Published date: 10 October 2022

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: 11 November 2022, 11:59am

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development services and related consultancy services - 73000000

Location of contract

North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East, South West

Value of contract

£3,000,000

Procurement reference

tender_292639/1109986

Published date

10 October 2022

Closing date

11 November 2022

Closing time

11:59am

Contract start date

2 January 2023

Contract end date

1 September 2025

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (above threshold)

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

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

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

The Accelerator Fund (AF) is a government funded initiative which seeks to support and encourage schools to access well-evidenced Programmes, predominantly focused on literacy and numeracy, by growing a pipeline of Programmes with a view to scaling-up those that demonstrate a good evidence base. A small number of these Programmes will be focused on science education (no more than 10%). The AF aims to ensure there is a quality supply of Programmes that can be accessed confidently and easily by schools and to spark a behavioural change in how schools spend their Pupil Premium Funding. For the purpose of this document, "schools" includes early years and post-16 education settings, but most Programmes are for primary and secondary schools.

The key objectives of the AF are to:
A. Increase the pipeline of evidence-based Programmes by investing in: practices that fill key evidence gaps, which are not yet formed into a 'Programme', and developing those into Programmes, with the support of schools; testing the feasibility of Programmes' delivery models to identify potential benefits and move to the next stage of the pipeline; and Efficacy Trials to evaluate the impact of existing Programmes on pupil attainment ("Objective A").
B. Scale-up existing Programmes by: generating more evidence of their impact at a larger scale through Effectiveness Trials; offering grants to subsidise the cost to schools to encourage take up; providing direct grants to support Programme development for scale; and providing market and capability building support ("Objective B").
C. Support schools to choose evidence-based Programmes, focused on school engagement and supporting schools to make informed decisions about what Programme or trial opportunities they might take part in ("Objective C").

This contract opportunity focuses on providing market and capability building support for 3 Academic Years (AY 2022/23- AY 2024/25) to Programmes that have shown promising evidence of impact on pupil attainment, as outlined in Objective B above.

The Supplier will support promising Programmes to grow their reach to schools sustainably, while maintaining quality. The Supplier will be the main deliverer of capability building support to Programmes but may sub-contract other organisations to provide specific expertise to Programmes, if required.

More information

Previous notice about this procurement

Accelerator Fund - Early Engagement

  • Early engagement
  • Published 29 July 2022

About the buyer

Address

Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
England

Email

megan.kelly@education.gov.uk