Published date: 31 January 2025

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Closing: 3 March 2025, 10am

Contract summary

Industry

  • Financial auditing services - 79212100

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£0 to £5,700,000

Procurement reference

tender_442170/1447858

Published date

31 January 2025

Closing date

3 March 2025

Closing time

10am

Contract start date

8 April 2025

Contract end date

31 March 2028

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (below threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

This is a BAU procurement for audit capacity to support our annual assurance programme and Investigation support.

We need 3 different "lots". Lot 1 to cover the annual programme of outsourced post-16 funding assurance reviews (post-16 funding audits). We will seek a panel of up to 5 audit firms to deliver this for us, with outputs being an audit report using the DFE/ESFA assurance tests and an audit opinion from the firms. These require detailed knowledge and experience of post-16 funding rules applicable to funding paid for adult skills,16-19 study packages or apprenticeships training.

Lot 2 to cover the combined post-16 and pre-16 general assurance reviews and frameworks support. We will seek up to 10 firms to work with across both the pre-16 and post-16 sector. For this lot before we allocate work to firm(s) we will select the firm most able to deliver the services required through a mini-competition / rota to secure best value and to ensure the specific sector skills and expertise is demonstrated.

Lot 3 to provide suitable firms capable of delivering forensic accounting and investigation support services nationally. We will seek up to 10 suppliers who will be awarded work on a rota basis. The output for this work will be an evidence-based findings report which can be shared with the provider in scope.

More information

Links

About the buyer

Contact name

Commercial Team

Address

St Pauls Place
Sheffield
S1 2FJ
England

Email

core.procurement@education.gov.uk