Education and training services

Tender description

The Future Talent Fund will build an evidence base on good practice for this cohort, by trialing projects in schools, identifying clear delivery mechanisms for provision, and encouraging more evidence-led interventions, including for spending Pupil Premium funding. We are seeking a contractor who will be responsible for managing the Future Talent Fund. This will include: — warming the market for potential projects, — assessing bids and recommending to DfE the funding of projects, — managing approved projects, — procuring independent evaluation, and disseminating the findings. The Contractor will also be responsible for raising at least 5 000 000 GBP additional funding to contribute to the fund; this will supplement DfE funding. The additional funding will come from a variety of alternative sources, but not from state-funded schools. The Fund Manager will manage all aspects of the Future Talent Fund projects. The key responsibilities of the Fund Manager are summarised below: — use knowledge and expertise of the education system, supporting school improvement and improving outcomes for the most able, disadvantaged groups, to provide advice and expertise on all aspects of the Fund projects, — promote the Fund to generate interest in it and encourage high quality applications for the Fund projects from eligible organisations, that demonstrate good understanding of issues, solutions and barriers for supporting the target cohort of pupils, — run a fair and transparent competitive process for applications which complies with State Aid rules, assess applications against published criteria (based on the requirements of the Fund) and recommend projects to be supported to the Authority, — ensure appropriate set-up of project objectives, delivery plans, outcomes and budgets, — oversee implementation and management of projects in schools, including timelines, deliverables, budgets and risk management, — establish robust, independent evaluation of each project, — disseminate evidence of good practice into schools with clear recommendations on interventions that have the most impact and provide the best value for money, — produce an over-arching assessment of the findings and evidence from all the individual projects, — develop and deliver strong, clear messages for teachers and school leaders about the value and necessity of providing specific support for the most able, disadvantaged pupils, and drive up awareness of the Fund to encourage quality applications for projects, — obtain matched funding to expand the Fund, — provide regular reports to the Authority and manage risks and issues. Tenderers should ensure that their proposal meets the aims and ambitions of the Fund. Throughout their proposals, Tenderers should make clear how they will support the Fund projects with robust project management and also a deep knowledge and understanding of the issues and challenges involved in supporting this particular cohort of pupils and their schools. In general terms, higher scores will be awarded when the evidence provided demonstrates a clear and unambiguous understanding of the Authority’s specification, supported by good quality information and evidence which provides a high level of confidence in the Tenderer’s ability to deliver the services in a timely, reliable and cost effective manner.