Provision of a Call Handling and Distribution Service

Prior Information Notice

Provision of Call Handling and Distribution System – PR 2022 069

The CPS is seeking to procure a telephone call handling and distribution system that will enable police forces (and other investigative authorities) to call a single number and be put through to a member of CPS Direct staff, who will triage the call. Currently the CPS Direct team receive an average of 6,000 calls per month.

The police force will log their force code as part of the call procedure (currently done by entering an identifier code on their telephony keypad). The Call Handling and Distribution system will be accessed and operated by CPS staff using CPS laptops (currently Windows 10, 64-bit) and Microsoft Teams.

CPS Direct will then assign the call to a CPS Direct Prosecutor (with appropriate skills to deal with a range of sensitive cases) to make a decision as to whether to charge the suspect in custody with an offence (a Charging decision).

The contract for the current call handling and distribution system is coming to an end in 2023, and CPS would like to procure a flexible platform that will enable call waiting lists, call allocations and full status reports for staff, as well as enabling calls to be passed to users via Microsoft Teams (as the telephony system used by the CPS).

Any solution needs to be available and fully supported on a 24/7 basis, and CPS has a limited time window to respond with a Charging decision. It should be noted that data about a case will not be stored in this system, although both the triage staff and prosecutors will need to update the status of a call with a status code from a list provided by CPS administrators. CPS administrators should be able to update basic admin information such as status changes, and register (or remove) users from the system.

All staff using the system should be able to see the status of any users on the system, and whether they are available or not.

Whilst all electronic information around a case that support a charging decision is managed outside of this system, there is a reporting requirement to cover all elements of staff working arrangements (login, logoff, status changes, time at any status etc) as well as volumetrics for calls, and standard telephony reports around abandoned calls and length of time waiting.

The CPS is seeking to engage with the supply market as part of an information-gathering exercise in order to understand what services might be available to meet the requirement for a Call Handling Solution provision. Suppliers who wish to express their interest in this potential opportunity should do so via the contact details contained within the notice and shall subsequently be invited to attend a virtual engagement session in which they may present their observations/proosal to the CPS. Suppliers should attend a session willing to describe their capability both in terms of an operational solution and able to discuss their reporting capability.