education contracts

Oak National Academy intend to procure a number of suppliers to deliver enhancement to existing full curriculum packages across a range of subject for KS1, 2 and 3. Full curriculum packages include curriculum sequences and supporting teaching resources. These will need to be aligned to relevant statutory frameworks including upcoming changes to the national curriculum programmes of study to be published by the DfE. Suppliers will also be responsible for ensuring quality assurance and working collaboratively with Oak to refine and deliver the final outputs. The structure of the procurement has not yet been finalised, although we anticipate this could be structured under a lot format with up to 12 lots, to be confirmed, across a range of subjects, again to be confirmed

Oak National Academy is establishing a dynamic market in accordance with section 34 of the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulation 16 of the Procurement Regulations 2024. The market will provide a compliant and flexible route for the award of contracts related to the engineering and product support, and ongoing development of the authority's national digital education platform and related tools. The dynamic market will allow for rolling supplier entry, publication of contract opportunities, and awards made via most advantageous tender (MAT) principles in accordance with sections 19 and 23 of the Act. This Dynamic Market will be structured into lots. Suppliers may apply for membership of one or more lots at any time during the market's term, subject to the relevant membership conditions. At the date of this notice, the market will be open for applications for the following lot: Lot 1 Web Development Services Scope: This lot covers the provision of specialist web development services to support the design, delivery, enhancement, and ongoing operation of Oak National Academy's digital education platform and associated tools. Suppliers appointed to this lot may be required to work on any part of Oak's core digital estate, including the main platform (www.thenational.academy), content creation tooling, and platform services. The scope includes: Full-stack development of Oak's web platform, with an emphasis on scalable, modular design patterns that enable rapid iteration of features Maintenance and enhancement of existing codebases underpinning existing live services Development of user interfaces that are responsive, inclusive, and accessible in line with current UK accessibility legislation and best practice, ensuring usability for all users, including those relying on assistive technologies Continuous improvement of performance, page load times, and reliability across high-traffic user journeys Secure engineering practices that uphold user privacy, data protection, and application resilience, in line with relevant public sector security guidance Collaborative delivery within agile multidisciplinary teams, including pairing with in-house developers, product managers, researchers, and content leads Deployment and testing within a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, using modern automation tools and cloud infrastructure Contribution to code documentation and handover processes, especially where features are intended for long-term use by Oak's in-house teams or other suppliers Individual contracts awarded under this lot may range from targeted feature builds to broader support and maintenance roles over a defined period. Suppliers may be required to collaborate with other digital delivery partners under Oak's delivery model. Additional lots are expected to be added to this Dynamic Market over its lifetime to cover further requirements in Digital Product Development and Support Services. These will be introduced by modification of the Dynamic Market and publication of a notice under section 39(4) of the Procurement Act 2023. Suppliers may apply for membership of any future lots when they are established.

Oak National Academy is exploring the replacement of BeApplied, its current Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which is expected to become unavailable at the end of March 2027. Oak is also considering whether to procure a linked HR information system (HRIS) at the same time, procure the systems as separate lots, or address its HRIS needs through a later procurement. The immediate priority is an ATS that can be implemented in time to maintain recruitment services. Oak is undertaking this engagement to understand the market, test its developing requirements, assess realistic implementation times and decide how best to package the ATS and HRIS requirements. No decision has yet been made to include an HRIS in the resulting tender. Oak invites input from suppliers of ATS products, HRIS products, integrated ATS and HRIS platforms, and suppliers able to deliver either system with a reliable integration to the other. Suppliers do not need to offer both systems to participate. Oak's requirements include structured and blind sifting, independent reviewer scoring, separation of diversity monitoring data from hiring decisions, accessible candidate and staff journeys, recruitment administration, reporting and export of records. Oak also wishes to explore HRIS needs and the transfer of new-starter information between systems. These are working needs, not final tender requirements or evaluation criteria. Oak welcomes different ways of achieving the outcomes. Suppliers are invited to respond by 20th October 2026 by email to [email protected]. Please state: Whether you offer an ATS, an HRIS, or both, and whether each is an established product or requires development. Indicative three-year costs for the ATS and HRIS separately, including implementation, migration, integrations, licences, support and optional modules. These figures are for planning and will not be scored. Availability for demonstrations to our team: Oak expects to hold live demonstrations or discussions during October 2026 with potential suppliers. It may use separate ATS and HRIS scenarios so suppliers offering only one system can participate meaningfully. All interested suppliers may submit written input regardless of whether they receive a live session. The engagement will not be scored or used to select a preferred supplier. Participation is not required to bid for any subsequent contract and gives no supplier an advantage in that competition. Oak will record the engagement and make information relevant to preparing a bid available to the wider market, while protecting genuinely confidential supplier information. Oak currently expects to publish an ATS tender in late October/mid November 2026, but the timing, scope, procurement route and contract value will be reviewed following this engagement. This notice is not an invitation to tender and does not commit Oak to any particular procurement or award.