SE1193B Investment Technology Implementation Tender Notice

Sport England is a lottery distributor, administering and awarding approximately £300m per annum (£100m exchequer and £200m lottery). The funds are distributed across the sport and physical activity ecosystem, a complex network of over 100,000 organisations of different sizes and types. This network of organisations provides the opportunities that already underpin the activity habits of millions of people and the athletes that progress through talent development pathways.

Having a fit for purpose technology system for investment administration is therefore essential for Sport England to deliver its strategic ambitions and role as a funding distributor.

The technology system underpins a substantive part of Sport Englands operation, and as a result needs to balance key operating tensions including:

Strategy ambitions and stakeholder expectations: The launch and continued support for Uniting the Movement signals both the sector engagement and expectations for delivery of the strategy including ease of access to funding.

Financial operating constraints: Sport England operates within administrative constraints impacted by income. Maximising efficiency and productivity in investment will enable effective delivery within the constraints.

Government functional standards and best practice: Rightly government require standards to be achieved for grant administration including counter-fraud. Sport England has established investment management – any change must not compromise standards.

Continuity of operation and delivery: As Sport England existing commitments and necessary ambitions require delivery scale and cadence to be maintained throughout any change.

Alignment with future target operating model: Finally, any improvement in technology needs to align, and have the ability to, adapt to future operating structures and priorities.

Proof of Concept Delivery: A limited time period Proof of Concept (PoC) has recently been delivered prior to this phase. This has demonstrated the approach and functionality can be successful, and the build created will be extended to form the basis of the next phase of development. The PoC contained some limited functionality for the investment management journey in the system. It is deployed on Azure using Azure App service to manage Docker containers, database is PostgreSQL, API backend is asynchronous Python / Starlette, front end is in React with backend for frontend pattern based on Remix.

This procurement is split into four (4) Lots. Requirements are outlined by Lot below:

3.1 Lot 1 – Managed Service, Technical Assurance & Development

3.2 Lot 2 – Core Developer

3.3 Lot 3 – Specialist Developers

3.4 Lot 4 – Change Management Support