We had the opportunity to attend the Home Office Digital Early Market Engagement on behalf of Shape. The session provided valuable insight into how the Home Office is approaching digital delivery and where it is seeking support from technology suppliers.
The engagement covered five key areas:
Our primary focus was on User-Centred Design and Product Management, as these are core areas where Shape specialises and where we believe we can add the most value.
As the Home Office continues to scale its digital delivery, new contracts are being issued to support that ambition through external suppliers. Events like this are an important opportunity to understand not just what services are being procured, but how government departments expect those services to be delivered.
The session opened with Patrick Doyle, who spoke about Business Architecture within the Home Office. A proposed contract of £35 million over four years was discussed, aimed at expanding the current cohort of 39 civil service architects. This contract was previously held by Deloitte.
One important point raised during questions was that all work must be UK-based, due to security clearance requirements — a significant consideration for suppliers operating in this space.
Next, Eva-Marta Barabas spoke about DevOps within the Home Office and introduced the SFIA framework (Skills Framework for the Information Age), which appeared repeatedly throughout the engagement.
SFIA is used across Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) roles to define skills and seniority based on:
The framework ranges from entry-level roles focused on following and assisting, through to senior levels responsible for setting strategy and inspiring teams. For suppliers, SFIA provides a clear signal of the capability and accountability expected from contractors.
The session on User-Centred Design was led by Mike Brazier, Head of UCD at the Home Office. His role covers standards, recruitment and the UCD community across DDaT.
UCD at the Home Office spans five core disciplines:
The current central UCD contract is held by Capgemini, who provide approximately 70 roles, largely focused on user research. Accessibility work, by contrast, is primarily delivered in-house by civil servants.
Mike highlighted that much of the UCD work supports services relating to migration and borders, with additional work across policing and security. He also referenced the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework, which is used to define responsibilities and assess practitioner capability.
For us at Shape, it was encouraging to hear how strongly UCD is embedded within delivery, and how clearly defined expectations are around standards and professional practice.
The fourth session was delivered by Simon Daly, focusing on Product Management. The Home Office is seeking suppliers capable of providing multi-disciplinary teams that can support the full delivery lifecycle — from discovery and alpha through to beta and live.
A product-centred delivery approach is used, with an expectation that suppliers can provide Product Managers at SFIA levels 3–6, particularly those with strong stakeholder engagement skills.
Simon indicated that the Home Office is looking to engage 20–40 Product Managers through a central contract, aligned to the Home Office 2030 Digital Strategy.
It was also made clear that the use of contractors is intended for short-term or specialist capability, where it would not be appropriate or efficient to recruit permanently into the civil service.
The final presentation was given by David Haworth, who spoke about Security Architecture. He acknowledged the ongoing challenges in recruiting within this discipline and noted that while the current contract sits with a single supplier, there may be openness to a multi-supplier approach going forward.
The engagement closed with confirmation that a further market engagement session will take place closer to procurement, with more detail available at that stage. Contract information will be published through the Crown Commercial Service frameworks.
For us at Shape, this session reinforced several things:
Overall, this was a valuable opportunity to understand the Home Office’s direction of travel and how organisations like Shape can support the delivery of high-quality, user-focused digital services within government.
