National Leaders of Education Reform

The purpose of this early engagement notice is to notify the market of the Department for Education's (DfE) intention to undertake a procurement exercise to appoint a suitably experienced organisation to support the delivery of the National Leaders of Education (NLE) reforms. We will be looking to procure the services of a national provider to i) run a reformed NLE application process for eligible school leaders/MAT CEOs and to make recommendations to the department on successful applicants and ii) deliver a national curriculum of compulsory training, designed to the department's specification, to NLEs on a regional level.

The successful provider will deliver the assessment and training of NLEs over two academic years beginning in academic year 2020 to 2021; the aim is to have the initial cadre of new style NLEs designated and trained by September 2021. A market engagement webinar will be hosted by the DfE on 23 April 2020.

Details of this webinar will be posted to interested parties following registration. There will also be a second market warming event in early May 2020, which will build upon the webinar of 23 April 2020.

For information: Attendance at the market engagement events is not a pre-requisite for being able to submit a tender against this opportunity. If you are unable to attend the market engagement events, the information pack, along with slides and Q&A will be made available.

INDICATIVE DATES FOR PROCUREMENT: Following market warming, we intend to open an application round in June 2020, subject to the outcome of market engagement. Providers who have registered their interest in this opportunity would complete a set application form detailing their suitability to provide the assessment and training of prospective NLEs.

We will publish a prospectus and application pack alongside the application form with guidance on the requirements and the procurement arrangements. The application round would close at the start of July 2020.

Once the application round has closed, applications will undergo an initial desktop assessment based on the criteria and weighting set out in the prospectus and application pack, following which there will be a moderation of those results before final award and mobilisation. Contract award will be around September 2020.

Further information on the procurement process will be provided during the market engagement activity. Additional information: It is anticipated that the initial contract term will be September 2020 - March 2023.

The DfE will be administering the procurement processes electronically via the DfE e-Tendering Portal; Jaggaer. No hard copy documents will be issued and all communications with DfE (including final submission of tenders) will be conducted via the Jaggaer Portal.

Bidders who are not already registered on the portal can register here: https://education.app.jaggaer.com When registered and signed in to Jaggaer you will need to express an interest in the opportunity to be able to access all relevant documentation including the webinar pack. If you would like to attend the pre-market engagement webinar on 23 April 2020, please express your interest by 1200 on 21 April 2020.

The Department reserves the right not to enter a formal procurement process and not award contract(s). Accordingly, the Authority will not be liable for any bid cost, expenditure, work or effort incurred by a supplier in acting on the basis of this notice.