• A more flexible approach to elaboration, commissioning and delivery of change supported by appropriate commercial mechanisms
• Splitting up larger work items into smaller deliverables to ensure that capacity is not wiped out by a single large initiative
• More opportunities for innovation and collaboration
• More opportunities for the wider market to reduce burden on the Foundation Solution Suppliers
• Ensuring that Suppliers and wider stakeholders are engaged throughout the change process
• Ensuring that change relating to key strategic priorities and objectives for the wider NHS is delivered in a timely manner
• A Standards and Capabilities Roadmap which presents a single overarching view of all changes which need to be delivered and the opportunities available to Suppliers
• Consultative governance forums and arrangements to ensure Suppliers are fully engaged in the process, are aware of their ongoing obligations and have the opportunity to support the shaping of wider strategy and process improvement

Standards

Draft and Published Standards may be associated with an Effective Date by which all relevant Suppliers are required to have achieved compliance.

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New and uplifted Standards to be progressed through the Urgent Change or Opportunity Items route may be added to the Roadmap at any time. There are however restrictions regarding the addition of new Roadmap entries in the Managed Capacity route where an Effective Date is set. Refer to the Change Management and Roadmap Content ancillary document for this information.

Capabilities 

New and uplifted Capabilities may be added to the Roadmap at any time as Draft or Published such that Suppliers could develop against it and begin onboarding. However where this is a material change to an existing Capability or the addition of a new Capability, then this cannot become Effective until a subsequent Framework opportunity.  Although in some cases it is likely that the change could be progressed as an Opportunity Item to facilitate quicker delivery prior to a Framework request.

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