PROCUREMENT OF A CONTRACTOR TO RECRUIT TRUSTEES TO ACADEMY TRUSTS

Tender description

There are currently 2,397 school academy trusts (as of August 2023) funded by the DfE in England. The vast majority are well-governed by their trust boards whose responsibility it is, with their members, to recruit a sufficient cadre of high-quality trustees. In doing so, they are supported by a vibrant market of organisations which offer various recruitment services. With this support used as necessary, the vast majority of trusts are able to operate effectively; however, as a contingency, the department, as the principal regulator of school academy trusts, requires a bespoke service to seek to ensure that, where this has not happened, high-calibre trustees, with the required skills, can be sourced for the boards concerned to appoint. Academy trustees are volunteers who are responsible for ensuring a trust’s clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding executive leaders to account, and overseeing and ensuring effective financial performance. Trust boards therefore need to be made up of trustees with the necessary expertise and skill to fulfil these functions effectively. The role is a significant commitment and while there are already many dedicated trustees across the country, it can be difficult for some trusts to find and recruit the right people with the skills they need. We expect this to be a bespoke recruitment service which places the right people in the right roles, with a real focus on high quality matches. We expect the vacancies to be filled through this service to have characteristics which make them challenging for the board to recruit to without support. The tender is for a two-year contract, with the option of a contract extension (+1) subject to need and funding being available. Organisations wishing to participate in this contract opportunity must do so through DfE's eTendering portal (Jaggaer). Registration is free of charge and full system support is available via the Jaggaer homepage. In order to access this opportunity in Jaggaer potential suppliers must first click 'view opportunities' from the Jaggaer homepage and then express their interest to gain access to the full document suite. Lot 1: Academy trustees are volunteers who are responsible for ensuring a trust’s clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding executive leaders to account, and overseeing and ensuring effective financial performance. Trust boards therefore need to be made up of trustees with the necessary expertise and skill to fulfil these functions effectively. The role is a significant commitment and while there are already many dedicated trustees across the country, it can be difficult for some trusts to find and recruit the right people with the skills they need. We expect this to be a bespoke recruitment service which places the right people in the right roles, with a real focus on high quality matches. We expect the vacancies to be filled through this service to have characteristics which make them challenging for the board to recruit to without support. For example, the provider may need to find trustees for trusts with challenging geography or religious characteristics or be asked to source candidates with very specific skillsets. All trusts receiving support through the programme will be ones the department is working with to drive improvement and trustees joining such boards will need to be able to deliver support effectively and at pace. The department is also therefore looking for a provider who will be able to offer a high quality onboarding support to candidates. The tender is for a two-year contract, with the option of a contract extension (+1) subject to need and funding being available. Organisations wishing to participate in this contract opportunity must do so through DfE's eTendering portal (Jaggaer). Registration is free of charge and full system support is available via the Jaggaer homepage. In order to access this opportunity in Jaggaer potential suppliers must first click 'view opportunities' from the Jaggaer homepage and then express their interest to gain access to the full document suite.