Planning

SEN Unit and Resourced Provision Guidance

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

21 Jul 2025 at 13:49

Planning Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Department for Education is in the planning stage of a procurement process entitled "SEN Unit and Resourced Provision Guidance." This project mainly falls under the education and training services industry category, with an anticipated procurement opening scheduled for August 2025. An early engagement webinar will be held online on 24th July 2025 at 14:00 to provide interested suppliers an opportunity to engage with the department and understand the requirements better. The guidance will particularly focus on supporting mainstream schools in the UK regions, specifically UKC, UKD, UKE, UKF, UKG, UKH, UKI, UKJ, and UKK. This procurement, facilitated through the ECSC Dynamic Procurement System, indicates a potential value of £140,000.

This tender offers significant growth opportunities for businesses experienced in developing educational best practices, particularly those skilled in setting up and operating SEN units and pupil support units. Companies with a proven record in producing impactful educational resources and an ability to engage with multiple stakeholders will find this opportunity well-suited to their expertise. Businesses interested in this potential procurement process should have experienced facilitators capable of leading workshops and producing high-quality guidance materials. This initiative marks an opportunity for these organisations to collaborate with the Department for Education in enhancing educational provisions across mainstream schools in the UK.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

SEN Unit and Resourced Provision Guidance

Notice Description

The purpose of this early engagement notice is to notify the market of a forthcoming market engagement event relating to a potential procurement of an experienced Delivery Partner (DP) to develop best practice guidance, in partnership with DfE, to operate (and set up) SEN units, resourced provision, and pupil support units within mainstream schools. The guidance will be DfE guidance hosted on gov.uk. The department will be undertaking an online event on 24th July 2025 for interested suppliers. The Delivery Partner must: 1. Have access to lead practitioners with an excellent understanding and proven track record of setting up and operating SEN units, resourced provision, and pupil support units (sometimes referred to as Internal AP) (collectively hereafter referred to as 'bases'). 2. Understand the needs of mainstream schools and local authorities, so that the guidance helps senior leaders and staff to deliver high quality practice. 3. Have a track record of producing high quality and impactful sector facing resources, including guidance. 4. Have experienced facilitators able to engage and coordinate a wide range of stakeholders. 5. Have capacity to arrange and deliver facilitated working group sessions, work in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE) to develop interim and final guidance, over a 6 month period. A delivery partner will be selected via ECSC Dynamic Procurement System. Registration details can be found here: https://educationgovuk.sharepoint.com/sites/SURPGuidanceProcurement/_layouts/15/download.aspx?SourceUrl=%2Fsites%2FSURPGuidanceProcurement%2FShared%20Documents%2FDPS%20Guidance%2FNew%20%2D%201303%20%2D%20JAGGAER%20DPS%20Supplier%20Registration%20Guidance%20%28December%202020%29%20%281%29%2Epdf The Department will be undertaking a market engagement webinar event on the 24th July at 14:00. We would like to invite you to the webinar, where we will provide further detail on the requirement and an opportunity to ask questions. It is anticipated that the event will last 45 minutes. The objectives of the event will be to: * Give you an understanding of the aim of the potential procurement. * Give you the opportunity to provide feedback. Please note that a maximum of two people from each organisation can attend the event. You do not need to hace cpmpleted DPS registration to attend the event, but you must be registered on the DPS to submit a bid. We may record all questions asked, as well as answers given, and make these publicly available as reference for all interested parties. If the procurement exercise goes ahead, it is expected to open in August 2025 for a window of around 14 days. More information on the potential procurement process will be provided following this market engagement activity. This notice is for information only and is not a call for competition. The Department reserves the right not to enter a formal procurement process and not award contracts. Accordingly, the Authority will not be liable for any bid cost, expenditure, work or effort incurred by a provider in acting on the basis of this PIN. All future information will be issued to potential providers via the DfE eTendering Portal. Kind regards DfE

Lot Information

Lot 1

The Delivery Partner (DP) will be expected to develop best practice guidance in partnership with DfE, to operate and set up SEN units, resourced provision, and pupil support units within mainstream schools. The DfE team will support the DP to deliver these workstreams. This programme of work aims to: 1. Use lead practitioners to establish best practice guidance for operating and setting up bases, seeking ideas/input from a wide range of practitioners. 2. Engage a wide range of stakeholders in the development of the guidance and build consensus. 3. Produce high-quality guidance, in collaboration with DfE, that will support schools and LAs to develop high-quality provision.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-056311
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/041692-2025
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

80 - Education and training services

CPV Codes

80000000 - Education and training services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£140,000 £100K-£500K
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
21 Jul 20257 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
20 Jul 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

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
Contact Name
Core Procurement Team
Contact Email
core.procurement@education.gov.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
SW1P 3BT
Post Town
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
TLC North East (England), TLD North West (England), TLE Yorkshire and The Humber, TLF East Midlands (England), TLG West Midlands (England), TLH East (England), TLI London, TLJ South East (England), TLK South West (England)
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Further Information

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

Download

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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