Planning

IT Hardware for Schools

DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

12 May 2026 at 13:29

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Department for Education (DfE) is initiating a procurement process under the planning stage for the acquisition of IT hardware for schools in the United Kingdom. The process aims to establish a route for schools to procure classroom and user IT equipment such as portable computers, desktops, and tablets. This market engagement stage involves deliberating with potential suppliers as part of its strategy to shape procurement requirements that are advantageous, innovative, and competitive under the new Procurement Act 2023. Key dates include a deadline for expressing interest in engagement sessions set for 5th June 2026, with the full tender details expected by 1st September 2026. This procurement falls under the public authority's category of central government purchasing, ensuring participation from a broad spectrum of potential suppliers.

This preliminary market engagement provides a significant opportunity for businesses offering IT hardware solutions to enter or expand their presence in the educational sector. Large-scale providers with end-to-end capabilities, as well as SMEs capable of collaborative approaches, can significantly benefit from this tender. The planned procurement seeks to ensure accessibility across different organisation sizes, encouraging innovative pricing, logistics, and sustainability solutions suitable for schools. Consequently, this process is well-suited to businesses with robust supply chains and the ability to offer competitive, customised, and sustainable technology solutions, fostering growth within the educational IT hardware sector.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

IT Hardware for Schools

Notice Description

Preliminary Market Engagement is being undertaken to inform and refine the DfE's requirements as it considers the potential for the establishment of a route to market for schools to procure classroom and user IT hardware under the Procurement Act 2023. This engagement is intended to support the development of a solution that is deliverable, value for money, and responsive to the needs of the education sector, while encouraging innovation and effective competition within the supplier market. Through this Pre-Market Engagement, the Department seeks to gain a clearer understanding of current market capability, capacity and commercial models, including how suppliers structure pricing, logistics, support and sustainability across a large and diverse customer base. Market engagement will help test assumptions, explore potential delivery and commercial options, identify risks and barriers to entry, and assess how a future procurement could be designed to remain accessible to organisations of different sizes, including SMEs and VCSEs. This engagement complements and builds on insights already gathered from engagement with schools and the wider education sector. Feedback from schools highlighted variations in technical and procurement capability, and the importance of affordability, clarity and simplicity when purchasing hardware including greater transparency of costs over the lifecycle of a device. Market engagement is therefore being used alongside school insights to ensure that any future solution is informed by both user need and market capability, and can support consistent access to suitable, cost effective and sustainable technology across the school system. Please note that although DfE has answered 'no' to the question "Is a framework being established?" this is not yet decided, and the answer to this question may be affected by the discussions that take place during market engagement.

Planning Information

DfE is considering whether to host one to one engagement sessions with suppliers or host a larger event with all suppliers invited and a follow up questionnaire. This will depend on the number of suppliers expressing an interest in engaging with us. We would like to hear from suppliers with capacity and capability to deliver a full end-to-end service, but also from SMEs who may be interested in collaborating, but may lack the capacity to deliver a full end-to-end service, in order to design a process that takes a wide range of views into account. If you are interested in taking part in market engagement, please express your interest by registering an account on Jaggaer at this link: https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html and completing the expression of interest for the event 'IT Hardware for Schools EOI'.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0696c8
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/043509-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

30 - Office and computing machinery, equipment and supplies except furniture and software packages

CPV Codes

30213000 - Personal computers

30213100 - Portable computers

30213200 - Tablet computer

30213300 - Desktop computer

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£300,000,000 £100M-£1B
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
12 May 20262 days ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
1 Sep 20264 months to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
30 Sep 2026 - 30 Sep 2029 3-4 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Planning
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

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
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Further Information

Notice Documents

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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