GB-Manchester: ACE 525 ITT - "All In" Arts Access Scheme - Development of Standards and Accreditation Plan

As part of the development of a UK-wide Access Scheme (All In) Arts Council England is seeking to develop of a set of national access standards and accreditation plan.

The overall aim of All In is improve D/deaf, Disabled, and Neurodivergent audience members' experience of creative and cultural organisations by successfully developing, incubating, and piloting a UK-wide, disability-led, digital membership scheme. All In will be free for customers at the point of use and include Sector backed Standards and Accreditation (this ITT) for venues, training and support for the sector, listings, and a route to online booking and companion ticket offer. It will also provide audience insights for partners and participating venues. The other elements of All In are being procured separately.

All In has been commissioned by a Partnership comprising ACE, Arts Council Northern Ireland (ACNI), Arts Council Wales (ACW), the British Film Institute (BFI), and Creative Scotland (CS).

Arts Council England adopts the Social Model of Disability, which recognises that it is the social, procedural and attitudinal barriers which disable people.

The intention of this part of All In is to produce a Standards framework containing existing standards including 1, Built Environment (British Standards Institute BS 8300-2:2018), 2. Digital and Communications (W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) as well as encouraging the development of standards in 3. Customer Service and 4. Commissioning, Events and Programming.

Following extensive discovery work in these four areas and having undertaken market engagement with potential providers we have developed and refined our scope of requirements and provided an extended tendering period.

We are open to the above services either being procured from a single supplier or a consortium.

Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.