Notice Information
Notice Title
Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM)
Notice Description
The partnership with IQM will provide a single, coherent, city-wide approach for evaluating, improving and evidencing inclusive practice in every school. This aligns to Cardiff Education Inclusion Strategy and provides a framework for all schools to follow to ensure consistency across the city.
Procurement Information
The Council's requirement is for a recognised whole school equality, inclusion and safeguarding accreditation framework designed specifically for education settings, providing external validation, nationally recognised accreditation, and a structured evidence framework aligned to leadership, curriculum delivery, learner wellbeing, safeguarding and inclusion. The accreditation must support continuity of improvement planning, comparability over time and consistency of standards across participating schools. IQM is the sole owner and provider of the Inclusion Quality Mark framework, methodology, assessment model and associated accreditation marks. IQM retains exclusive intellectual property rights in relation to its standards, moderation processes and accreditation system. As a result, only IQM is legally and technically able to deliver IQM assessments or confer IQM accreditation. No alternative supplier is able to provide the same service, accreditation or outcomes. While other equality or inclusion support tools exist in the market, these do not constitute reasonable alternatives for the purposes of this procurement, as they employ different frameworks, standards and assessment methodologies and do not provide IQM accreditation. Procuring an alternative provider would result in the Council receiving materially different services, leading to loss of continuity, comparability and established improvement evidence. Schedule 5 makes clear that the existence of other solutions does not prevent direct award where those alternatives would not meet the specific requirement or would cause disproportionate technical or operational difficulty. The Council also notes that a change of supplier would disrupt existing accreditation cycles, invalidate prior assessments and introduce unnecessary burden and cost for schools. Schedule 5 explicitly recognises incompatibility with existing systems and arrangements, where this would result in disproportionate technical difficulty in operation or maintenance, as a lawful basis for direct award to a single supplier.
Notice Details
Publication & Lifecycle
- Open Contracting ID
- ocds-h6vhtk-06aac1
- Publication Source
- Find A Tender Service
- Latest Notice
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/052594-2026
- Current Stage
- Award
- All Stages
- Award
Procurement Classification
- Notice Type
- UK6 - Contract Award Notice
- Procurement Type
- Standard
- Procurement Category
- Services
- Procurement Method
- Direct
- Procurement Method Details
- Direct award
- Tender Suitability
- SME
- Awardee Scale
- Large
Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)
- CPV Divisions
80 - Education and training services
-
- CPV Codes
80000000 - Education and training services
Notice Value(s)
- Tender Value
- Not specified
- Lots Value
- Not specified
- Awards Value
- £217,542 £100K-£500K
- Contracts Value
- Not specified
Notice Dates
- Publication Date
- 4 Jun 2026Today
- Submission Deadline
- Not specified
- Future Notice Date
- Not specified
- Award Date
- 20 May 20262 weeks ago
- Contract Period
- 15 Jun 2026 - 17 May 2030 3-4 years
- Recurrence
- Not specified
Notice Status
- Tender Status
- Complete
- Lots Status
- Complete
- Awards Status
- Pending
- Contracts Status
- Not Specified
Buyer & Supplier
Contracting Authority (Buyer)
- Main Buyer
- CARDIFF COUNCIL
- Contact Name
- Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
- Contact Email
- Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
- Contact Phone
- Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Buyer Location
- Locality
- CARDIFF
- Postcode
- CF10 4UW
- 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
- Not specified
-
- Local Authority
- Cardiff
- Electoral Ward
- Butetown
- Westminster Constituency
- Cardiff South and Penarth
Further Information
Notice Documents
-
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/052594-2026
4th June 2026 - Contract award notice on Find a Tender -
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/051571-2026
1st June 2026 - Transparency notice on Find a Tender
Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)
View full OCDS Record for this contracting process
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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