Published date: 10 February 2023

This notice was replaced on 31 August 2023

This notice does not contain the most up-to-date information about this procurement. The most recent notice is:

Opportunity (published 31 August 2023, last edited 1 September 2023)

Closed early engagement


Contract summary

Industry

  • Recruitment services - 79600000

  • Education and training services - 80000000

  • Primary education services - 80100000

    • Secondary education services - 80200000

    • Higher education services - 80300000

    • Adult and other education services - 80400000

    • Training services - 80500000

Location of contract

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

Procurement reference

tender_352699/1177877

Published date

10 February 2023

Closing date

21 February 2023

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

Academy trustees have a huge opportunity to make a positive impact on children and young people's futures by supporting academy trusts to be high quality through effective and robust governance. Academy trust boards need skilled trustees to uphold the charitable objects of the trust, oversee the strategic direction, and hold the executive to account for educational performance, and financial and risk management. Academy trust governance is modelled on charitable company governance, and boards need volunteers with the expertise and commitment required for effective governance of large charitable organisations.

The contractor will recruit academy trustees, including chairs of trustees, onto academy trust boards that have been identified by Department for Education (DfE) Regional Directors' teams. These will be academy trusts that are experiencing significant challenges with financial or educational performance and need additional experienced, high calibre individuals to join the board and improve the governance of the trust.

The successful contractor will also promote awareness of the role of academy trustee to target audiences to increase the supply of volunteers for trustee vacancies more broadly. This activity will be complemented by DfE communications and stakeholder engagement activity.

This procurement is subject to financial business planning, and the DfE reserves the right to not procure the services outlined below following the conclusion of this review.

More information

Links

Additional text

It is expected that the contractor will, as a minimum, need to:

- Identify and recruit suitable, high calibre, skilled volunteers in England who have the commitment to serve on academy trust boards, whilst prioritising support to those boards most in need, in areas of the country where capacity is weakest.

- Ensure the volunteer pool is wide enough to support academy trusts in securing diversity of their boards. Trusts of a religious nature may need to recruit people who meet certain faith requirements.

- Ensure that volunteers understand the roles and responsibilities of a trustee, and the time commitment required, particularly in academy trusts experiencing significant financial/educational challenges, in advance of their accepting a position on a board.

- Work effectively with DfE Regional Directors' teams who will identify boards where academy trustees are most needed and put forward those volunteers with the relevant and desirable skills, knowledge, and characteristics to support boards with the challenges they face.

- Provide high quality induction support to all academy trustees recruited through this funded recruitment service.

- Work with stakeholders, employers, and sector bodies to promote and raise awareness of the role of trusteeship to target audiences.
- Collect and report on specified management information data, undertake self-evaluation, and build in continuous improvement throughout the contract lifetime to ensure that findings are fed into delivery on an ongoing basis.

Indicative Timeline

The DfE will be hosting online market engagement events to summarise the requirement and provide an opportunity for the DfE to test our broader questions around delivery and feasibility. Your organisation can choose to attend either of the following dates:

23rd February 16:00 - 17:00
28th February 14:15 - 15:15

Please register your interest in attending one of the events via the DfE e-Tendering portal Jaggaer, http://education.app.jaggaer.com, by completing the Market Engagement - Expression of Interest form (Ref - ssq_351), no later than 1pm on 21 February.

Once your organisation has expressed their interest in the opportunity, event details and joining instructions will be issued.

The procurement is anticipated to be launched later in Spring 2023 with contracts being awarded in Summer 2023, with a view to delivering in Autumn 2023. More information on the procurement process will be provided following market engagement through the Invitation to Tender process.

This notice is for information only and is not a call for competition. The DfE reserves the right not to enter into a formal procurement process and not award contracts. Accordingly, the DfE will not be liable for any bid cost, expenditure, work, or effort incurred by a provider in acting on the basis of this Prior Information Notice.

About the buyer

Address

Sanctuary Bld, Great Smith Stret
London
SW1P 3BT
England

Telephone

+448700012345

Email

governance.recruitment@education.gov.uk