---
title: "National Workload Action Group secretariat and lead delivery partner on best practice guidance for retention and agency"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-0391df"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-0391df"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0391df.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0391df.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION"
published: "2023-08-16"
---

# National Workload Action Group secretariat and lead delivery partner on best practice guidance for retention and agency

Buyer: DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-0391df

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## Summary

The Department for Education has completed the procurement process for acquiring services related to health and social work services. The title of the tender is "National Workload Action Group secretariat and lead delivery partner on best practice guidance for retention and agency." The procurement is aimed at delivering solutions for child and family social work, including a secretariat role, tools and resources for social worker retention, and engagement of agency social workers. The contract with a value of £1,010,368 was signed on 27th July 2023.

This tender presents an opportunity for businesses in the health and social work services sector to engage with the Department for Education and contribute to solutions for social worker retention challenges. Suitable organisations with expertise in child and family social work, sector and practice experts, and experience in delivering tools and resources for social worker retention and agency engagement are well-suited to compete in this procurement.

## Notice

Following an open procurement, the Department for Education has appointed a suitably experienced organisation to deliver the following objectives relating to child and family social work: 1) To deliver solutions recommended by the National Workload Action Group (NWAG)and provide a secretariat role for the group 2) produce tools and resources to support Local Authorities with social worker retention; and 3) produce tools and resources to support Local Authorities in the engagement of agency social workers. The NWAG is made up of sector and practice experts and seeks to identify and recommend solutions to reduce unnecessary workload drivers for child and family social workers so that child and family social workers have enough time to spend working directly with children and families.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

The supplier will be responsible for delivering solutions recommended by the NWAG (either by procuring 3rd parties or performing the work directly). As part of this work the supplier will deliver a secretariat role to convene and manage the NWAG as an impartial adjudicator. In addition to the work of the NWAG, the same supplier is required to: - collate and/or produce tools and resources on areas that impact social worker retention to complement the Social Worker Employer Standards Health Check, areas include wellbeing, supervision and effective workforce planning systems; and - produce tools/resources to support Local Authorities to engage agency social workers effectively and collaboratively (including, subject to consultation, to support local authorities to comply with proposed national rules on engaging agency social work resource).

Renewal: The contractual term is set to expire in March 2025 with a possible extension of up to a further 24 months. The Buyer is expecting all deliverables to be delivered by March 2025 and any extension will be on a reduced scope and reduced cost to primarily allow the supplier to maintain / survey / improve the success of the resources only.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/023982-2023 |
| Notice type | Planning Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Open procedure |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Planning, Tender, Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 16 Aug 2023 |
| Submission deadline | 23 May 2023 |
| Future notice date | 28 Feb 2023 |
| Award date | 26 Jul 2023 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | £1,083,333 |
| Lots value | £1,083,333 |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £1,010,368 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## 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 |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | DARTINGTON HALL TRADING AS RESEARCH IN PRACTICE |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 80 - Education and training services
- 85 - Health and social work services

### Codes

- 80000000 - Education and training services
- 85000000 - Health and social work services
- 85310000 - Social work services
- 85320000 - Social services

## Release History

- 16 Aug 2023 at 09:19 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/023982-2023
- 3 Apr 2023 at 13:13 - Tender - Tender Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009656-2023
- 16 Dec 2022 at 11:47 - Planning - Planning Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/035648-2022

## Notice URLs

- https://education.app.jaggaer.com/

## 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-h6vhtk-0391df. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0391df.json.