Procurement of Suppliers of School Resource Management Advisers (SRMAs)

The Contracting Authority is seeking to procure school resource management advisers (SRMAs) to support the Department for Education's Excellent School Resource Management programme. The objective is to provide direct support to academy trusts, schools and local authorities with a view to improving resource management. This is part of the Department's overarching objective to help schools improve outcomes for pupils and promote social mobility, by getting the best value from all of their resources. In the highest risk cases, this will mean providing advice and support to address current or future forecast deficits and in all cases to help schools and trusts identify opportunities to make better use of their resources, enabling them to target resources where they have the most impact on outcomes for children.

This procurement is to set up a framework agreement and call-off contract for the provision of SRMAs to schools, trusts and local authorities. The successful providers will be required to provide these services in accordance with the terms and conditions of the framework agreement and call-off contract and to source, supply and manage accredited persons from organisations working within the school or finance sector. It is anticipated that the framework agreement will last for 24 months with the ability to extend its duration for a further 12 months. The length of each call-off contract will be determined between the Department and each successful provider.

The Contracting Authority's initial requirement is for 160 accredited persons. The Contracting Authority shall therefore appoint to the framework agreement those providers that between them can supply a total of 160 accredited persons starting with the provider that submits the most economically advantageous tender and working down the list. Further details on this are set out in the procurement documents.

The evaluation methodology and criteria are set out in the procurement documents. The Contracting Authority reserves the right to increase the number of accredited persons to 250 during the lifetime of the framework agreement.