Sanitary towels or tampons

Tender description

The Department for Education (DfE) is looking to provide free period products to schools and post-16 education providers across England through a procurement to appoint a national provider. The provider will be required to deliver the end-to-end service, including the sourcing of products, management of the user interface(s) and the delivery of products directly to institutions. In March 2019, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the DfE will lead a scheme to provide access to free sanitary products in all schools and colleges in England. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/spring-statement-2019-what-you-need-to-know On 16th April, Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi confirmed access to free period products will also be fully-funded in Primary Schools. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-sanitary-products-in-all-primary-schools The DfE’s 2018 omnibus survey found that 83 % of secondary school leaders reported making free products available to pupils, with 41 % doing so because of a reason related to pupils’ inability to afford period products. Of the secondary school leaders who reported making free products available, 78 % said provision was funded from school budgets, 26 % used charitable donations and 17 % said teachers funded products themselves. No-one should be held back from reaching their potential, which is why we have announced a scheme to provide access to free period products in schools and colleges in England, and that this will be fully funded by the government. The DfE will shortly be publishing a tendering opportunity to find a single national supplier who can: — source an appropriate range of period products, — design and implement user interfaces and support services, — plan and execute a national delivery service. We require a ‘demand-led’ service which must be available to approximately 22 000 institutions across England, with an accessible and easy to use means of interaction and product ordering. Please note: we have estimated the value of this opportunity to be in the region of 10-20 000 000 GBP based on an anticipated level of take-up across the 1 700 000 eligible learners. The funding for this opportunity is contingent on user need, alongside the delivery and distribution methods used by any successful supplier. Supplier pre-tender briefing: the DfE will be running an open procurement in June 2019, which will follow the OJEU procedure. Prior to this, we will be running a Skype event at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday 28th May to provide an overview of our finalised requirements and highlight the upcoming procurement process. To register for this event, please contact PP.Procurement@education.gov.uk