Published date: 11 February 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: 30 April 2025, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Education and training services - 80000000

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

£0

Procurement reference

tender_470443/1417581

Published date

11 February 2025

Closing date

30 April 2025

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

1 September 2025

Contract end date

31 August 2029

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 Department of Education, the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), is inviting potential suppliers to submit their bids for the new 2025-2029 Item Writing Services Framework.

As part of the test development process, the STA, on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE), is seeking to appoint suppliers experienced in item writing to support the development of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 National Curriculum tests.

We require a number of suppliers who are capable of understanding the relevant programmes of study, test frameworks, and curricula for particular tests, and developing high-quality test items with accompanying mark schemes and/or coding frames.

Successful suppliers will be added to the Item Writing Framework 2025-2029 and will have the opportunity to bid for each call-off from the framework between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2029. Once an organisation has been accepted onto the framework, they will bid for item writing services contracts. An Invitation to Tender (ITT) will be disseminated to all those on the framework for all work. Each call-off from this framework will provide detailed requirements, including the subject and content domain areas, item types, mark range, difficulty range, and other desired properties.

The core requirements for the Item Writing Services Framework include the delivery of the following services in order to support the development of high-quality, accessible, and inclusive items suitable for DfE assessments: Key Stages 1 and 2 English grammar, punctuation, and spelling, English reading, and mathematics.
- Item writing
- Informal item trialling
- Reviewing, refining and amending items
- Item classification
- Design (items and texts)
- Text searching / sourcing (English reading)
- Reviewing texts (English reading)
- Text selection (English reading)/Context selection (science)
- Text trialling (English reading)
- Informal item and text trialling (English reading)
- Printing to meet handover or trialling requirements
- Developing mark schemes
- Developing coding frames
- Administration/ organisation of various elements

The initial framework term will be four years (September 2025 - August 2029). There is an option to extend the framework term for up to 12 months, until August 2030.

The maximum value of the framework including the extension will be £2.5M

More information

Links

Additional text

Tender documents can be accessed free of charge via the department's e-procurement portal, Jaggaer, following the expression of interest.

About the buyer

Address

Cheylesmore House, 5 Quinton Rd,
Coventry
CV1 2WT
England

Email

TendersTD.STA@education.gov.uk