Planning

Hwb Education Platform for Wales

LLYWODRAETH CYMRU / WELSH GOVERNMENT

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

21 Feb 2025 at 16:15

Summary of the contracting process

The Welsh Government is planning to re-procure the Hwb Education Platform for Wales, a key service within the IT services industry category, specifically focusing on consulting, software development, Internet, and support. This tender, valued at £8,000,000 GBP, aims to provide bilingual digital education content, resources, and services to over 1,480 maintained schools in Wales, supporting more than 450,000 learners and 55,000 practitioners. Interested parties are invited to a virtual early market engagement event on 24th March 2025, with registration required by 20th March 2025. This procurement stage is currently in the planning phase, and the future notice date is set for 13th May 2025. The project is to be executed in the region of Wales (UKL), with the service adhering to a cloud-first approach and functioning as a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform.

This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses specialising in educational software, IT services, and digital educational tools. Companies with expertise in developing scalable, bilingual, secure, and user-centered digital platforms will find this project highly suitable. The procurement encourages innovation and offers the chance to contribute to a transformative educational service that will benefit a large number of educational stakeholders in Wales. Businesses adept at delivering technical solutions that integrate with Microsoft 365, Google for Education, and Apple Classroom, while ensuring compliance with WGAC AA standards, will be well-positioned to compete for this contract. The successful bidder has the potential to shape the digital education landscape in Wales for years to come, creating a lasting impact on learners and educators.

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Notice Title

Hwb Education Platform for Wales

Notice Description

The Welsh Government is issuing this prior information notice to communicate its intention to re-procure the Hwb web platform which provides access to bilingual education content, resources and digital tools and services.

Lot Information

Lot 1

The Welsh Government remains committed to delivering a national approach to digital services, enabling maintained schools in Wales to maximize the transformational benefits of digital and technology in education. Our vision is to 'Embrace innovation to transform digital education in Wales'. By harnessing cutting-edge, bilingual digital technology, we aim to create a personalised, safe, agile, and interconnected ecosystem that equips practitioners and schools to prepare learners to thrive in a rapidly evolving global digital society. The Hwb platform is the Welsh Government's strategic digital channel to support delivering the Curriculum for Wales. It provides education stakeholders with a secure, single point of access to a plethora of bilingual content, resources, and digital tools and services. As a national digital service, we support over 1480 maintained schools, with over 450,000 learners, 55,000 practitioners, and a range of education professionals across the schools' sector in Wales. The Hwb web platform will need to be accessed by learners, practitioners, and potentially parents. Therefore, we need a service that is customisable to individual users' needs and preferences. The web platform will need to integrate with a central Entra ID identity service to support different user groups accessing specific content when logged in, as well as allowing public users to access public-facing content. The web platform will need to support standard website functionality, including but not limited to, a content management solution, news, and event management. A key deliverable is to provide a single resource repository supporting the creation and sharing of dynamic and interactive content, resources, assessments/quizzes hosted locally or by accredited partners. The repository will need to support a range of formats from static/interactive resources to immersive VR and AR formats. It is essential the web platform can respond to the evolving needs of schools and embrace opportunities from emerging technology. Our wider Hwb cloud service enables users to access online tools and resources anywhere, anytime, from various web-enabled devices. It provides an integrated platform allowing schools to easily access Microsoft 365, Google for Education, and Apple Classroom tools and services. The web platform will need to support interoperability with these services to ensure resources can be utilised easily as part of lesson planning within virtual classrooms. The platform will need to support a seamless gateway for users to access relevant tools and services through Single Sign-On, using a role-based access control model. The Welsh Government embraces a cloud-first approach and seeks to procure a software as a service (SaaS) solution. The successful bidder will need to design the web platform to our specific requirements, ensuring it is user-centered, bilingual, and fully accessible per the latest WGAC AA standards. The service should embrace secure by design and support simplified code, so content can be published easily and efficiently by our teams. The service will need to be flexible to adapt to the fast-moving and ever-changing technology landscape and provide a gateway to the plethora of services and education technology opportunities delivered by Welsh Government. During the most recent academic year, the existing web platform has supported an average of approximately 3.5 million logins each month. Activity can vary significantly throughout the year, so the service will need to deliver dynamic scaling and full resilience. Our aim is for this service to future-proof the Hwb platform and ensure it's recognised by educators as the single gateway to meet all their digital education needs for many years to come. The successful bidder has an opportunity to provide a digital service that positively impacts the lives of children in Wales. Additional information: We invite potential suppliers and stakeholders to a virtual early market engagement event for our upcoming procurement. Join us to discuss the procurement plan, share your expertise, and help shape the service requirements. Your input will be invaluable in identifying innovative solutions. The event is on Monday, 24th March. Please register your interest by Thursday, 20th March 2025.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-04e74e
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006983-2025
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Planning Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support


CPV Codes

48000000 - Software package and information systems

48190000 - Educational software package

48900000 - Miscellaneous software package and computer systems

72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

72222300 - Information technology services

72400000 - Internet services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£8,000,000 £1M-£10M
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
21 Feb 20251 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
12 May 2025Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planned
Lots Status
Planned
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
LLYWODRAETH CYMRU / WELSH GOVERNMENT
Contact Name
Katie Sampson
Contact Email
katie.sampson@gov.wales
Contact Phone
+44 3000257095

Buyer Location

Locality
CAERDYDD / CARDIFF
Postcode
CF10 3NQ
Post Town
Cardiff
Country
Wales

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLL Wales
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLL5 South East Wales
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLL52 Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
Delivery Location
TLL Wales

Local Authority
Cardiff
Electoral Ward
Cathays
Westminster Constituency
Cardiff South and Penarth

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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