Consultancy Support with Improvements for Children with SEND

This is a specialist service for complex change programmes that can be delivered only by a very limited category of suppliers. Newton Consulting Ltd have been identified for their unique position, existing work to date and understanding of the breadth of work around children with SEND, Dedicated Schools Grants and the overall financial benchmarking and performance across the country within this area.

They were the delivery partner for the DfE for the Delivering Better Value Programme working with one third of the country's local areas (54 in total) to build an evidence base to identify opportunities within SEND that local areas could achieve without legislative change. Newton then supported these local areas to build their implementation plans to realise these opportunities. Alongside this experience the breadth of experience in working with over 100 public sector organisations puts them in a unique position to deliver successfully on this work.

Direct Award is made in accordance with PA23 Schedule 5 - Above Threshold Justifications Direct Awards paragraph 3. This is an additional commission to a specialist consultancy that have previously completed diagnostic work in these services. A change in supplier would mean considerable additional work and would be likely to result in an outcome that was incompatible with progress already made in this area.