--- title: "Technical Assessment of Home Learning Environment Early Years applications" ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc.json" source: "Contracts Finder" current_stage: "Planning" buyer: "DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION" published: "2019-03-07" --- # Technical Assessment of Home Learning Environment Early Years applications Buyer: DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION Current stage: Planning OCID: ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc.json) ## Summary The Department for Education (DfE) in London is initiating a procurement process titled "Technical Assessment of Home Learning Environment Early Years Applications." This process, currently in the planning stage, focuses on procuring services to assess the quality of early years apps to aid parents in making informed choices for educational resources. Key milestones include an engagement end date of 14th March 2019, with the Expression of Interest (EOI) phase opening in late March and the indicative contract award scheduled for May 2019. The procurement falls under the IT services category, specifically consulting and software development, and will encompass a wide geographic area, including the UK and overseas territories. This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses specialising in digital applications, particularly those with expertise in educational technology and quality assurance. Companies equipped to comply with external technical standards such as GDPR and security protocols would be well-positioned to participate. The DfE is particularly interested in engaging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community, and social enterprises (VCSEs) that can demonstrate a successful track record in app assessment and development. With a focus on enhancing early childhood education, this initiative may foster partnerships aimed at delivering high-quality educational resources to disadvantaged families. ## Notice The Department for Education (DfE) intends to undertake an Expression of Interest (EOI) process to procure the services of an organisation to undertake the technical assessment of the quality assurance exercise for the Early Years Applications. The Department will be running a quality assurance exercise to identify and provide an indication of quality for early years apps of high educational value, so that parents can make more informed choices when selecting apps for their children. We have established an educational expert panel, who are responsible for drawing up the criteria for educational quality in early years literacy, language and communication apps. These criteria will be used to assess apps and award an indication of quality to all those meeting the standard. In addition, we are looking to procure expertise to develop a technical framework against which to assess apps. The chosen supplier will be responsible for assessing whether apps that have been approved by the educational expert panel are also in adherence to certain technical external standards such as GDPR and security standards. The formation of this technical framework will be developed in conjunction with the educational quality criteria by spring/summer 2019. Once both sets of criteria have been established there will be an open invitation in the spring to app developers and promoters to submit their apps for consideration and the chosen supplier will be required to complete the technical assessment of apps by early summer. We would expect the chosen supplier to be able to demonstrate a strong record of achievement in reviewing the technical standards of digital apps in either education or another field. If you would like to express an interest in our requirement please email EarlyYears.APPS@education.gov.uk by 14th March 2019. Additional information: DfE will administer the procurement process electronically via the government Contract Finder. No hard copy documents will be issued; all communications with DfE (including EOI submission) will be conducted via Contract Finder. Indicative dates for procurement: * Late-March 2019 - EOI opens * May 2019 - indicative contract award. Further information and background: On 31 July 2018, the Secretary of State announced that the Department would be launching a competition to identify high quality mobile/tablet apps, with the ambition of making these freely accessible to disadvantaged families. This commitment fits within the context of a Departmental priority to reduce by half the proportion of children who do not achieve at least expected levels across all goals in the 'communication & language' and 'literacy' areas of learning at the end of reception year by 2028. The Department for Education (DfE) is also exploring commercial options to provide access for disadvantaged children in the early years to high quality educational mobile/tablet apps. These would be apps for children to use within the home environment to improve their language, literacy and communication skills. We will be running a separate procurement process to procure one or more apps to be delivered to disadvantaged two-, three- and four-year olds within a limited number of local areas (approx. 8 to 12). Any app procured would need to fulfil the quality and technical criteria as mentioned above. The DfE is not committing to undertake any formal commissioning activity resulting from this notice, and we may use the information gathered via this process to support any future commercial activity. Please note that this PIN is not a call to competition and the DfE is not bound to enter into any procurement activity because of it. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Contracts Finder | | Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/1a3901b4-246f-4a3a-8840-ade75aff7ee3 | | Notice type | Market Engagement Notice | | Procurement type | Standard | | Procurement category | Not specified | | Procurement method | Not Specified | | Procurement method details | Not specified | | Tender suitability | SME, VCSE | | Awardee scale | Not specified | | All stages | Planning | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 7 Mar 2019 | | Submission deadline | Not specified | | Future notice date | 14 Mar 2019 | | Award date | Not specified | | Contract period | Not specified | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | Not specified | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | Not specified | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Planning | | Lots status | Not specified | | Awards status | Not specified | | Contracts status | Not specified | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION | | Locality | LONDON | | Post town | South West London | | Postcode | SW1P 3BT | | Country | England | | ITL 1 | TLI London | | ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West | | ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London | | Local authority | Westminster | | Electoral ward | St James's | | Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster | | Delivery location | Not specified | ## CPV Codes ### Divisions - 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support ### Codes - 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support ## Release History - 7 Mar 2019 at 09:11 - Planning - Market Engagement Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/1a3901b4-246f-4a3a-8840-ade75aff7ee3 ## Documents - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/1a3901b4-246f-4a3a-8840-ade75aff7ee3 7th March 2019 - Early engagement notice on Contracts Finder ## Provenance This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-236789c6-08c6-41a3-8366-43fd7fd796bc.json.