Education and training services

Tender description

The provision of an external support service to the free schools programme through generating high quality applications to open a free school, supporting applicant groups during the assessment process, providing targeted support to approved projects in the pre-opening phase and to open free schools up to their first Ofsted inspection and delivering a small number of partner events on behalf of the Department for Education. The purpose of this Prior Information Notice is to notify the market of the Department for Education’s (DfE) intention to undertake a procurement exercise to appoint a suitably qualified contractor to provide an external support service to the free schools programme. Free schools remain a priority for this government to help provide a good school place for every child, that allows them to reach their potential regardless of where they live and their background. They are an important tool to deliver new, high quality places of all types where they are needed most. Work is ongoing to finalise how future free school waves will run, but it is expected that there will be a need for an external support service to deliver the following: • generate interest in new applications via the DfE-led free school application process, including targeting specific areas, supporting groups to submit high quality applications and providing support to applicant groups throughout the department's application and assessment process. • providing support to approved free school projects in the pre-opening phase, and to open free schools up to their first Ofsted inspection. The type and level of support should be varied depending on the needs of the trust and include targeted support for new free school providers and delivery of a small number of good practice and information sharing events. • deliver a small number of free school information events on behalf of the Department for Education.