SHAW TRUST LIMITED(THE)

AskSara

Self-Assessment tool to support Independent Living.

Features

• Online self assessments.
• Remote access.

Benefits

• Multiple users.
• Professional support.

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

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 lme-enquiries@shaw-trust.org.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

643111103207848

Contact

David Asquith / Sarai Kliskey
03001233084 option 2
lme-enquiries@shaw-trust.org.uk

About your service

• Service categories:

  Applications

  Production and operations

  Service industry and public sector operations

  • Adult Social Care
• Multi cloud support: No

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes
• What software services is the service an extension to: Database of Assistive technology.
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: No.
• System requirements: N/A

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes
• Support response times: 2 working days
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Support Levels: We will provide training for users and the creation of a Workbook. We then tailor this to support the client’s needs (development and testing) e.g. imagery, logos. ; ; Cost: The standard price for this is £8,750. We charge for any on-site training with service users and employees, this costs £365 per day. We charge for additional promotional products, this depends on the product but on average this costs £200.; ; Support provided: Our content creator alongside the Partnership Manager will provide technical support with no additional charges.
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Helping service users: We will help users to get started by providing them with a demonstration of the product which will then be followed up by online and on-site training. ; ; We provide: On-site training with service users and employees will incur an additional cost of £365 per day. Where requested, we can build a demonstration licence to show what the service will look like for a service user at the beginning of the journey, this will be at no additional cost.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Mythic Software (host provider) will create data reports at the end of the contract. Our content creator will close the licence with immediate effect and a final monthly report is then sent to the user/customer once completed.
• End-of-contract process: End of the contract: Customers are invited to renew their licences at certain points during their licences. When the licence ends, a final report will be provided to the customer and the service link is turned off. The final report provides information on:; ; • Volume of visits to the site. ; • Volume of products viewed.; • Geographical coverage.; • Type of visits.; ; Included in the price: Within the price of the contract we include development and testing of the service including customisation. Additional costs: on-site training at a rate of £365 per day.
• Documentation accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 AA

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Description of service interface: The service interface is built into the licence website and can be accessed from there.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.2 AA
• Accessibility testing: We are Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) accredited. The Internal Accessibility Team from the WCAG carried out an Accessibility Services Audit in 2023, and this was renewed in 2024. We were audited by the Government Digital service in December 2025 for WCAG 2.2 AA. This audit was passed. Official certification via Shaw Trust accessibility services will be taking place in March 2026.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: Setting up the service: Our users can add products via the Application Programming Interface (API). ; ; Making changes: Once the service is set up, users will have direct access to the Vendor Portal and will be able to make changes there.; ; Limitations: If users want to add products via the API they can do this via our hosts Mythic, but it would incur an additional cost.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: HTML
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: We use Microsoft Azure App Services which allow for auto-scaling both vertically and horizontally.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Our monthly report consists of the following service metrics:; ; • Volume of visits to the site.; • Volume of products viewed.; • Geographical coverage.; • Type of Visits.; • Types of products viewed.; • Financial profile.; • Profile of user - general public.; • Profile of user - professional.
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request
• Resource tagging: Yes
• FOCUS resource tagging: Yes

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 4.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: We use Azure SQL Server to store data (all within the UK).; Support for server encryption at rest is currently provided through the SQL feature called Transparent Data Encryption.
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed / Cryptographic Erasure

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: We provide monthly reports to users so that they can export their data. Mythic (are external to our systems and hold all of our data which we commission them to store) create a report which we extract and send to each licence holder. This is part of the user’s licence conditions from the start of licence.
• Data export formats: CSV
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: Other
• Other protection between networks: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates with SHA256 encryption. Minimum Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 via the following Ciphers:; ; TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384; TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256; TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256; TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384; TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256; TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384; TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256; TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA; TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA; TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384; TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256; TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256; TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256; TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA; TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
• Data protection within supplier network: Other
• Other protection within supplier network: We protect data within our network through:; ; • Limited access to key personnel only.; • Key vault.; • Firewalls.; • Regular backups - 35 period of point in time backups for Structured Query Language (SQL) Server and tiered backups, daily weekly and monthly for the period of 3 months.; • Password management tools.; • Multifactor authentication; • Keep software up to date, updating to the latest versions of frameworks and other technology when they become available.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Level of availability guaranteed: We use Microsoft Azure to host the services, which guarantees an SLA with regards to service up time of 99.95%.; ; SLAs: Our SLAs with regards to problems with the system are:; ; • Showstopper (SLA: 1 hour); The whole system has an issue that renders the application completely non-functional, stopping the system from conducting any of its functionality.; ; • Critical (SLA: 2 hours); The whole system or a part of the system that is deemed critical to the daily usage, will not function and there are either no work around, or a work around that is not conducive to daily use. ; ; • Medium (SLA: 24 hours); A part of the system that doesn’t work as intended, there may be a work around, but the rest of the system is still operational with only some impact on its use.; ; • Other (SLA: 48 hours); Reserved for issues that do not affect functionality/usability such as UI rendering or an image displaying incorrectly.; ; Support hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00 – 17:00. Excluding Bank Holidays.; ; We do not provide refunds as the licence is for a fixed agreed period.
• Approach to resilience: This information is available upon request.
• Outage reporting: Public dashboard and API: Not applicable for reporting outages.; ; Reporting outages: We will report any service outages via email alerts. An automated status report is performed every 10 minutes and sends an email alert. The partnership managers then alert all licence holders and update immediately with any changes. The back up system means we have a fall over in case of this and so we have minimal distribution.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: No
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Where breach of licence conditions occur, we can restrict access in management interfaces and support channels by turning access off at source, this can be done via the content team or via Mythic Software.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication: Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Information security policies/processes: Shaw Trust has a Group Information Security Policy ensuring that:; ; • All assets (equipment/information/information systems) for which they are responsible are used/maintained in a secure manner.; • Users do not knowingly perform any action that could interfere with the confidentiality/integrity/availability of Shaw Trust or other parties’ information or that could impair the normal operation of Shaw Trust.; • Users do not use information processing facilities for inappropriate purposes.; • Users regard all service user/other individuals’ personal information as being Confidential; it must be processed in accordance with the Trust’s Group Data Protection policy and procedures.; ; Reporting structure and ensuring policies are followed: All Information Security policies/procedures and reporting is the responsibility of our in-house InfoSec Team. They ensure that our policy is followed by ensuring:; ; • All staff undertake appropriate information security awareness training.; • Shaw Trust’s Information Security Management System (ISMS) is reviewed/monitored/improved on an on-going basis.; • Any actual/potential security breaches and weaknesses are reported to the Security Forum.; • Appropriate corrective and/or preventive measures are recommended.; • Weaknesses in and breaches of the ISMS are analysed.; • The ISMS are supported by a schedule of internal audits.
• Software Security Code of Practice: No

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Change requests: are processed through the JIRA ticketing service. This is assessed by the development team for what needs to be done. Any security considerations are done at this stage. Approval is obtained from the various stakeholders/business leaders before implementing changes to production environments.; ; Tracking throughout lifetime: Our Partnership Manager has quarterly meetings with customers. We produce monthly reports to track the components of our services through the lifetime of customer’s contracts.; ; Assessing changes: Changes are done during scheduled maintenance windows/periods of low impact to minimise disruption of services. We use Git Version control for versioning of the underlying codebases.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Vulnerability management process: We assess and get information about potential threats through annual external penetration test of the services to identify vulnerabilities which is run against databases of various vendor announcements and security advisories of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). ; ; Deploying patches: We will deploy any patches for vulnerabilities are quickly as possible to ensure a stable and reliable operation.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Identifying identify potential compromises: Azure has comprehensive logging across the applications we host. This includes logging of access attempts, system events, user activities, and network traffic.; ; Responding to compromises: The response to a potential compromise would be to triage the incident, isolate or contain the affected system, investigate the potential cause, remedy the cause and close the security gaps and restore the affected system.; ; Time of response to incidents: We would maintain open communications with relevant stakeholders to coordinate response efforts and manage expectations. We respond to incidents in a maximum of 24 hours (minimum 1 hour for critical incidents).
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Pre-defined processes: We have pre-defined processes for common events e.g. we send a weekly incident report (e.g. broken links report) to our manufacturers that supports our customers.; ; Users reporting incidents: They email out enquiries inbox which we provide them with they buy the licence, the process is also promoted on our website.; ; Incident reports: To provide incident reports we raise incidents to Mythic via our JIRA ticketing portal.
• Post-quantum cryptography secure: No

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Pricing

• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Included: The demo licence will show what the user can use the programme for at the beginning of the journey. This shows the sub-categories for each product type and is a whistlestop tour of the system/how to use it. ; ; Period: The demo model will allow 1 month of access.
• Link to free trial: https://livingmadeeasy.org.uk/category/access-and-mobility/access-services/access-parts-spares-and-services

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 Certification Limited
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: Monday 9 October 2023
• 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: URS Holdings Limited
• ISO 9001 accreditation date: Friday 6 July 2018
• What the ISO 9001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Certificate Number: 67f10d6c-2f32-4bd8-8dfb-85f875b746fb
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Please provide your Cyber Essentials Plus Certificate Number: Eb87b2f1-9dc9-4407-b57e-7ff291fea388
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications: NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit

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

    • 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
    • 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
    • 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
    • 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 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
    • Measures to identify, mitigate and manage modern slavery risks relating to the contract and how these will be implemented

  • 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

  • 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 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
    • 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
    • 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: 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

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

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 lme-enquiries@shaw-trust.org.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.