Published date: 5 August 2021

Last edited date: 5 August 2021

Closed early engagement


Closing date: 29 August 2021

Contract summary

Industry

  • Education and training services - 80000000

Location of contract

Any region

Procurement reference

tender_281819/986105

Published date

5 August 2021

Closing date

29 August 2021

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

The DfE will appoint a delivery partner, via a contract agreement, to run a pilot training programme in Assistive Technology (AT) for 100 schools. This includes building an online resource bank and planning and facilitating training sessions for school leaders and 'AT Leads'. The partner will also be responsible for making backfill payments to the schools. We will be procuring an independent evaluating partner who the successful delivery partner must collaborate with.
A DfE-commissioned Rapid Literature Review in AT (linked to below) recommended that school staff needed training in the use of and assessment for AT interventions as well as expected outcomes. This pilot is a response to that recommendation.
The Delivery Partner will be responsible for planning and delivering training to 20 groups of 5 schools. They will:
- October - December 2021 - Produce an online resource bank which will be the intellectual property of the DfE - these will build upon the resources created through the EdTech Demonstrator Programme linked to below. These resources must include practical, hands-on examples of effective AT.
- January - March 2022 - Plan and facilitate 7 online sessions for each of the 20 groups:
o 2 x 30-minute launch and end sessions for school leaders focused on the whole school benefits of effective AT implementation, securing high level buy-in.
o 5 x 1-hour sessions for AT Leads, nominated by the schools, focused on taking the whole school on a journey towards successful AT usage. The sessions must be interactive and promote peer-support networking.
- Keep track of attendance at sessions and there may reasonable backfill payments available for this - details to follow
The delivery partner must:
- Have an excellent understanding of AT, including its use, assessment of needs and expected outcomes.
- Understand the needs of schools, ensuring adoption of AT meets, and is seen by leaders to meet, organisational need.
- Be able to produce a bank of real-world resources including videos of assessments and case studies
- Have experienced facilitators able to develop small groups of staff into school AT Leads
- Have administrative capacity to arrange 140 facilitated sessions over 10 weeks and make backfill payments of required to schools who attend all 7 sessions
The delivery partner must collaborate with the evaluating partner.
The tender will go live on 3rd September 2021. The procurement will be run using the Education and Children's Social Care Dynamic Purchasing System (ECS DPS).
To tender for this work and be eligible to bid, you must register in advance on Jaggaer, the DfE's e-procurement system. Following registration, follow the steps as outlined in the guidance below to submit your application to join the ECSC DPS. Please be aware that you must have completed all registration no later than 29th August 2021.

More information

Previous notice about this procurement

Assistive Technology Pilot Training Programme for Schools

  • Early engagement
  • Published 5 August 2021

Links

Additional text

This opportunity will be published under the categories: ECSC09, 13 and 14 - you only need to have selected one of these to access the opportunity.

We will award a contract to a single supplier for the delivery of the services - this could be a consortium led by a single lead supplier (NB: consortiums must be registered as an entity on Jaggaer prior to the tender going live).

Please note that dates above are subject to change.

We will be holding an hour-long webinar on 17th August 10-11am to discuss this opportunity further and give any prospective bidders the chance to ask questions. The link to that webinar is here.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19:[EMAILMATCH_0]/0?context={"Tid":"fad277c9-c60a-4da1-b5f3-b3b8b34a82f9","Oid":"8e8a2518-4f7e-4e28-9529-1833da9fec69"}



https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/eb9ac94d-4d92-473b-ad03-f2f7d668de30 - Jaggaer DPS registration guidance

Rapid literature review on assistive technology in education (publishing.service.gov.uk) - Rapid Literature Review

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/937381/UKAT_FinalReport_082520.pdf

Resource-Accessible-Tech-for-Education-V3.0-Mar-2021.pdf (nationalstar.org) - Demo Programme AT resources

https://www.nationalstar.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Resource-Accessible-Tech-for-Education-V3.0-Mar-2021.pdf

About the buyer

Contact name

Helen O'Brien

Address

Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street,
London,
SW1P 3BT
England

Email

edtech.team@education.gov.uk