Specialist Education Framework Phase 1 - Independent Non-Maintained Special Schools Round 4

Nottinghamshire County Council (the Council) is seeking to add further Independent non-maintained Special Schools (INMSS) to the Specialist Education Framework under which the Council commission INMSS and Post-16 (where the provision is delivered in house by the school) provision of specialist school placements for pupils who are not attending mainstream or maintained special schools and who have an Education Health Care (EHC) Plan.

The Framework commenced from the 1st of January 2025.

Call off" contracts under Lot 2 commenced from 1st January 2025 onwards. There have been no awards under Lot 1.

This process is the reopening of the framework for new providers to bid to join the INMSS framework and is the fourth tender round. This tender round is for only open to bid to join the INMSS Approved Provider List which is Lot 2 of the Framework Agreement. The Council are not re-opening Lot 1 Block Contract in this tender round.

Any providers who were unsuccessful in the previous tender rounds (1, 2 and 3) for Lot 2 can reapply in this tender round (4).

The establishment of a framework agreement for INMSS is the first phase of the recommissioning of the Specialist Education provision for the Council as set out in the Vision document (Part 3 - Vision document).

Further phases of the recommissioning will include Alternative Education Provision and Post-16 institutions (e.g., further education colleges that are not part of the INMSS). New procurement processes will be run at later dates which are yet to be decided.

A Framework Agreement is an agreement between the contracting authority and one or more Service Providers, the purpose of which is to establish the terms governing contracts to be awarded during a given period.

This is a multi-provider framework.

There is no guarantee of work under this Framework.

Bidders should note that a further opportunity/opportunities for organisations to bid for inclusion on this framework may be advertised. No date/s have been set for any such process; however, further rounds for both lots 1 and 2 may periodically open again subject to demand (see section 1.2.1 of the process overview document). Any Bidder who is unsuccessful in this tender may bid again in any future tender for admission to the framework.

The Framework Agreement is commissioned under the Light Touch Regime 74 -77 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 using an open procedure and advertised in the Find a Tender Service Find high value contracts in the public sector - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

To register your interest in this tender and to view the tender documents, the tender is published on https://www.eastmidstenders.org/

Reference DN784701

The closing date for all tenders is the 7th November 2025 at 5.00pm.

Please note that a standstill period of 10 days will commence from the notification of the contract award.