Clarifications
There are 251 clarifications for this DPS
132. Good Afternoon, Please could Crown Commercial Services (CCS) respond to the following questions relating to the Customer Needs document and the DMP Framework Agreement: 1. Section 3.4.3 of the Customer Needs document refers to some aspects that are only relevant to the Apprenticeship Training Providers and not to EPAOs, in particular i) an induction programme and ii) a detailed summary of the Apprenticeship learner journey process. Please could CCS confirm whether this will be further clarified within the call-off contract with the contracting authority? 2. As per section 3.4.3 of the Customer Needs document, please could CCS clarify what "an induction programme" would entail? We consider this to be the Apprenticeship training provider's role rather than the role of an EPAO. 3. Section 3.4.4 of the Customer Needs Document lists some requirements that would vary between the standards and the Apprenticeship learner journeys agreed between the training provider and the Customer, e.g. panel members, level of feedback, assessment results KPIs. (EPAOs must remain independent of the learning process and so there is a limit to the detail of feedback they can provide and still ensure the validity and reliability of the EPA) Please can CCS confirm that details for the EPA delivery service will be agreed in the call-off contract between the Customer and the successful EPAO? 4. As an EPAO, we have a defined set of procedures, processes and assessment KPIs for each standard we provide EPA for, which are monitored by EQAOs. This is detailed in our EPA Manual that we require Providers and Employers to follow that will ensure smooth, efficient and consistent delivery of EPAs across all standards. Please could CCS advise whether the Customer (Employer and Provider) will accept the conditions of the EPA Manual as part of the individual call-off contracts? 5. Please could CCS confirm that section 3.4.5 of the Customer Needs document relates to Apprenticeship Training Providers only, as this service does not form part of the role of an EPAO. 6. Please could CCS explain how section 3.5.4 of the Customer Needs document relates to the role of the EPAO? 7. Paragraph 1.2.2.3 of Schedule 2 of the DMP Framework Agreement states "The Supplier shall ensure that the registered EPAO and the assessor is independent of, and separate from, the training provided by the Supplier and Customer in accordance with the ESFA Funding Rules." In some instances, either upon a written agreement with the ESFA or in line with the Assessment Plan for the Standard, EPAOs have been allowed to use employer personnel as trained independent assessors provided full independence from the apprentice and training provider is maintained. Please can CCS confirm that this will still be acceptable in these circumstances? Kind regards,
1. Section 3.4.3 of the Customer Needs document refers to some aspects that are only relevant to the Apprenticeship Training Providers and not to EPAOs, in particular i) an induction programme and ii) a detailed summary of the Apprenticeship learner journey process. Please could CCS confirm whether this will be further clarified within the call-off contract with the contracting authority? This will be clarified when the contracting authority contracts for either a Training Provider who will also manage the EPA via an independent EPAO or directly with an EPAO as an employer training provider. 2. As per section 3.4.3 of the Customer Needs document, please could CCS clarify what "an induction programme" would entail? We consider this to be the Apprenticeship training provider's role rather than the role of an EPAO. Yes agreed this is Apprenticeship Training Providers role and will be agreed with the Training Provider and Contracting Authority. 3. Section 3.4.4 of the Customer Needs Document lists some requirements that would vary between the standards and the Apprenticeship learner journeys agreed between the training provider and the Customer, e.g. panel members, level of feedback, assessment results KPIs. (EPAOs must remain independent of the learning process and so there is a limit to the detail of feedback they can provide and still ensure the validity and reliability of the EPA) Please can CCS confirm that details for the EPA delivery service will be agreed in the call-off contract between the Customer and the successful EPAO? Yes that is correct. 4. As an EPAO, we have a defined set of procedures, processes and assessment KPIs for each standard we provide EPA for, which are monitored by EQAOs. This is detailed in our EPA Manual that we require Providers and Employers to follow that will ensure smooth, efficient and consistent delivery of EPAs across all standards. Please could CCS advise whether the Customer (Employer and Provider) will accept the conditions of the EPA Manual as part of the individual call-off contracts? CCS suggest that you put a link to the manual within your prospectus/offer as a standard condition of contract. This is for the EPAO and Contracting Authority (Employer and Provider) to agree and not CCS. Please note that in the event that there are any terms and conditions in the manual that conflict with the DPS terms and conditions then the DPS terms and conditions will take precedence. A condition of appointment to the DPS is that providers accept the DPS terms and conditions. 5. Please could CCS confirm that section 3.4.5 of the Customer Needs document relates to Apprenticeship Training Providers only, as this service does not form part of the role of an EPAO. Yes agreed. 6. Please could CCS explain how section 3.5.4 of the Customer Needs document relates to the role of the EPAO? This relates to the Apprenticeship Training Provider and not the EPAO 7. Paragraph 1.2.2.3 of Schedule 2 of the DMP Framework Agreement states "The Supplier shall ensure that the registered EPAO and the assessor is independent of, and separate from, the training provided by the Supplier and Customer in accordance with the ESFA Funding Rules." In some instances, either upon a written agreement with the ESFA or in line with the Assessment Plan for the Standard, EPAOs have been allowed to use employer personnel as trained independent assessors provided full independence from the apprentice and training provider is maintained. Please can CCS confirm that this will still be acceptable in these circumstances? This will only be acceptable providing there is a written agreement with the ESFA or in line with the Assessment Plan for the Standard.
Answered
05/08/2019 14:03
129. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - Appendix 1 - Baseline Security Principles Audit information for tenants - please could you clarify what audit information is expected here, and what it being 'accessible online' actually means in this context, from a practical perspective?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:32
128. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - Appendix 1 - Baseline Security Principles Protective Monitoring - we don't currently monitor the data in our systems for malicious activity, nor do we have 24/7 support to provide alerts from any monitoring that would be implemented. Could you suggest what sort of monitoring is expected here so we could at least identify the likely costs?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:33
127. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - Appendix 1 - Baseline Security Principles Data Security Principles/Implementation Objectives Matrix - 3 - Separation between tenants - it would be extremely difficult for us to segregate data so we would like to know whether this is definitely required - it's referred to as a 'should' not a 'must'. Additionally, it may not be possible for us to inform the Contracting Authority of any other CA that is sharing the platform/service, as it may be commercially sensitive, so some clarity on exactly what is expected would be helpful.
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:34
126. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) Point 11 - Service Decommissioning - this is not how we currently operate as an education provider, as when students end their studies with us we still need to retain their data for proof of results, proof of study etc, so we are currently not set up to meet these requirements in respect of data deletion etc - this also ties in with the section in Appendix 1 on Data Sanitisation. If this is absolutely required we'd be interested to know if there are other education providers who have met this requirement and how they have done so? It would have significant implications for our core business processes and impact on many other areas (e.g. alumni).
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:35
125. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) Point 10 - Vulnerabilities and Corrective Action - 10.3 - we are implementing some new processes around patching with a new patch cycle but it's possible there may be specific situations where we are unable to wholly meet this requirement, how should we manage this?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:36
124. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) Point 9 - Breach of Security - IT Environment - 9.1 - although we use the latest versions of anti-virus, we may not always use the latest firmware as there may be configuration issues, this would need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis - is that acceptable?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:39
123. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) Point 8 - Breach of Security - General Principles - 8.2.2 - providing full details and root cause analysis of a security breach within 2 days may not always be possible, due to closure days for the university, staff availability etc - how flexible is this requirement?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:40
122. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) 4. Point 7 - Security Testing - as we would be responsible for organising external security testing we would like to understand what level and type of testing is required so we can determine indicative costs, please could you elaborate on what is expected and if any vulnerabilities are identified what is the requirement/expectation for implementing a fix?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:41
121. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) Point 5.7 - regarding the Information System and Risk Management Documentation, could you provide examples of the documentation expected, and what sort of updates you would typically expect?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:41
120. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) Point 5 - Information Risk Management Approval of the Information System - Could you provide more detail about the process you would follow to approve? It is not clear to us what format the approval would take, who would need to be involved, and at what level.
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:43
119. 'Dynamic Marketplace Agreement V1 WATERMARKED' document - Section - DMP Schedule 23: Security Management (page 146) Point 3.1 - The Information System - Could you clarify the format of the diagram you are expecting, perhaps with an example of a similar organisation?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:43
118. Section 23: SECURITY AND PROTECTION OF INFORMATION Point 23.7 - Could you please clarify the format expected for a Security Policy/Security Management Plan, providing examples if possible?
Please disregard previous response . CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
05/08/2019 13:59
117. Section 23: SECURITY AND PROTECTION OF INFORMATION Point 23.6 - please could you clarify what is considered to be an 'Approved' location for storage of off-site back-ups? It will not be possible to segregate out the RISIS (Student System) data only to provide just that data in a back-up, and without the application the data would be meaningless - can you clarify the exact format you are expecting a back-up to be in, and how it should be delivered?
CCS are currently reviewing the security requirements at DPS Agreement level and will update you in due course as a priority.
Answered
02/10/2019 10:45
115. Does the apprenticeship provider complete the Financial Assessment Template?
Attachment 3 - Financial Assessment Template is for information only. The financial assessment template will be complete by CCS in the event that a bidder fails to meet the financial threshold set for RM6102 as detailed in the READ First DPS Needs document. The financial assessment template will be used by CCS Commercial Finance team when completing the financial assessment. Bidders are not required to complete a financial assessment template as part of the DMP process.
Answered
15/07/2019 23:29
113. DMP Agreement Schedule 23 - Section 7 appears to be asking for an annual network penetration test although only Cyber Essentials is mentioned in the main document. Could you confirm this is a requirement?
Yes this is a requirement.
Answered
05/08/2019 13:57
112. 4. The "Read First" document indicates in section 3 that we need to complete the generic prospectus and the individual prospectus and pricing matrix for every apprenticeship standard we want to provide training for. However the generic and individual prospectus documents are only available as pdf templates which can't be edited. Please can you advise if we need to submit the prospectuses as part of our application, and if so, where we can find an amendable version of the templates?
CCS can confirm the PDF prospectus templates within the bid pack are for information only, to provide bidders with detail of what information they are expected to provide as part of their RM6102 DMP submission, thus enabling bidders to prepare in advance of accessing the portal. However, the prospectus requirements is built in to the RM6102 portal, which bidders will complete electronically as part of their Selection Questionnaire. Please read the READ First DPS Needs document which forms part of the bid pack for full details on how to apply for the RM6102 DMP.
Answered
12/07/2019 08:51
111. 3. Our reading of Attachment 3, the financial assessment template, is that we only need to provide our organisation's Companies House number, DUNS number and audited accounts and that the rest of the template will be completed by the CCS analysts. Please can you confirm this assumption is correct?
Attachment 3 - Financial Assessment Template is for information only. The financial assessment template will be complete by CCS in the event that a bidder fails to meet the financial threshold set for RM6102 as detailed in the READ First DPS Needs document. The financial assessment template will be used by CCS Commercial Finance team when completing the financial assessment. Bidders are not required to complete a financial assessment template as part of the DMP process.
Answered
18/07/2019 08:35
110. 2. Please can you advise if we should complete Attachment 2, the MI reporting template? We are unclear what is expected at the application stage.
Attachment 2 - MI. Suppliers will be required to complete this template only once they are appointed to the RM6102 DMP. All MI Reports must be completed by the Supplier using the MI Reporting
Template and returned to the Authority on or prior to the Reporting Date
each month in which there is spend to report, during the Dynamic
Marketplace Period and thereafter, until all transactions relating to Contracts
have permanently ceased. Please refer to DMP Schedule 9 (Management Information) of the DMP Agreement which forms part of the RM6102 bid pack.
Answered
18/07/2019 08:36
109. 1. We are bidding to provide apprenticeship training only and don't want to provide separate End Point Assessment services. Are we correct in assuming that we don't need to complete Attachment 1b and the other templates associated with EPA services?
Attachment 1b provides bidders with details of the End Point Assessment (EPA) related service filters that will be presented to bidders as part of the selection questionnaire should they select that they can provide EPA services. If a bidder does not provide EPA services, they must NOT select EPA Services from the following question in the DMP Selection Questionnaire:
Please confirm which of the following services your organisation provides:
Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE-Frameworks) Specification of Apprenticeship Standards
End-Point Assessments (EPA) for specification of Apprenticeship Standards.
Answered
18/07/2019 08:37
