The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has added three years to its contract for assessment service information systems (ASIS) with consultancy Atos.
The deal, first agreed in 2014 then modified in 2018 to run until February 2022, will now run until February 2025 following DWP’s decision that this is necessary to support its live service for health and disability assessments while managing a safe transition to the new Health Assessment Service (HAS).
According to the contract notice the extension comes with a value of £32.4 million, on top of the previous value of £91.7 million.
It says that other options would have come with significant technical and time restrictions, and that the extension will provide three main benefits.
These are continued service continuity, that the implementation of the optimum solution for delivery of ASIS services after February 2025 will continue to be taken forward through the extension period, and the implementation of mandatory projects to support health and disability assessments while facilitating the transition to another supplier.
Plan for new system
DWP’s previous strategy was for transition to a new in-house solution by February 2022, but the notice says that substantial changes in the direction of the Health Transformation Programme and the underpinning IT strategy means this is no longer achievable.
Further pressures have been created by the impact of Covid-19.
It adds that that currently ASIS is supported by a complex and ageing technology stack and legacy applications written in outdated software. It would be extremely difficult to upgrade these without Atos’s knowledge of the systems, and a change of contractor could cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs, drawing on resources that are intended for the new HAS solution.
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0
