SOFTCAT PLC

Microsoft Office 365 Data Lifecycle Management

Explore data lifecycle management, information governance, and records management tools for retention, deletion, and compliance across your organisation

Features

• Secure sign-in for cloud and on-premises applications.

Benefits

• Protect users, devices, apps, and data with unified management.

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  ODS

• Service definition document

  ODT

• Terms and conditions

  ODT

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at psitq@softcat.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

479798172389517

Contact

Public Sector Tenders
01628 403403
psitq@softcat.com

About your service

• Service categories:

  Systems Infrastructure Software

  Security

  • Endpoint security
  • Security analytics
  • Governance, risk and compliance

  Identity and access management

  • Access
  • Privilege

  Data security

  • Information protection
  • Digital trust
• Multi cloud support: Yes

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes
• What software services is the service an extension to: Office 365 Enterprise E3 Suite/Microsoft 365 E3 Enterprise
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: Azure subscription limits and quotas - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/azure-subscription-service-limits
• System requirements:
  • Service selection dictates system requirements
  • Consult online pages for details.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes
• Support response times: The Initial Response Time varies with both the support plan and the Business Impact of the request (also known as Severity). For a breakdown of initial response times by several level and business impact, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/response/; Weekend support availability varies depending on your Azure support plan. For more information, please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: Yes
• Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Web chat accessibility testing: We test all our services and support functions extensively with our customers and partner before release
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Microsoft provides four (4) Azure support plan options, which includes varius levels of technical account management and cloud support engineering. The support options and cost include the following:; - BASIC (included for all Azure customers); - DEVELOPER ; - STANDARD ; - PROFESSIONAL DIRECT; - UNIFIED SUPPORT; For more information, vist https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/ and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/unifiedsupport/overview
• Support available to third parties: Yes
• AI chatbot: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Microsoft provides all Azure customers with 24/7 self-help resources, including Microsoft Learn, Azure Portal how-to videos, documentation, and community support. For more information, visit:; - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support; - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/; - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/videos/; - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/community/
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: As a customer, you maintain ownership of your data—the content, personal and other data you provide for storing and hosting in Azure services. Microsoft will not store or process customer data outside the geography you specify, except for certain non-regional services. You are also in control of any additional geographies where you decide to deploy your solutions or replicate your data.; Azure has established internal records-retention requirements for back-end data. You are responsible for identifying your own record retention requirements. For records that are stored in Azure, you are responsible for extracting your data and retaining your content outside of Azure for a customer-specified retention period.; Azure allows you to export data and audit reports from the product. The exports are saved locally to retain the information for a customer-defined retention time period.; For more information on protection of customer data, visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/protection-customer-data
• End-of-contract process: Microsoft is governed by strict standards and follows specific processes for removing cloud customer data from systems under our control, overwriting storage resources before reuse, and purging or destroying decommissioned hardware. In our Online Service Terms, Microsoft contractually commits to specific processes when a customer leaves a cloud service or the subscription expires. This includes deleting customer data from systems under our control.; ; Please see Data Protection Addendum for full and up to date details about how Microsoft manages your data. https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Microsoft-Products-and-Services-Data-Protection-Addendum-DPA?lang=1
• Documentation accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Other
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: Desktop; Supports complete management of Azure services:; VM creation & configuration; Networking; Policies & RBAC; App Service deployment; Monitoring & Cost Management; ; Offers advanced tooling: Advisor, resource graphs, security center, templates (ARM/Bicep), and deep diagnostic views.; ; Mobile; Supports core operational tasks only, such as:; Start/stop/restart VMs, apps, and SQL; View alerts, performance, and service health; Receive push notifications for outages or threshold breaches; Access Azure Cloud Shell on the go; ; Does not support complex configuration (e.g., network design, policy creation, or ARM template deployment).
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Description of service interface: The Azure Portal is Microsoft’s central, web‑based interface for managing Azure resources—virtual machines, storage, networking, identity, governance, AI services, and more. It provides a unified UI for administration, monitoring, automation, cost management, and deployment across Azure environments.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Accessibility testing: The Azure Portal is tested through multiple layers: CI/CD gates (linting, unit tests, accessibility checks), integration/E2E tests using Playwright/Selenium, and security reviews (SDL, SAST/DAST, penetration tests). Features roll out via flighted rings with feature flags for safe deployment. Performance, accessibility, and localization are validated continuously. Post-release, telemetry, anomaly detection, and Live Site reviews ensure reliability. Fault injection and RBAC edge-case tests verify resilience. Observability tools monitor health, enabling rapid rollback if issues arise. Overall, testing combines automation, staged rollout, and real-time monitoring to maintain security, usability, and performance across global Azure environments.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Azure users can set up services and make changes via Microsoft’s API using Azure API Management. To set up a service, users can sign in to the Azure portal, navigate to your API Management instance, and create a resource from the Azure portal menu. Detailed instructions for setting up services are available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/get-started-create-service-instance; From the API Management section of the Azure Portal, users can make changes using by selecting "Add API" and following the steps listed at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/add-api-manually; There are some limitations when using Azure API Management. For instance, the maximum number of subscription (API Keys) per service instance is 500. Additional API import restrictions are available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/api-management-api-import-restrictions
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
  • Other
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Azure services like VMs, VNets, Storage, App Services, and Azure AD can be customized for performance, security, and compliance. Users customize via the Azure Portal, CLI, PowerShell, ARM/Bicep templates, APIs, or Azure Policy. Customization includes settings like size, scaling, networking, access policies, and monitoring. Who can customize? It depends on RBAC roles: Owners (full control), Contributors (resource changes), Readers (view only), and custom roles. Global admins manage identity, while resource group owners handle scoped resources. Automation is possible through service principals and managed identities. This flexibility ensures tailored solutions for business and governance needs.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Prometheus metrics are collected from Kubernetes clusters including Azure Kubernetes service (AKS) and use industry standard tools for analyzing and alerting such as PromQL and Grafana.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Azure provides a broad set of service metrics to help monitor performance, availability, usage, and reliability of resources. Core metrics include CPU utilization, memory usage, disk throughput, network ingress and egress, latency, and error rates for compute, storage, and networking services. Azure also exposes availability metrics such as uptime and health signals, alongside scaling, capacity, and quota usage. Platform metrics support insights into request rates, response times, and throttling events. Combined with logs and traces in Azure Monitor, these metrics enable operational visibility, capacity planning, cost optimization, and service reliability management across cloud workloads.
• Reporting types:
  • API access
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
• Resource tagging: Yes
• FOCUS resource tagging: Yes

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Microsoft

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/trusted-cloud/privacy/
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation / Secure Erase

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: As a customer, you maintain ownership of your data—the content, personal and other data you provide for storing and hosting in Azure services. Microsoft will not store or process customer data outside the geography you specify, except for certain non-regional services. You are also in control of any additional geographies where you decide to deploy your solutions or replicate your data.; For more information on protection of customer data, visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/protection-customer-data
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • XML
  • Parquet
  • GZIP
  • BZIP2
  • FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost & Usage Specification)
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • CSV, TSV
  • JSON
  • Parquet
  • XML
  • Avro
  • ORC
  • GZIP, BZIP2

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection between networks: Microsoft employs robust encryption measures to safeguard customer data during transit. Here are the key aspects of data protection:; https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/explore/trusted-cloud/privacy/
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Microsoft secures data in transit internally within the Azure network and externally across the Internet to the end user. These include communication through Virtual Private Networks (utilizing IPsec/IKE encryption), Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or later (via Azure components such as Application Gateway or Azure Front Door), protocols directly on the Azure virtual machines (such as Windows IPsec or SMB), and more.; Additionally, ""encryption by default"" using MACsec (an IEEE standard at the data-link layer) is enabled for all Azure traffic traveling between Azure datacenters to ensure confidentiality and integrity of customer data.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Microsoft provides detailed service level agreement (SLA) metrics for all Azure components and services. To review SLAs for individual Azure services, visit https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/view/Service-Level-Agreements-SLA-for-Online-Services
• Approach to resilience: Many Azure regions provide availability zones, which are separated groups of datacenters within a region. Availability zones are close enough to have low-latency connections to other availability zones. They're connected by a high-performance network with a round-trip latency of less than 2ms. However, availability zones are far enough apart to reduce the likelihood that more than one will be affected by local outages or weather. Availability zones have independent power, cooling, and networking infrastructure. They're designed so that if one zone experiences an outage, then regional services, capacity, and high availability are supported by the remaining zones. They help your data stay synchronized and accessible when things go wrong. Datacenter locations are selected by using rigorous vulnerability risk assessment criteria.; ; Furthermore, you have the ability to build high availability into application architecture by co-locating your computer, storage, networking, and data resources within a zone and replicating in other zones. Azure services that support availability zones fall into two categories:; - Zonal services: you pin the resource to a specific zone (e.g.,, virtual machines, managed disks, standard IP addresses), or; - Zone-redundant services: platform replicates automatically across zones (e.g., zone-redundant storage, SQL database)
• Outage reporting: Azure Service Health provides you with a customizable dashboard that tracks the health of your Azure services. In this dashboard, you can track active events like ongoing service issues, upcoming planned maintenance, or relevant health advisories. When events become inactive, they get placed in your health history for up to 90 days. Finally, you can use the Service Health dashboard to create and manage service health alerts that proactively notify you when service issues affect you. Service Health tracks four types of health events that may impact your resources:; - Service issues: Problems in the Azure services that affect you right now.; - Planned maintenance: Upcoming maintenance that can affect the availability of your services in the future.; - Health advisories: Changes in Azure services that require your attention. Examples include deprecation of Azure features or upgrade requirements (e.g., upgrade to a supported PHP framework).; - Security advisories: Security-related notifications or violations that may affect the availability of your Azure services.; ; Azure Resource Health: diagnose / get support for service problems that affect your Azure resources. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-health/resource-health-overview; ; Microsoft also offers public dashboards that provide service status across all Azure regions. ; - https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status; ; https://ms.portal.azure.com/#view/Microsoft_Azure_Health/AzureHealthBrowseBlade/~/serviceIssues

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Customer data is encrypted at rest by default when stored in Azure, and customers can control their own encryption keys in Azure Key Vault. Microsoft engineers rely heavily on logs to provide customer support. Azure has controls in place to restrict access to customer data for support and troubleshooting scenarios should that access be necessary. As part of the support workflow, Microsoft Purview Customer Lockbox puts customers in charge of approving or denying access to customer data by Microsoft engineers. Data encryption, JIT, Microsoft Purview Customer Lockbox provide appropriate risk mitigation to safeguard the confidentiality and integrity of customer data.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: User-defined
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • CSA CSM version 4.0
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-a-data-governance/?ef_id=_k_8f5206262c361a453937603366aa0819_k_&OCID=AIDcmm6oh50i8d_SEM__k_8f5206262c361a453937603366aa0819_k_&msclkid=8f5206262c361a453937603366aa0819
• Information security policies and processes: An Information Security Policy exists to provide Microsoft staff and contractor staff with a current set of clear and concise Information Security Policies including their roles and responsibilities related to information assets and security. These policies provide direction for the appropriate protection of Microsoft 365. The Information Security Policy has been created as a component of an overall Information Security Management System (ISMS) for Microsoft 365.; The Information Security Policy is made available to new and existing Microsoft 365 employees for review as part of an information security education and awareness program. ; A version of the Information Security Policy is available for download from the Service Trust Portal (STP) at https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/; ; Azure uses the Microsoft Security Policy (MSP) to govern its information systems, which include the following components:; - Infrastructure: ; - Software: ; - People: ; - Procedures: ; - Data: ; ; Microsoft's risk management aligns to the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. ERM enables the overall enterprise risk management process and works with management across the enterprise to identify and ensure accountability for Microsoft's most significant risks. ; ; Each online service follows ERM guidance to manage risks across Microsoft services. ; ; For more information, visit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/assurance/assurance-governance
• Software Security Code of Practice: No

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: Azure addresses change management practices through Microsoft's configuration management policy, which is part of the Microsoft Security Policy (MSP) and the Microsoft Security Program Policy (MSPP). Azure implements the configuration management policy and associated controls through a series of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), including the Microsoft Change Management Standard, the Azure Software Change and Release Management SOP, Azure Hardware Change and Release Management SOP. The Azure SOPs cover the change management process around information system design, development, and implementation of changes and align with Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) process.; For additional details, https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/viewpage/FedRAMP
• Vulnerability management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Azure uses integrated deployment systems to manage the distribution and installation of security updates for Microsoft software. Azure is also able to draw on the resources of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). The MSRC identifies, monitors, responds to, and resolves security incidents and cloud vulnerabilities around-the-clock, every day of the year.; Vulnerability scanning is performed on server operating systems, databases, and network devices. The vulnerability scans are performed on a quarterly basis at a minimum. Azure contracts with independent assessors to perform penetration testing of the Azure boundary. Red-team exercises are also routinely performed.
• Protective monitoring type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Azure security has defined requirements for active monitoring. Service teams configure active monitoring tools to provide time alerts to Azure security personnel in situations that require immediate action.; Azure continuously monitors and detects risk in your organization, even when devices aren’t connected to the corporate network. ; Microsoft conducts thorough investigations examining the risky users and Azure Monitor activity logs to confirm the compromise and contain the exposure immediately, taking the required steps to identify and evict the threat actor quickly. ; The Initial Response Time varies with both the support plan and the Business Impact of the request. Please visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/plans/response/
• Incident management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v4.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: If Microsoft notices unauthorized access to customer data that's stored on its equipment or in its facilities, or it notices unauthorized access to such equipment or facilities resulting in loss, disclosure, or alteration of customer data, Microsoft takes the following actions:; - Promptly notifies the customer ; - Promptly investigates the security incident and provides customers detailed information about the security incident.; - Takes prompt steps to mitigates and minimize any damage resulting from the security incident.; The Azure security incident management team is responsible for managing security incidents and ensuring the involvement of specialist teams when necessary.
• Post-quantum cryptography secure: No

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v4.0)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: Yes
• Connected networks:
  • Public Services Network (PSN)
  • Joint Academic Network (JANET)
  • Health and Social Care Network (HSCN)

Pricing

• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Depending upon the service there are range of trial offerings available. There is also a free trial of Azure
• Link to free trial: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/free/search/?ef_id=_k_d00f79182b1a1d5b7a5a1f0d4a8f4aaf_k_&OCID=AIDcmm3bvqzxp1_SEM__k_d00f79182b1a1d5b7a5a1f0d4a8f4aaf_k_&msclkid=d00f79182b1a1d5b7a5a1f0d4a8f4aaf

Discount percentage by annual call-off contract value (excluding VAT)

• Less than £250,000: 0%
• Between £250,000 and £500,000: 0%
• Between £500,001 and £1,000,000: 0%
• Between £1,000,001 and £2,500,000: 0%
• Between £2,500,001 and £5,000,000: 0%
• Over £5,000,001: 0%

Non-mandatory Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: NQA
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: Monday 8 April 2024
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• ISO 28000:2022 certification: No
• ISO 9001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO 9001 certification: NQA
• ISO 9001 accreditation date: Monday 8 April 2024
• What the ISO 9001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: SecurityMetrics
• PCI DSS accreditation date: Friday 10 January 2025
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: N/A
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Certificate Number: E9fd5f85-7cd1-4ff2-aba9-6f9f5f225b1b
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Plus Certificate Number: 181966c9-f0aa-42ed-9271-d1b111bdf43b
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications: Security Standards dependant on the vendor solution

Social value

• Section B - Commitment for Future: Delivery:

  • Mission: Kick start economic growth. To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

    Policy Outcome 1: Fair work: That offers fair wages and good working conditions. Help people get a job, stay in work, and progress in their careers, with good employment opportunities across the country. Notes: Where there is a large proportion of labour costs in the contract, commercial teams should consider MAC in Outcome 1 as a priority

    • New apprenticeships on the contract workforce in the relevant area that meet the criteria set out in MAC 1b
    • Providing opportunities for, and measuring and monitoring of, staff workforce conditions over time, including employee engagement, involvement in decision-making and satisfaction and adapting to any changes in the results, with clear processes for acting on issues identified
    • Plans to engage the contract workforce in deciding the most important workplace issues to address
    • Ensuring new workers are informed of their right to join a trade union
    • Monitoring of employee engagement rates (by protected characteristic) and, where necessary, the development of actions to ensure all voices are heard across the diversity of the workforce
    • Employment contracts that reflect actual hours worked; steps taken to ensure employees understand their contracts and have the ability to review and adjust them if actual hours regularly exceed contracted hours
    • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about, and feel empowered to, address their physical wellbeing
    • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about and feel empowered to report and address bullying and harassment
    • Offer a pay and leave entitlement to all eligible staff who become kinship carers, ideally equivalent to statutory adoption pay and leave
    • Payment of more than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (as appropriate) to the contract workforce
    • Monitoring and reporting of gender and ethnicity pay gaps and plans to address them where necessary
    • Entitlement to sick pay for the contract workforce, with provision in place for any staff who do not meet the earnings threshold for statutory sick pay, payment of sick pay from day one of absence and payment of staff on the contract workforce who are off sick a replacement income of 100% of their usual earnings for as long as possible
    • Plans for an appropriate income replacement policy for staff who are required to spend time away from work to care for a sick dependent or close relative
    • Understanding of in-work progression issues affecting the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors
    • Measures to support in-work progression to help people in the contract workforce, to move into higher paid work by developing new skills relevant to the contract
    • Support for the contract workforce by providing career advice, and providing opportunities for staff working on the contract with in-work progression career development into known skills shortages or high growth areas
    • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications
    • Volunteering opportunities for staff
    • Understanding of the modern slavery risks and issues affecting the market, industry, sector or country (of origin or of source) relevant to the contract, and the workforce in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key subcontractors
    • Outline policies and practices to be applied to or put in place for the contract to mitigate and manage modern slavery risks, including: Pre-employment checks, recruitment practices. Workplace conditions, safeguarding plans and processes in place and regular monitoring with relevant groups considered, which may include sampling
    • Means of influencing staff, suppliers, customers, communities and/or any other appropriate stakeholders with respect to modern slavery risks relating to the contract

  • Mission: Kick start economic growth. To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

    Policy Outcome 2: Skills for growth: Supporting growth sectors and addressing skills gaps.

    • Understanding of employment and relevant skills issues, and of the education and training issues relating to the contract. Illustrative examples: demographics, skills shortages, new opportunities in high growth sectors, geographic/local community and skills/employment challenges
    • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications
    • Activities to support relevant sector related skills growth and sustainability in the contract workforce. Illustrative examples: careers talks, curriculum support, literacy support, safety talks and volunteering
    • Delivery of apprenticeships, supported internships and T Level industry placement opportunities (Level 2, 3 and 4+) in relation to the contract

  • Mission: Kick start economic growth. To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

    Policy Outcome 3: Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains: Support economic growth through enabling resilient businesses, opportunities for small businesses and voluntary, community and social enterprises

    • Understanding of the types of businesses in the market and the level of participation by new businesses, entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs, VCSEs and mutuals
    • Activities to identify opportunities to open up sub-contracts under the prime contract to a diverse range of businesses, including new businesses, entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs, VCSEs and mutuals
    • Plans for engaging a diverse range of businesses in engagement activities prior to appointing subcontractors (including activities prior to award of the main contract and during the contract term)
    • Ensuring accessibility to contracting and subcontracting opportunities for disabled business owners and employees
    • Support for community-led initiatives relevant to the contract. Illustrative examples: improving transport links; reducing loneliness; helping with English language proficiency; and facilitating social mixing among people with different backgrounds

  • Mission: Make Britain a clean energy superpower: To cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero

    Policy Outcome 4: Sustainable procurement practices: Reducing carbon footprints, minimising waste, and promoting the use of clean energy and green technologies.

    • Understanding of opportunities for additional environmental benefits delivery in the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Collaborative ways of working with the supply chain to deliver additional environmental benefits in the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Delivery of additional environmental benefits through the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
    • Understanding of how to influence staff, suppliers, customers, communities and/or any other appropriate stakeholders through the delivery of the contract to support climate and nature protection and improvement
    • Activities to reconnect people with the environment and increase awareness of ways to protect and enhance it

  • Mission: Break down barriers to opportunity: By reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain

    Policy Outcome 6: Employment and training: For those who face barriers to employment

    • Understanding of employment and skills issues, and of the skills and employment shortages of high growth sectors relating to the contract
    • Creation of employment opportunities particularly for those who face barriers to employment, such as prison leavers, care leavers and/or who are located in deprived areas, and for people in industries with known skills shortages or in high growth sectors
    • Delivery of training schemes and programmes to address any identified skills gaps and under-representation in the workforce for the contract (e.g. prison leavers, care leavers, kinship carers, disabled people)
    • Understanding of the issues affecting the representation of disabled people in the workforce in the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors
    • Collection of the views and expertise of disabled people and their representative organisations on successfully supporting disabled employees or applicants
    • Inclusive and accessible recruitment practices, and retention-focused activities, including those provided in the Guide for line managers on recruiting, managing and developing people with a disability or health condition
    • Introducing transparency to pay and reward processes
    • Offering a range of quality opportunities with routes of progression if appropriate, e.g. T Level industry placements, students supported into higher level apprenticeships.
    • Working conditions which promote an inclusive working environment and promote retention and progression
    • Other measures to provide equality of opportunity for disabled people and those with health conditions into employment, including becoming a Disability Confident employer and inclusion of supported businesses in the contract supply chain
    • Understanding of the issues affecting inequality in employment, skills and pay in the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors. Measures to tackle inequality in employment, skills and pay in the contract workforce
    • Inclusive and accessible development practices, including guidance for line managers on recruiting, managing and developing people with a disability or health condition

  • Mission: Break down barriers to opportunity: By reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain

    Policy Outcome 7: Creating a pipeline of opportunities: For the contract workforce, reducing barriers to entry for under-represented groups.

    • Understanding of the issues affecting the development of new skills by target cohort
    • Understanding of the underlying factors affecting improvements to reduce barriers to entry and training schemes for the target cohort(s) related to the contract workforce
    • Other measures to offer development opportunities for the target cohort(s) in the contract workforce
    • Understanding of issues relating to entering the contract workforce
    • Creation of outreach activities to create a pipeline of employees for the future contract delivery
    • Content of the outreach activity is designed to suit the target cohort

  • Mission: Build an NHS fit for the future: That is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.

    Policy Outcome 8: Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing: In the supply chain and communities in the relevant area.

    • Understanding of issues relating to health and wellbeing, including physical and mental health, in the contract workforce
    • Understanding barriers to access to health and social care services or employment opportunities e.g. digital inclusion
    • Inclusive and accessible recruitment practices, development practices and retention policies that support-focused activities including those provided in the Guide for line managers on recruiting, managing and developing which support people with a disability or health condition
    • Actions to invest in the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the contract workforce

Service documents

• Pricing document

  ODS

• Service definition document

  ODT

• Terms and conditions

  ODT

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at psitq@softcat.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.