IA3702 - Book Parcels and Maths games for Children in care

The Service is to provide as a minimum six (6) parcels. These must be sent calendar monthly to the Virtual Schools nominated address, as identified for each eligible child. High-quality books from a range of genres, maths games and other high-quality materials, that are age appropriate to support our children's learning, which will support narrowing the gap in education achievements for our children. We expect the Provider to demonstrate how and why materials included in a parcel are chosen. The Council support academic five hundred and thirty (530) children per year. The provider will be able to support additional children should the Council need to add new to care children to the Service each month. For those new to care children, we expect them to receive all parcels from the year.

Supply of Materials-

Staffordshire County Council invites Tenders for the provision of a Service to deliver "Educational Books and Maths Games Parcels" to eligible children in care as identified by the Staffordshire virtual school. These parcels must engage the children and young people of in reading and playing educational games through the content they provide. The Provider will supply these children with colourful parcels containing books for them to keep, maths games, stationery and other high-quality materials on a calendar monthly basis, for six (6) agreed months of the year, at an agreed start date per agreed cohort. There will be an additional bonus parcel at Christmas. Suppliers will not be expected to provide the bonus parcel for 2025 but will be expected for the years thereafter. This brings the Total to seven (7) parcels per academic cohort.

The provider will need to have available parcels that are split by school year groups:

• Children aged 4-5 in the Early Years Foundation Stage/Reception
• Children in Year 1, (age 5-6)
• Children in Year 2, (ages 6-7)
• Children in Year 3, (ages 7-8)
• Children in Year 4 (ages 8-9)
• Children in Year 5, (ages 9-10)
• Children in Year 6 (ages 10-11)
• Children in Year 7 (ages 11-12)

Note: If there is a child who is working at a lower or higher level, an appropriate parcel despite their school year group can be chosen.

The parcel packaging will be robust to contain and transport the contents by the selected postal service be child friendly and it should not distinguish the cohort it's intended for. The packaging must however have distinguished identification (what this is will be decided between the Provider and the Council) to allow teachers and carers to identify the package. The Virtual School will provide the current posting list each month to the provider upon request.