Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 4 Nov 2026, 14:14 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

HR Associate Framework · UK public procurement notice

Authority: the Education Authority (Education)

Framework agreementServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£495,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 13 Jan 2027from the planned procurement notice
Framework period 4 yrsends 9 May 2031 · starts 10 May 2027
Notice summaryFrom the published notice

This is a Pre-Market Engagement Exercise The Education Authority (EA) intends to establish a Framework to provide Support and Advisory Services across Human Resources, Organisational Development and Learning and Business Management. The framework will be established for a period of 4 years. The Framework will be used to provide extra capacity to enable the Directorate to fulfil its normal business functions, respond to customer needs and flexibly deal with peaks in workload. They may also be used to provide specialist skills and experience for larger one-off projects as and when required.

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This is a Pre-Market Engagement Exercise The Education Authority (EA) intends to establish a Framework to provide Support and Advisory Services across Human Resources, Organisational Development and Learning and Business Management. The framework will be established for a period of 4 years. The scope of this Framework Agreement is to procure Support and Advisory Services across Human Resources, Organisational Development and Learning and general Business Management. The main objective of the Framework is to provide a professional resource which can be flexibly deployed across the full remit of services provided by People Directorate. The Framework will be used to provide extra capacity to enable the Directorate to fulfil its normal business functions, respond to customer needs and flexibly deal with peaks in workload. They may also be used to provide specialist skills and experience for larger one-off projects as and when required. The Framework will be structured across the following lots.

  • Lot 1 - Transformational, Change and Business Management
  • Lot 2 – Leadership
  • Lot 3 - Employee Relations
  • Lot 4 - Recruitment
  • Lot 5 - Business Analysis, Strategic Planning and Data Analytics
  • Lot 6 - Culture, Vision and Values
  • Lot 7 - Employee Engagement
  • Lot 8 - Coaching and Mentoring
  • Lot 9 - Equality and Human Rights
  • Lot 10 - Performance and Reward Please note this is not a framework for the provision of Legal Services This Exercise will be used to assist EA in gaining a better understanding of the market/feasibility of the requirements, the most appropriate procurement and operational approach, the capacity of the market to deliver the requirements and an opportunity for the market to highlight any possible risks or issues that may not have previously been considered.

This Framework is let by the Northern Ireland Education Authority (“EA”) and is open to the EA, including NI educational bodies as follows and at some point, during the life of the Framework these bodies may wish to utilise the Framework and should have access, at any point, with the permission of EA. This Framework is not intended to replace any current Framework that participating or non-participating institutions may already have in place.

www.education-ni.gov.uk/services/schools-plus ↗

Primary and Post Primary schools under the control of the EA, Catholic Maintained Schools, Independent Schools in NI, Irish Medium Schools in NI, both Controlled and, Voluntary Grammar Schools, Nursery School for NI (both controlled and Catholic Maintained), school meals kitchens on-site at all of these schools, and Controlled Youth Centres.

www.nidirect.gov.uk/contacts/further-edu… ↗

Further Education Colleges in NI

www.nicie.org/parents/school-finder/ ↗

Grant Controlled Integrated Education Schools in NI

www.isc.co.uk/schools/northern-ire… ↗

Independent School in NI

Libraries NI: www.librariesni.org.uk/Libraries/ ↗

EA Teachers’ and Educational Centres

Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment NI (CCEA)

Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

Middletown Centre for Autism

Controlled Schools Support Council (CSSC)

Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE)

Pre-Schools and Nurseries included in the Pre-School Education Programme (PSEP)

Comhairle na Gaelscolaiochta

Department of Education NI

CPV: Business and management consultancy and related services · Business and management consultancy services · Business development consultancy services · Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security · Crisis management services · Education and training services · General management consultancy services · Management training services · Personal development training services · Recruitment services · Staff training services · Training programme services · +1 more

How this framework works

From the published notice
Framework period
4 yrs from 10 May 2027

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
What this means for your bid
  • “HR Associate Framework” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How the Education Authority buys Business and management consultancy services (CPV 7941), and who usually turns up

the Education Authority’s published record next to the market for the same work. Compared with other frameworks and DPS only. Whole-market view: Business and management consultancy services (CPV 7941) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerthe Education Authority · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 16 of 17 known-size awards · market: CPV 7941 · UK-wide, n=60
94%57%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 11 of 14 known-location awards · market: CPV 7941 · UK-wide, n=37
79%57%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 13 decided notices · market: CPV 7941 · UK-wide, n=25
62 days63 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 62 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 2 of 13 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7941 · UK-wide, n=58
15%34%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer79 lots with bid counts · all categories
11% had one bid
The market69 lots with bid counts · CPV 7941 · UK-wide
7% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid11% / 7%
Buyer: 9 of 79 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 69 lots with published bid counts.
2–322% / 23%
Buyer: 17 of 79 lots with published bid counts. Market: 16 of 69 lots with published bid counts.
4–632% / 17%
Buyer: 25 of 79 lots with published bid counts. Market: 12 of 69 lots with published bid counts.
7+35% / 52%
Buyer: 28 of 79 lots with published bid counts. Market: 36 of 69 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

Not comparable on a framework or DPS: the price is set later, on each call-off.

2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 794148 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£495k
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 83 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet4% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 83 similar lots
1 bid4%
3 of 83 similar past lots received 1 bid (4%).
2–318%
15 of 83 similar past lots received 2–3 (18%).
4–629%
24 of 83 similar past lots received 4–6 (29%).
7+49%
41 of 83 similar past lots received 7+ (49%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 6 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—Priced at call-off
On a framework or DPS the price is agreed on each call-off, so there is no award price to forecast here: the published figure is a ceiling.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly. Contracts Finder contracts appear on the Retender Radar, not yet in these figures.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Framework agreement
Who may use this agreement
Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
4 Nov 2026, 14:14 GMT
Last source update
4 Nov 2026, 14:20 GMT
Authority reference
BSP-26-012
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-104710
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Business and management consultancy and related servicesBusiness and management consultancy servicesBusiness development consultancy servicesBusiness services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and securityCrisis management servicesEducation and training servicesGeneral management consultancy servicesManagement training servicesPersonal development training servicesRecruitment services
+3 moreStaff training servicesTraining programme services
Delivery area
Northern Ireland (UKN)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07b2f8 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Appointment period ends
—

Timeline

4 Nov 2026 → 10 May 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published2h ago
    4 Nov 2026, 14:14 GMT
  2. Today
    4 Nov 2026
  3. Market engagementin 20 days
    24 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT

    The objectives of this market Exercise are to:

     provide suppliers with an initial awareness of the potential business requirement

     gain insight to the market possibilities and potential innovative solutions

     understand risks and potential issues related to:

     understand required timescales

     provide EA with confidence around deliverability

     inform the procurement strategy

     prepare the market for the forthcoming procurements

     understand the key issues that are likely to encourage, or discourage, suppliers to bid

     ensure that project procurements and contracts are attractive to the market and encourage competition, including to potential new entrants to the market in NI; and

     prevent unachievable project proposals from reaching any final procurement stage.

    This Exercise will be used to assist EA in gaining a better understanding of the market/feasibility of the requirements, the most appropriate procurement and operational approach, the capacity of the market to deliver the requirements and an opportunity for the market to highlight any possible risks or issues that may not have previously been considered.

    At this stage, any information gathered through this Exercise will inform internal business planning and the development of the procurement strategy for any possible subsequent procurement process and will NOT be appraised in any future tender evaluation exercise.

    The EA reserves the right to require additional clarification information in relation to any responses provided by suppliers as part of this Exercise and, may, should it deem it necessary or appropriate, request a conversation/meet with one or more suppliers where such conversation/meeting is necessary to clarify the supplier’s questionnaire responses. Such conversation/meeting would be limited to those questionnaire responses that require clarification.

    For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the Programme and is not part of a formal procurement process.

    Further details are available at etendersni.gov.uk/epps/cft/prepareView… ↗

  4. Tender notice expectedin 70 days
    13 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 186 days
    10 May 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 4 Nov 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    4 Nov 2026, 14:14 GMT
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    4 Nov 2026, 14:20 GMT
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

Details of link to eTendersNI for further information added Further details are available at https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps/cft/prepareViewCfTWS.do?resourceId=6831400

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

the Education Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PPHJ-6982-JPXY 40 Academy Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT1 2NQContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure