Implementing and Testing a Single Unique Identifier for Children within school MIS – Alpha

The Department for Education intends to undertake a competitive procurement to appoint up to two school Management Information System suppliers to participate in the Alpha phase of the Single Unique Identifier programme.

The Alpha will test the integration of participating suppliers’ Management Information System platforms with the Department for Education-hosted Get an Identifier service. This will enable authorised access to retrieve NHS numbers and GP details obtained through NHS England’s Personal Demographics Service.

Each supplier will be expected to support the recruitment and participation of existing school customers, with up to 10 schools participating across the Alpha. Suppliers will work with selected schools to plan, develop, implement, onboard, test and support the required capability within live school Management Information System environments.

The required services are expected to include:

• designing and developing the required system integration;
• completing relevant NHS England onboarding, security and assurance activities;
• supporting participating schools through onboarding and testing;
• resolving defects and supporting operation during the Alpha;
• collecting technical, operational and user evidence;
• reporting on implementation effort, costs, timescales, data quality, match rates, error rates and technical barriers; and
• producing indicative roadmaps, costs, assumptions and implementation considerations for any potential future national rollout.

The Alpha is intended to generate evidence on technical feasibility, implementation complexity, supplier readiness, operational impact, user value, costs and scalability. The findings will inform future decisions concerning any subsequent Beta phase or wider national implementation.

The Department expects to appoint up to two suppliers, with funding of up to £150,000 excluding VAT available per supplier.

This pipeline notice provides advance information only. It does not commence a procurement process and does not constitute a commitment by the Department for Education to award a contract. The scope, dates, value and procurement approach may be amended before publication of a tender notice.