The first aspect of the Change Management Process is the Entry Assessment which considers the fundamental details of the request to assess the validity and necessity of the change to determine whether it should be progressed and added to the Roadmap. The first part of this is for the GP IT the Digital Care Services Change team to confirm that the form submitted has been adequately completed and contains sufficient information for this assessment to be undertaken.  If it has not been, then it will be returned to the requestor for further detail to be provided. Following this, there will be a brief meeting of relevant internal subject matter experts to consider the following aspects of the change request:

• Resource. Has the requestor indicated that they have resource available to elaborate the specification and deliver the change? If yes, what is that resource? If not, what are the plans for this?
• Funding. Has the requestor indicated that they have funding available to pay for the change e.g. fund an Urgent Change or Opportunity Item or offer delivery incentives etc.? Is there a Business Case in place?
• Necessity / Drivers. What are the key reasons behind the change request and why is it needed? What benefits does it bring?
• Strategic alignment. How does the change request align with key strategic drivers and policy initiatives?
• Standards and Capabilities alignment. An initial view of how this change request might impact the existing Capabilities and Standards or if it is something completely new. 
• Readiness. Is the change requestor in a position to be able to progress the change now or is there significant additional groundwork to put in place first? Does the change requestor know clearly what they are asking for?
• Timescales. Are there any key delivery milestones, targets or timescales associated with the change and how does this fit with any dependencies etc.? What are the consequences of not meeting these timescales?
• Delivery options. What options may be available for the most efficient delivery of this change? This may involve options outside of the GP IT Futures the Digital Care Services change routes and processes or progressing the change as an RFI to Suppliers.

Consideration of these aspects of the change should enable the assessment team to determine the validity of the change and and provide a response and recommendation regarding whether it should be progressed or not.  This may be an iterative process where the requestor is asked to provide additional information to refine their request, but will lead to one of four outcomes:

• Rejected
• Withdrawn
• Add to Roadmap and progress to Full Assessment

The first two outcomes end the change process for that request, the other triggers further processes which are detailed below.

The Full Assessment process is triggered either by a change passing the Entry Assessment or following completion of an Opportunity Item where a change now needs to be published for all relevant Suppliers to implement.  The Full Assessment process determines the route by which the change will be progressed and considers the details and parameters of that change such that it is clear to Suppliers what will need to be delivered and when. Some of the elements of this Full Assessment process have sub-processes and more detailed checklists etc. which are detailed below where applicable. In the case where a change is moving from an Opportunity Item or Feasibility Assessment into the Full Assessment process, then a new change form is not required and a discussion will be held between the GP IT the Digital Care Services Change team and the change requestor to validate the original details given on the form and amend as necessary ahead of completing the Full Assessment.

The Full Assessment process will include analysis of the elements listed below in order to determine the most appropriate change route for this request and the parameters associated with it. This will be completed by the GP IT the Digital Care Services Change team, engaging the support of the relevant subject matter experts and Suppliers on each of the elements of this as required to ensure a consistent and fully considered assessment. This will include consultation with representatives from Business Analysis, Technical Architecture, Solutions Assurance, Service Management, Information Governance, Finance, Commercial, Buying Catalogue, Clinicians and other system users and other specialist teams as required, as well as Suppliers. Supplier engagement in this process will be managed via the RFI process, the Feasibility Assessment route or another suitable procurement vehicle or commissioning route which is available at the time. Depending on the nature of the change in question and the Capabilities and standards which are impacted, this engagement may either be mandatory or optional for Suppliers.

• Align to Capabilities and Standards Model
• Alignments and Dependencies (with other work)
• Consider Dates and Timescales
• Consider Incentives and Funding
• Sizing and Complexity
• Urgent Change assessment
• Prioritisation
• Materiality
• Confirm Effective Date and incentives (if applicable)

Further information regarding the details of each of these aspects of the assessment is included below. At any point of this assessment process, it may be necessary to escalate either by convening a meeting between relevant stakeholders or by sending to a board or other governance group to make a final decision on certain elements of the change assessment. This will be particularly important for prioritisation where the NHS England SRO group will determine the key strategic priorities for the subsequent period.  Once all the details are agreed, the Roadmap entry can be updated and the change will progress into one of the defined change routes.

The following table sets out some general guidelines for assessing the most suitable change route, however this is not exhaustive and change requests will need to be considered case by case:

The Roadmap will be published as a living document for all relevant stakeholders, but is especially important for Suppliers and Buyers. Ahead of each new iteration of the Framework, the content of the Roadmap will be consulted on with the NHS England CCIO and SRO group to determine the key strategic priorities for the next period and the associated Effective Dates. This will also be discussed with Suppliers to assess the achievability of the changes to become Effective during the lifecycle of the Framework. This may result in the need for some reassessment and the adjustment of items on the Roadmap, however Suppliers would be able to account for this in their costing and pricing analysis for the subsequent Framework. Should there be any impact on items within the current live Framework or items which a Supplier has already begun working on, then this would be discussed with the Supplier as required. Appropriate governance forums will be in place to ensure Suppliers are fully informed about amendments to the Roadmap and have the opportunity to provide feedback and challenge regarding this and any other aspect of the change process. It should also be noted that the Catalogue Agreement does not restrict the ad hoc resetting of List Price if required subject to the conditions set out in the Commercial Standard and Framework Agreement.

Align to Standards and Capabilities Model

Alignments and Dependencies

Set Dates and Timescales

Determine Incentives and Funding

Sizing and Complexity

Urgent Change Assessment

Prioritisation

Materiality

A change will enter the Managed Capacity route having been through the Full Assessment process and it may already have progressed as an Opportunity Item before the change is published for all relevant Suppliers to implement. The first consideration is to confirm whether the change is fully specified and agreed or not.  This will include the requirements for Suppliers to develop against, but also all the necessary approvals, assurance documentation, plans for Business as Usual operations and any other implementation guidance or associated documentation which might be required. If this is not in place then it will be necessary to engage Suppliers and also other stakeholders in order to define and agree the change specifications and other related documentation.  Suppliers will be engaged in this work via the RFI process, the Feasibility Assessment route or any other suitable Framework or procurement vehicle which may be available at the time. Change requestors are expected to make arrangements for any necessary resource required for any activities needed to engage stakeholders and Suppliers in order to elaborate the change specification. The role of the GP IT the Digital Care Services Change team is to facilitate and oversee the process rather than define the change or be directly involved in these activities.

Once all the necessary documentation is defined and agreed, a checklist to validate the quality and completeness of the specifications will be applied by the GP IT the Digital Care Services Change team to confirm that it is suitable for publication and Supplier implementation. Details of this checklist will be provided below once confirmed. Should the change specifications not meet the requirements of the checklist, then there would be a need for the specifications to be refined prior to be being Published. Once this checklist has been passed, the parameters of the change such as the Effective Date, prioritisation, sizing, timescales, incentives etc. will then be verified prior to publishing the specification and ensuring the Roadmap is updated with all the necessary details. 

Suppliers can then select to begin development on the work when they are ready and have capacity to do so and some guidelines regarding the selection of work items are set out below. When an item is selected, this starts an iterative cycle of development and assurance as per the mechanisms and terms set out in the change specification and the GP IT Futures relevant Digital Care Services compliance and assurance approach documentation until the work is complete and a Development Milestone Achievement Certificate (DevMAC) is awarded. 

Once the DevMAC has been awarded, it is necessary to consider the award of any compliance or incentive payments which may be available for that work item. The Charging and Invoicing Schedule sets out the terms and conditions for award of any compliance and incentive payments which may be available for items on the Roadmap.

If there is any disagreement regarding whether the Effective Date or the parameters of any available incentives have been met, then the Dispute Resolution Procedure will be followed.

Specification Checklist

Supplier selects work item

The Opportunity Item process is triggered by the identification of a change request as an Opportunity Item, either as a First of Type / Alpha phase, a wider market opportunity or as a Feasibility Assessment.  There are some common elements to this process before it splits based on which type of opportunity it is. Suppliers should only bid for work in the Opportunity Items route where they can make resource and capacity available without compromising the delivery of the key strategic work items and mandated changes specified under Managed Capacity. Any capacity for Opportunity Items will not be included in that reserved for Managed Capacity or within the List Price.

Once a change request is identified as an Opportunity Item, it is first necessary to establish the parameters of the Opportunity Item and the competition which will be issued to engage Suppliers and commission the work.  These will be agreed on a case by case basis and will include consideration of:

• Number of Suppliers to be engaged
• Which Suppliers the competition should be issued to
• Scope of the opportunity
• Desired outcomes
• Amount and source of funding available
• Timescales for completion of the opportunity and running the open competition
• Criteria for submitting and assessing bids
• Anticipated change journey following completion of the Opportunity Item

Once these details have been established between the change requestor, the GP IT the Digital Care Services Change team and Commercial team, the opportunity can be issued to the market and eligible Suppliers can submit a bid as per the terms set. Opportunity Items will also appear on the Standards and Capabilities Roadmap highlighting the issue date of the open competition where known.

Those items which are First of Type / Alpha projects will then progress into an iterative cycle of collaborative requirements elicitation, development, assurance, pilot deployment and gathering feedback in a manner agreed between the parties involved until a First of Type deployment can be completed and a final specification is agreed.  Once First of Type deployment has been successfully completed, this will trigger the award of any payment available as per the terms of the opportunity.  The specification will then go back through the Full Assessment process to set the parameters of the work before it moves into the Managed Capacity route and is Published for all relevant Suppliers.

Those items which are Other Opportunities for the wider market will then progress to development and assurance as per the terms agreed with the selected Suppliers. The development aspect of this would be expected to be fairly minimal in this case as the intention is to commission Suppliers with products which already support a significant proportion of the desired functionality rather than requiring bespoke development.  Once this has been completed, the product will need to be signed off by the relevant parties as per the agreed assurance approach and a DevMAC can be awarded. In some cases, these products may then need to be integrated with the Foundation Solutions. Where this is not the case, the new product will be added to the Catalogue and deployed to users as required. Where integration is required, this is likely to require work from the Foundation Solution Suppliers and therefore this work will go back into the Full Assessment process and move in to Managed Capacity to be Published for all relevant Suppliers to implement once the parameters have been agreed.

Those items which require a Feasibility Assessment prior to definition and delivery of the change will also progress through this route. These are items which may already have been through an RFI / Analysis only process to gather information from Suppliers, as per the terms of the Catalogue Agreement, but have been determined to be beyond the scope of that route and require additional effort from Suppliers. Therefore they will be subject to a competition to appoint or mandate Suppliers to undertake a feasibility analysis and provide feedback to determine how best to progress the change request. Once this assessment has been completed and returned to NHS Digital, the responses will be analysed and the change requestor will decide whether they wish to progress with the change request in which case it will move back into the Full Assessment process, or if they will withdraw and reconsider the request.