Expression of Interest - National School Opinion Survey Delivery Platform (Nsosdp) Project

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST - National School Opinion Survey Delivery Platform (NSOSDP) project (january 2012)

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) seeks expressions of interest (EOI)from suitably qualified and experienced organisations and/or consortia (Respondents) for the National School Opinion Survey Delivery Platform (NSOSDP) project.

Specifically, ACARA seeks indicative costingsand responses to the attached National School Opinion Survey Delivery Platform (NSOSDP)indicative Requirement Specification.

ACARA may or may not proceed to a Request for Tender for the NSOSDP project. Subject to Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood approval for this project to proceed, ACARA willuse this expression of interest process to short-list Respondents for a Request for Tender process in March/April 2012.

Agency: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)
Closing Date:17:00(EST)14February 2012
Contact Officer:
John Skehan
Email:
Phone: 02 8098 3133
Lodgement of Response to EOI:

INTRODUCTION

ACARAis responsible for the development of rigorous, world class Australian curriculum from Foundation to Year 12 starting with the learning areas of English, mathematics, science and history, and followed by work in the areas of languages, geography and the arts and other learning areas identified in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008). (Further information about ACARA is available at ).

To complement the development of an Australian curriculum, ACARA is also responsible for developing and administering a national assessment program aligned to the national curriculum that measures students’ progress, and the provision of information, resources, support and guidance to the teaching profession.

ACARA developed and maintains the My School website, which provides a profile page for almost 10,000 Australian schools and is populated from a data repository created by ACARA which holds national schools data aimed at supporting school level performance reporting.

ACARA reports to, and is directed by, the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC).

BACKGROUND

School satisfaction surveys were included among the performance indicators that ministers have agreed to as part of the data to be collected for national school level reporting. Accordingly, ministers agreed in principle to the development of a common national parent/student/staff satisfaction survey that can be administered at the school level.

ACARA has been requested to investigate the feasibility of a national opinion survey of parents, staff and students to enable nationally comparable satisfaction information to be published on the My School website in future.

A preliminary expression of interest process was undertaken in August 2011 which assisted ACARA to further clarify its approach to the school opinion survey and to inform the development of more detailed specifications. An initial trial of a parent and student survey was undertaken in October/November 2011 and informed the development of a draft set of survey questions for parents and students (see Attachment B for example trial survey form).

ACARA will be reporting to SCSEEC in February/March 2012 on options, implications and estimated costing for the delivery of a national school opinion survey.

Feedback on potential costs emerging from the EOI process will inform ACARA’s advice to SCSEEC. Subsequent national implementation of a school opinion survey will be subject to ministerial approval. If approved by ministers, it is anticipated that the surveys for students and parents will be trialled in May 2012 and the inaugural survey conducted in August 2012. A trial of the staff survey would also be undertaken in August 2012.

PURPOSE OF THE National School Opinion Survey Delivery Platform (NSOSDP) project

ACARA is seeking expressions of interest for the development of a national school opinion survey delivery platform. The main aim of the platform is to provide a tool for capturing national school survey data so it can be reported on the My School website. The platform must be able to harmonise with existing survey software that is currently being used in jurisdictions, sectors and schools. Jurisdictions, sectors and schools may either use this platform or use their own platform to deliver the survey, as long as the data for reporting on the My School website is provided in the required format.

THE AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL LANDSCAPE

There are approximately 10,000 schools Australia-wide that educate over 3.5 million students.

While some schools provide education from Foundation (the first year of schooling) through to Year 12, schools are generally classified as either primary schools orsecondary/high schools.Depending on the state or territory, primary school may include year 7 and in others, secondary may commence at year 7.Schools are classified as being in the Government, Independentor Catholic sectors.

THE NSOSDP

The National School Opinion Survey Delivery Platform will be web-based, with capacity to aggregate data collected from paper-based surveys. An internet connection is necessary to access the platform.

The population being surveyed consists of:

• students from year 5 upwards, in all school jurisdictions, systems and sectors;

• parents of students from all year groups; and

• all school staff.

A modular approach is being proposed for the national survey. See Attachment A: Indicative Requirement Specification.

EOI NOTIFICATION

Prospective Respondents should advise the Contact Officer that they will be submitting an EOI.

Any queries or clarifications should be provided to the Contact Officer. Any supplementary information will be provided by ACARA to prospective Respondents who have notified the Contact Officer of their interest in submitting an EOI. Supplementary information will also be loaded onto ACARA’s tender webpage: . Potential Respondents are advised to regularly check this webpage for further information.

EOI RESPONSE

EOIs mustbe submitted in the format set out in the Response Templateand emailed to 17:00 (EST) 14 February and must include:

• the full name (and trading or business name if applicable) and place of business of the entity responding to the EOI
• the name of any intended subcontractor(s)
• the name of a nominated contact person and his/her contact details (postal address, phone number and email address)
• indicative costs for the four key aspects of the indicative technical specification and total indicative cost
• brief description of the Respondent’s management capability
• brief description of the Respondent’s relevant experience
• financial viability of the Respondent
• preliminary statement on how the Respondent would provide Services in response to the Indicative Software Requirement Specification (no more than 5 pages).

Evaluation, clarification, short-listing and negotiations

ACARA will undertake an evaluation of EOIs against the following criteria.

Item / Evaluation Criteria
1 / Previous experience and past performance
2 / Management capability
3 / Financial viability
4 / Indicative price
5 / Preliminary statement on provision of Services

ACARA may:

a)use any relevant information obtained in relation to a response to this EOI (provided in the EOI itself, otherwise through this EOI process or by independent inquiry) in the evaluation of EOIs and short-listing of Respondents;

b)seek clarification or additional information from any Respondent for the purposes of evaluation;

c)seek further information from short-listed Respondents

d)short-list preferred Respondents for a Request for Tender process to be undertaken in March/April 2012 (subject to ministerial approval of the project).

Other matters

Public Statements

Except with the prior written approval of ACARA, Respondents must not make a statement, issue any document or material or provide any other information for publication in any media, concerning the EOI process, commencement of negotiations, creation of a shortlist, or notification that a Respondent is short-listed.

Additional Rights of ACARA

ACARA may do any or all of the following at any time:

1. seek amended EOIs or call for new EOIs;
2. forward any clarification about this EOI to all known Respondents on a non-attributable basis and without disclosing any confidential information of a Respondent;
3. allow or not allow another legal entity to take over an EOI in substitution for the original Respondent, including where an event occurs that has the effect of substantially altering the composition or control of the Respondent or the business of the Respondent; and
4. negotiate with one or more persons who have not submitted expressions of interest or enter into a contract or other binding relationship for similar services to the Services outside the EOI process.

Disclosure to Respondents of any information concerning this EOI process is at the complete discretion of ACARA unless expressly provided otherwise in this EOI.

Debriefing

e)Respondents that are not short-listed may request an oral EOI debriefing following the award of a contract or a decision by ACARA not to proceed with a Request for Tender process. Respondents requiring a debriefing should contact the Contact Officer.

f)Respondents will be debriefed against the evaluation criteria set out in this document. A Respondent will not be provided with information concerning other Respondents, except for publicly available information. No comparisons with other EOIs will be made.

RESPONSE TEMPLATE

1. Identification information
2. Respondents should provide full responses in completing the following information to enable ACARA to clearly identify the entity responding to the EOI.

Full name of Respondent (or Respondents):
Trading or business name(s):
Respondent’s Contact who is authorised to represent the Respondent (including name, address and other contact details):
If a company
The registered office:
The principal place of business:
Subcontractors
Please include an explanation of any part of the Services which the Respondent intends to subcontract to another entity, including the entity to which it intends to subcontract and the services the subcontractor would perform.

1. Pricing

2.1The Respondent should provide indicative costings against each of the sevencomponents. Costings should be inclusive of all costs anticipated to deliver the project.

Deliverables / Price (excluding GST)
Software development
1 / Survey Creation/Update
2 / Survey Participant ID Generation
3 / Reporting
4 / Importing
Survey deliverycosts associated with May 2012 parent and student trial and August 2012 parent and student survey and school staff pilot survey
5 / Administrative support for schools/jurisdictions
Other
6 / Hosting (to 31 December 2012)
7 / Project management (to 31 December 2012)
Totalfor deliverables 1 to 7
(Add rows for any costs not accounted for above)
Total

1. Respondent’s management capability

3.1Respondents should provide a brief overview about their management capability.

Management Capabilities:

4.Respondent’s Experience

4.1Respondents should provide a broad overview of similar projects (if any) that your organisation has successfully completed. Please limit details to a maximum of three cases with no more than 600 words per category.

Case Study / Details of previous successful projects of a similar nature
1 / Project details:
2 / Project details:
3 / Project details:

5.Financial Viability

5.1Respondents should provide the balance sheets for their organisation for at least the past 3 years.

6.Overview of Services

6.1 Respondentsshould provide a preliminary statement on how their organisation would provide Services in response to the Indicative Software Requirement Specification (no more than 5 pages).

Description of services