Invitation to bid for the Academy Ambassadors service - please note that this is a grant.

Governing boards, including the boards of academy trusts, are the vision setters and strategic decision makers for their schools. Their role includes creating robust accountability for executive leaders by using and being familiar with objective data on the performance of pupils, teachers and finances in order to ask the right questions.

It means ensuring resources are allocated to strategic priorities and safeguarding the highest standards of financial propriety. The Academy Ambassadors service exists to help academy trusts to recruit high-calibre individuals from the world of business to their boards, where they will join others with complementary forms of expertise to fulfil the role described above (and set out in more detail in the Governance Handbook and the Academies Financial Handbook).

The Department is looking for an exceptional organisation to deliver the Academy Ambassadors service; and in particular in areas where the challenges of educational underperformance and low social mobility are greatest. We will grant fund the organisation for two years from 1 April 2018 (with the Department retaining the option to extend the grant for a third year upon agreement from the provider).

We are accepting bids from organisations that have the capability and a clear strategy for achieving our aims for the recruitment of high-calibre business leaders to the boards of academy trusts. The provider will be expected to deliver two principle functions. • Matching high calibre business leaders with academy trusts. • Helping business leaders taking part in the programme to understand the context of the programme and the role of a trustee (NED) on academy boards.

Additional information: We envisage awarding a grant in the region of £1.55m (inclusive of VAT) covering the years 2018-19 and 2019-20. The department retains the option to extend the grant for a third year upon agreement from the provider).