Education and training services

Tender description

The Secretary of State for Education (Contracting Authority) acting through the Department for Education and Education and Skills Funding Agency invited applications from potential suppliers to provide school resource management advisers (SRMAs) to schools, trusts and local authorities. This procurement is being: (a) conducted in accordance with Regulations 74 to 77 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015, which applies to contracts with a social benefit such as those for education and training services. This is known as the “Light Touch Regime”; and (b) carried out using a procedure that corresponds to the open procedure as set out in Regulation 27 of the 2015 Regulations as modified by the procurement documents. The objective is to provide direct support to academy trusts, schools and local authorities with a view to improving resource management. This is part of the Department’s overarching objective to help schools improve outcomes for pupils and promote social mobility, by getting the best value from all of their resources. In the highest risk cases, this will mean providing advice and support to address current or future forecast deficits and in all cases to help schools and trusts identify opportunities to make better use of their resources, enabling them to target resources where they have the most impact on outcomes for children. This procurement is to set up a Framework Agreement and call-off contract for the provision of SRMAs to schools, trusts and local authorities. The successful providers will be required to provide these services in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Framework Agreement and call-off contract and to source, supply and manage accredited persons from organisations working within the school or finance sector. The Contracting Authority’s initial requirement is for 160 accredited persons. The Contracting Authority shall therefore appoint to the Framework Agreement those providers that between them can supply a total of 160 accredited persons starting with the provider that submits the most economically advantageous tender and working down the list. Further details on this are set out in the procurement documents accompanying this OJEU Contract Notice. The evaluation methodology and criteria are set out in the procurement documents accompanying this OJEU contract notice. The Contracting Authority reserves the right to increase the number of accredited persons to 250 during the lifetime of the Framework Agreement.