INVITATION TO TENDER (ITT) to be an expert adviser for the Social Mobility Commission on a specific academic and/or policy area for the period of August 2023 - July 2024

The Social Mobility Commission (SMC) monitors progress towards improving social mobility in the UK and promotes social mobility in England. It is an independent statutory body created by an Act of Parliament.

The SMC is looking to procure subject-matter experts to provide advice on a range of issues that impact social mobility:

Academic:

Education (Lot 1)

Measurement (quantitative analysis) (Lot 2)

Routes to employment and the labour market (Lot 3)

Families expert (Lot 4)

Research surveys - design, development and application (Lot 5)

Policy:

Education (schools) (Lot 6)

Education (further education) (Lot 7)

Families expert (Lot 8)

Levelling up - geographic/ regional inequalities (Lot 9)

The experts will consist of both academic leaders in their field as well as seasoned policy experts. The final number of experts recruited will depend on the quality of bids received and budget considerations, however, the SMC would like at least one expert per thematic interest.

If successful in the tendering process, the expert will have a unique opportunity to help shape the SMC's mission of improving social mobility for all. The Commission intends to use advice arising from this contract to inform our thinking - the Commission does not expect suppliers to engage on our behalf.

A key task will be to provide input into the Social Mobility Commission's annual statutory report, The State of the Nation. This is laid before Parliament each year. In 2023 we expect to launch the report in September 2023. On a more ongoing basis, we will request experts to be a sounding board for us - on our research pipeline, our policy recommendations, as well as when we are scoping new areas that may have causal links to social mobility.

Anyone who is successful in this tender will not be excluded from bidding for future contracts offered by the SMC. Nor will provide any advantages in being considered for future bids for SMC contracts. To avoid a conflict of interest, experts would not be expected to advise on work they have been separately contracted by the SMC to do. In this case, we would aim to allocate experts to work where there is no such conflict of interest.

Length of Bids

Bids should not exceed a total of 2 pages per role (excluding CV, publication list, declarations/annex).

Any bids above that will not be considered. The font size should not be smaller than 11. Embedded links or files will not be considered.

Bidders must also please complete and submit the 'Declarations' (Document 5).

Bidders must also complete and submit the 'Conflict of Interest' (Annex One).

Bidders must submit their bids by Wednesday 19 July 2023 at noon to the Social Mobility Commission: contact@socialmobilitycommission.gov.uk.

Failure to return bids by the time and due date or in the required format may disqualify bidders from consideration.