The Teaching Line and associated services

Tender description

The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), an executive agency of the Department for Education, anticipates that, in early 2016, it will look to commence a procurement exercise for delivery of an advisory service currently called the Get into Teaching Line to support the delivery of the annual national teacher recruitment targets. The main purpose of the service is convert candidates’ interest in teaching to a successful application to Initial Teacher Training. It also supports those that are already qualified but not currently teaching into teaching posts. The service is expected to include: • a contact centre that manages inbound, outbound, webchat and social media enquiries; • a data collection and reporting facility that enables NCTL to record and track progress of individuals expressing an interest in a teaching career or returning to the profession; • a dedicated one to one advisory service to provide additional support for candidates in priority subjects; • support to enable candidates to gain school experience to support their application in priority subjects; • a tailored CRM programme of candidate support emails. There may also be additional requirements such as providing guidance on procedures for schools who are looking to apply for Teaching School status and teachers who are looking to apply for System Leader designations. The contract will be required to be flexible in order to meet the changing requirements and priorities of government over the contract term. It is anticipated that a new contract will be awarded in June 2016. The provider will be expected to start full service delivery from September 2016. Please note that NCTL has an existing contract in place to manage the delivery of this service up to the end of August 2016 and therefore service delivery prior to this date will not be part of the requirement. The expected annual value of the contract is between £3,000,000 and £4,000,000 per annum excluding VAT. The term of the contract is expected to be 3 years with options to extend. This PIN is to instigate an Early Market Engagement exercise to help NCTL: o Assess capability of the market to deliver the requirements. o Assess the capacity of the market to deliver the requirements. o Explore new ways to deliver that offer best value for money. o Explore opportunities for SMEs to be involved in delivery of this work.