Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
Department for Education
2 St. Paul's Place
Sheffield
S1 2FJ
sendbaea.commercial@education.gov.uk
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
UK - United Kingdom
Internet address(es)
Main address
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education
one.3) Communication
Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Ministry or any other national or federal authority
one.5) Main activity
Education
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Attendance mentoring for persistently absent pupils - pilot project
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 80000000 - Education and training services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, wellbeing, and long-term development. The Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi, has made clear that excellent attendance is a priority to ensure that all children can catch up on lost learning caused by the pandemic.
As announced in the Levelling Up White Paper, the department is planning a new attendance pilot in a group of Education Improvement Areas where there is a clear demographic need to improve persistent and severe absence rates.
Persistent and Severe absence are a concern across the education sector, raised in publications by, for example, the Centre for Social Justice and the Children’s Commissioner. Mentoring to improve attendance has been suggested as a potential solution to this issue.
We are looking for a contractor that will recruit and train mentors to provide targeted 1 – 1 support with an identified pupil or their family to overcome barriers to attendance. This relationship will need to be reactive to the individuals needs with the overall end goal to improve attendance.
two.1.5) Estimated total value
Value excluding VAT: £5,000,000
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.2) Description
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 72253000 - Helpdesk and support services
- 79633000 - Staff development services
- 79634000 - Career guidance services
- 80510000 - Specialist training services
- 80521000 - Training programme services
- 80532000 - Management training services
- 80570000 - Personal development training services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UK - United Kingdom
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
This contract is to deliver an attendance support offer, initially for one year with the intention to extend to three years (total). The support offer will start in one identified priority Education Improvement Area (EIA) in the first year and aim to support 500-1000 pupils, with the option to scale up to multiple areas nationally and support larger volumes of pupils in years two and three. More information on EIA’s can be found in the Governments Levelling Up white paper here.
We need a supplier to support vulnerable children and families in each of the identified areas to improve attendance. Through this work we aim to enhance capacity for early help/intervention, by working with pupils who are persistently absent and focusing particularly on those pupils who are, or are at risk of being, severely absent (missing with <50% attendance).
The successful contractor will be expected to provide trained practitioners to hold one-to-one conversations with identified pupils and families with an aim to improving attendance. This support should be responsive to the individuals needs and because of this it may be delivered in the school, or in the pupil’s home.
Dependent on the pupils needs, trained practitioners may also be expected to work with external local agencies to ensure all support to a particular family or pupil is aligned and drives towards overcoming attendance barriers.
The successful contractor may also need to work with evaluators to evidence the impact of the support throughout the project lifecycle.
We would like to invite all interested contractors to an initial market warming session date/time for Pre-Market Engagement is TBC where we hope to provide more information on the identified areas, the project scale and allow participant the opportunity to provide feedback before tendering.
This contract is to deliver an attendance support offer, initially for one year with the intention to extend to three years (total). The support offer will start in one identified priority Education Improvement Area (EIA) in the first year and aim to support 500-1000 pupils, with the option to scale up to multiple areas nationally and support larger volumes of pupils in years two and three. More information on EIA’s can be found in the Governments Levelling Up white paper here.
We need a supplier to support vulnerable children and families in each of the identified areas to improve attendance. Through this work we aim to enhance capacity for early help/intervention, by working with pupils who are persistently absent and focusing particularly on those pupils who are, or are at risk of being, severely absent (missing with <50% attendance).
The successful contractor will be expected to provide trained practitioners to hold one-to-one conversations with identified pupils and families with an aim to improving attendance. This support should be responsive to the individuals needs and because of this it may be delivered in the school, or in the pupil’s home.
Dependent on the pupils needs, trained practitioners may also be expected to work with external local agencies to ensure all support to a particular family or pupil is aligned and drives towards overcoming attendance barriers.
The successful contractor may also need to work with evaluators to evidence the impact of the support throughout the project lifecycle.
We would like to invite all interested contractors to an initial market warming session date/time for Pre-Market Engagement is TBC where we hope to provide more information on the identified areas, the project scale and allow participant the opportunity to provide feedback before tendering.
two.2.14) Additional information
Please register an interest in attending (max two per organisation) to:sendbaea.commercial@education.gov.uk by 6th April 2022
SCHEDULED DATE FOR PUBLICATION OF CONTRACT NOTICE: Estimated May 2022
ESTIMATED TOTAL VALUE OF CONTRACT: £5 Million excluding VAT
START AND END DATES OF THE TOTAL CONTRACT LENGTH: September 2022 - March 2025
two.3) Estimated date of publication of contract notice
23 March 2022
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
Section six. Complementary information
six.3) Additional information
This contract is to deliver an attendance support offer, initially for one year with the intention to extend to three years (total). The support offer will start in one identified priority Education Improvement Area (EIA) in the first year and aim to support 500-1000 pupils, with the option to scale up to multiple areas nationally and support larger volumes of pupils in years two and three. More information on EIA’s can be found in the Governments Levelling Up white paper here.
We need a supplier to support vulnerable children and families in each of the identified areas to improve attendance. Through this work we aim to enhance capacity for early help/intervention, by working with pupils who are persistently absent and focusing particularly on those pupils who are, or are at risk of being, severely absent (missing with <50% attendance).
The successful contractor will be expected to provide trained practitioners to hold one-to-one conversations with identified pupils and families with an aim to improving attendance. This support should be responsive to the individuals needs and because of this it may be delivered in the school, or in the pupil’s home.
Dependent on the pupils needs, trained practitioners may also be expected to work with external local agencies to ensure all support to a particular family or pupil is aligned and drives towards overcoming attendance barriers.
The successful contractor may also need to work with evaluators to evidence the impact of the support throughout the project lifecycle.
We would like to invite all interested contractors to an initial market warming session date/time for Pre-Market Engagement is TBC where we hope to provide more information on the identified areas, the project scale and allow participants the opportunity to provide feedback before tendering.
The Department wishes to assess market capability and capacity to administer and deliver a response. Details of a virtual pre-market engagement event will be given at a later date to all those who have registered.
Please register an interest in attending (max two per organisation) to:sendbaea.commercial@education.gov.uk by 6th April 2022
SCHEDULED DATE FOR PUBLICATION OF CONTRACT NOTICE: Estimated May 2022
ESTIMATE TOTAL VALUE OF CONTRACT: £5 Million excluding VAT
START AND END DATES OF THE TOTAL CONTRACT LENGHT: September 2022 - March 2025
This notice does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services for the Department. The procurement of any services will be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The purpose of this PIN is to stimulate early market interest and invite interested parties to take part in preliminary market consultations.
As part of the market engagement, we wish to test views on areas such as:
Whether you believe you have the capacity to successfully manage these potential opportunities?
Whether you believe you have the expertise to successfully manage these potential opportunities?
Whether you have any other provision/ contracts/ grants with any other government department?
Would you expect to submit a tender as a single supplier, consortium, framework, lots, managed service or any other appropriate vehicle?
Whether you feel there are any issues or challenges in delivering these potential opportunities?
How would you see your business model working with the proposed tendering opportunities?
Whether there are other opportunities to improve attendance for persistently and severely absent children and young people and their families which could be included in these programmes?
Whether you have specific suggestions for how the opportunities could be delivered to ensure the greatest impact on attendance for persistently and severely absent children and young people?