Market opportunity: UK inspection of the European Schools

The European School system was established in 1957 to educate the children of officials working in EU institutions. As an EU Member State, the UK has an obligation under the Convention Defining the Statute of the European Schools which is administered by a Board of Governors.

From September 2017 there will be 13 European Schools across seven EU Member States. The pupil roll is around 26,000 with c.1,300 of these having UK nationality.

The Department for Education (DfE) seconds 108 teachers to the European School System and under European legal obligations it is obliged to provide two school inspectors to represent UK interests (one for nursery/primary and one for secondary). The role of the UK Inspectors is to evaluate annual performance related pay assessments and through visits to the European Schools observe teaching for the purpose of renewal of contracts of employment.

In addition, UK Inspectors attend meetings of the Boards of Inspectors and Joint Teaching Committee; attend curriculum working groups and meet with DfE teacher and parent representatives. The secondary inspector also attends various curriculum meetings and working groups in Brussels and is responsible for the quality of the European Baccalaureate examination, the invigilation of the examinations, the fairness of the marking of the papers and the final marks awarded.

As required, additional expertise can be used to cover specific responsibilities that the inspector is not personally qualified to perform. In addition, quarterly review meetings (face-to-face and telephone) are held with the DfE and regularly liaison with the contract manager is required.

The current agreement for provision of these services expires on the 31 August 2017 and the DfE are now considering the possible future options for contracting with a single supplier, consortium or special purpose vehicle to deliver the services. Following the UK Referendum, the contracting approach needs to provide flexibility to ensure continued delivery until such time that the UK is no longer party to the European Schools Convention.

The DfE would like to invite organisations to help shape and inform its current thinking and provide some further market insight on this matter. This can be done by completing the following survey: http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SRDInspectorEU/ .

The survey will close at 16:00 on Thursday 3rd November 2016. In advance of, and to help inform completion of the survey, organisations can request to have a ‘scene setting’ telephone meeting with the DfE which will be provided where practical.

This insight will be used to help determine the future commercial approach, ahead of commencing any potential procurement activity. Following conclusion of this activity, we will share a summary of the insight received (excluding any supplier specific commercial sensitive information) on this Contract Finder page for all organisations with an interest. Additional information: As the preferred commercial approach becomes defined, the DfE will further engage with organisations via Contracts Finder in advance of any potential procurement commencing.