Functional Skills Diagnostic and Upskilling Software.

The national Talent for Care team estimates that approximately 15,000 NHS apprentices may be struggling with functional skills. It must be noted, however, that this is an estimation, and the actual figure may be higher.

We want to procure software to support the study of maths, English and digital skills (aka functional skills) which we will then contract out to NHS employers on a case by case basis. Based on current projections, we envision that we will establish contracts with around 100 large-scale employers i.e. NHS Trusts, where there will be cohorts of learners varying in size from 20 to 2,000. This number is only an estimate however and the supplier must be able to provide service to substantially more large employers than this figure, if required. The supplier must also be able to provide service to approximately 500 SME employers where we believe there will be 1 - 5 learners per employer. Again, this figure is an estimate and the supplier must be able to provide service to significantly higher number if required.

The number of learners (employees) in each employer will vary according to the local skills mix and need but the final overall total could total 15,000 or significantly more. Capacity to support this must be outlined in the tender response. We believe that by procuring at this scale we can achieve a level of competitive pricing that is not possible for individual employers and that we can achieve national coverage of the software.