---
title: "Implementation of Achieving Excellence Areas"
ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-dfb5bbc0-adc9-11e6-9901-0019b9f3037b"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-dfb5bbc0-adc9-11e6-9901-0019b9f3037b"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-dfb5bbc0-adc9-11e6-9901-0019b9f3037b.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-dfb5bbc0-adc9-11e6-9901-0019b9f3037b.json"
source: "Contracts Finder"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION"
published: "2017-10-19"
---

# Implementation of Achieving Excellence Areas

Buyer: DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-b5fd17-dfb5bbc0-adc9-11e6-9901-0019b9f3037b

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## Summary

The Department for Education in England is seeking proposals for the project titled "Implementation of Achieving Excellence Areas". This project falls under the research and development services industry category and is at the award stage. Key dates include the contract period starting on 12th September 2016 and concluding on 8th September 2017, with a total contract value of £123,480. The procurement method used is an open procedure, and the selection process focused on analysing implementation strategies across various areas while engaging local stakeholders.

This tender provides significant opportunities for businesses involved in research, strategy evaluation, and education consultancy services. Companies that are particularly well-suited to compete include small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations capable of conducting qualitative and quantitative research. The project aims to establish effective evaluation methodologies that can inform future educational strategies, making it an attractive opportunity for firms with experience in educational research and process evaluation.

## Notice

The aim of this project is to describe and assess the implementation of the AEA strategy in the first year of delivery, in order to provide learning for the DfE on what worked well and how the strategy and implementation can be refined and improved for future delivery in 2017 and beyond. The project will establish: For each area: - what programmes or interventions were delivered, how were these defined?; - what went well in designing and setting up the AEA intervention plan? What could have gone better?; - how are programmes and interventions being delivered? How well are these operating? - what challenges or barriers have there been to successful delivery?; - how engaged are stakeholders with the intervention plan in their area? Do they understand the AEA strategy and what it means to be an AEA? - what early indicators of change we might look for? Overall: - what aspects of implementation across the different areas should be replicated, changed or avoided for successful future roll out?; - whether there was any variation across areas and/or models of delivery that should be considered in designing future implementation plans. A process evaluation and action learning approach is proposed to answer the research aims detailed above. Bidders are invited to propose the best methodology to deliver this, however we currently envisage a combination of: * Semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders (telephone or face to face) - approx. 10 stakeholders in each AEA area, at 3 different points. * Content analysis of documents relevant to the set up and early decision-making of AEAs; * Case studies (approximately 6), either of areas or of schools within broader AEAs, to describe the activities, views on the support package available and how they have been implemented, and broader engagement with the strategy. Across all methods the contractor will be expected to work iteratively with DfE to ensure research tools and approaches reflect the local context and intervention approach within each area. Alongside these methods, the contractor for this project will be expected to work alongside DfE to develop logic models for the changes expected to be affected in each AEA, based on the problems/needs and interventions specific to that area, once these have been defined. These models will be used to sense-check methods being used in the process evaluation, and to make recommendations for data collection after the life of the one-year process evaluation.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Contracts Finder |
| Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/5fcb0072-320f-4d25-832c-1178fcf589f6 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Open procedure |
| Tender suitability | SME, VCSE |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 19 Oct 2017 |
| Submission deadline | 25 Jul 2016 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 16 Dec 2016 |
| Contract period | 16 Jan 2017 - 28 Feb 2018 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £123,480 |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Not specified |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION |
| Locality | MANCHESTER |
| Post town | Manchester |
| Postcode | M1 2WD |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLD North West (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLD3 Greater Manchester |
| ITL 3 | TLD33 Manchester |
| Local authority | Manchester |
| Electoral ward | Piccadilly |
| Westminster constituency | Manchester Central |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | NFER |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

### Codes

- 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

## Release History

- 19 Oct 2017 at 11:41 - AwardUpdate - Award Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/5fcb0072-320f-4d25-832c-1178fcf589f6
- 20 Feb 2017 at 15:00 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/5fcb0072-320f-4d25-832c-1178fcf589f6
- 18 Nov 2016 at 20:17 - Tender - Tender Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f14e4e49-aef8-4348-87b9-bd15484c9bb6

## Documents

- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/5fcb0072-320f-4d25-832c-1178fcf589f6
  19th October 2017 - Awarded contract notice on Contracts Finder
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f14e4e49-aef8-4348-87b9-bd15484c9bb6
  11th July 2016 - Opportunity notice on Contracts Finder
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/56af2221-9875-4093-b313-68864b109669
  Expression of interest application
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/2262f420-fedf-4e28-82f2-d3a85609b4b1
  Expression of interest application
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/SupplierAttachment/1ff69d2b-d20b-4936-b918-9282cb0ad838
  Contract
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/e1e107d2-abb9-4710-8711-f7e532577cb2
  Expression of interest application
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/9eb40ed6-4107-40a3-8295-10c68c8115cf
  OA Redacted Contract
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/fc90acc9-b239-4d39-b1f8-8efe5baee750
  OA Contract Variation

## 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-dfb5bbc0-adc9-11e6-9901-0019b9f3037b. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-dfb5bbc0-adc9-11e6-9901-0019b9f3037b.json.