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Bidding for business
Policy teams, with knowledge of the subject area, procure contracts for the majority of educational services and programme expenditure. Suppliers interested in specific areas of education should contact the relevant policy team directly.
If you don’t know who to contact, please get in touch with the Public Communications Unit.
New requirements are usually advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), national or trade press as appropriate.
Major running cost purchases (such as IT, consultancy and estates) are procured by central teams on behalf of the Department.
For the commodity area you are interested in please see Who to Contact.
For general procurement enquiries telephone the Procurement Helpline: 0114 259 4707.
- Preparing and effective tender
- Tender evaluation
- Debriefing
- Department contract terms and conditions
Preparing an effective tender
The tender proposal is the sole way of putting forward the case of your organisation in a competitive tendering exercise. How you prepare and present your tender proposal can be a crucial factor in securing a contract.
The following general guidance is designed to help you understand what can turn a tender into a winning tender:
- Read the ITT properly – preparation is the key so understand fully what is being asked of you.
- Respond in the required format – follow the layout requested, keep to the order for documents if one is given, send it to the person named and get the address right.
- Give full answers – this is your only chance, so give solutions, answer the whole question, but be concise, if people have to work too hard to find the answer it can create the wrong impression.
- Be upfront – our ITT will be as honest about the requirement as possible. In return we look for honest bids with no hidden costs. Organisations that make money through contract variations have a short shelf-life in the Department.
- If you decide not to answer an invitation to tender please tell us. We can then learn from that for future requirements.
- Time is of the essence – plan ahead to ensure you meet the deadline. Timing can be critical in the Department and if you can't meet the bid delivery deadline we may worry about what other deadlines you may miss.
- Debrief or not debrief – if you don't quite make it this time ask why. You can learn for next time.
- Bulky bids mean freebie advertising – don't use the bid as a vehicle to issue glossy brochures about your organisation. It's a waste of your money and our time.
Like all Government departments, our procurement exercises have no hidden agenda. All we want is to identify suppliers who can work with us to help us achieve our business objectives. Following these guidelines gets you off onto the right foot with us.
Tender evaluation
Your bid will be successful if it is the one that offers the Department the best value for money.
Detailed evaluation criteria for assessing bids will be included in your invitation to tender letter. Rest assured that all bidders are assessed against the same criteria.
We aim to award a contract as soon as possible after the assessment process has been completed. This might involve attending an interview where you will be given the opportunity to present your bid in more detail and be questioned by a panel of officials on certain aspects of it.
Debriefing
Within the limits of some commercial confidentiality, the Department will always offer to explain to unsuccessful tenderers why their bid failed. This debriefing can be by letter, phone or face–to-face.
Debriefing should be viewed as a two-way process. Our comments are designed to be constructive and aim to draw your attention to certain weaknesses (and strengths), so that you can compete better for future work.
Department contract terms and conditions
Due to the complexity of the majority of the Department’s requirements, contract terms and conditions are compiled on a case-by-case basis.
However, most are based on our standard terms and conditions which are available for information by clicking on the links below.
Examples of specifications and pricing schedules are not included as they are project specific.
If you would like to know which terms and conditions apply when bidding for a particular contract, then contact the person named in the advert and tender documentation.
