Official UK procurement notice
Independent Secretariat Service / Function for the School Support Staff Negotiating Body
Authority: Department for Education (Central government)
The Department for Education (DfE) is seeking to engage with the market in advance of a planned procurement for an independent secretariat service to support the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB). The SSSNB was established through the Employment Rights Act 2025 and brings together employer and employee representatives to negotiate matters relating to school support staff pay, terms and conditions. The service must provide more than administrative support.
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Department for Education (DfE) is seeking to engage with the market in advance of a planned procurement for an independent secretariat service to support the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB). The SSSNB was established through the Employment Rights Act 2025 and brings together employer and employee representatives to negotiate matters relating to school support staff pay, terms and conditions
The Department intends to appoint a supplier to provide an independent and impartial secretariat function to support the effective operation of the SSSNB and its associated governance arrangements. The service must provide more than administrative support. The provider will help create the conditions for constructive negotiations while remaining impartial and independent of employer, employee and departmental interests.
The successful provider will be expected to:
- provide governance and secretariat support to the SSSNB and its Chair including developing the operating model, coordination of meetings, agendas, papers, action tracking and records of decisions;
- facilitate effective engagement and relationship management between the independent Chair, employer representatives, employee representatives, Department for Education officials and other stakeholders;
- support (including through planning and commissioning) evidence gathering, research, analysis and reporting activities;
- prepare briefings, recommendations and other documentation required to support the work of the SSSNB;
- coordinate meetings, agendas, papers, action tracking and records of decisions; and
- plan, coordinate and support the smooth delivery of the SSSNB's work programme
The DfE is keen to maximise opportunities to participate in procurement for Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs). Consideration will also be given to consortia and collaborative bids from all forms of organisations.
CPV: Management-related services · Office-support services · Project-management services other than for construction work
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Department for Education buys Management-related services (CPV 7942), and who usually turns up
Department for Education’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Management-related services (CPV 7942) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 51 days of the bid deadline.
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.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
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.
1 bid10% / 17%
2–336% / 33%
4–624% / 33%
7+29% / 17%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Awards below, close to or above the estimate, per lot. The buyer side adds below-threshold contracts with a pre-award estimate; an award inside a published range counts as close.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate36% / 35%
Within ±2%50% / 51%
Above estimate14% / 15%
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.
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 79Published estimate£877k
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 79. The comparison uses that group.
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 1,829 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid15%
2–324%
4–628%
7+33%
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.
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.
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.
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 and Contracts Finder), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly. Contracts Finder appears in live search, the Retender Radar, contract pages, organisation counts, the earlier contracts and past suppliers on a tender's competition panel, the buyer's decision figure and its award against estimate; the other analytical figures are built from Find a Tender notices.
- 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- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 6 Nov 2026, 13:01 GMT
- Last source update
- 6 Nov 2026, 14:11 GMT
- Authority reference
project_10762- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-105757- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07b678Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
6 Nov 2026 → 10 Feb 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published5 days ago6 Nov 2026, 13:01 GMT
- Today11 Nov 2026
- Market engagementin 6 days17 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
The Department for Education intends to undertake preliminary market engagement through:
A live Microsoft Teams market engagement session will be held with interested suppliers. This will:
- provide an overview of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body
- explain the proposed secretariat and scope
- outline the anticipated procurement approach;
- provide information on onboarding, assurance and delivery expectations;
- allow suppliers to ask questions and seek clarification; and
- gather initial feedback from the market regarding feasibility, risks, timescales and implementation considerations.
Attendance at the event is voluntary and will not form part of any future evaluation process.
Following the market engagement event, suppliers will be invited to complete an optional Microsoft Forms questionnaire.
The questionnaire will be used to gather feedback on:
- supplier capability and capacity;
- proposed delivery approaches;
- indicative implementation timescales;
- onboarding and assurance requirements;
- potential risks and dependencies;
- market appetite
- any other observations that may assist DfE in refining the procurement strategy and requirements.
Responses will be considered solely for market engagement purposes and will not be scored or evaluated as part of any future procurement process.
If you are interested in attending this market engagement please register via Jaggaer before the event.
Once registered, the supplier event area can be accessed by clicking "View Opportunities" on the main page.
By registering for this market engagement event, you acknowledge that the information shared through this market engagement is provided in confidence and must not be disclosed outside your organisation. Please ensure all attendees from your organisation are aware of and comply with this requirement.
Nothing contained within this notice, the market engagement event, any supporting materials, or the follow-up questionnaire shall be taken as a commitment by the Department for Education to commence a procurement, award a contract, enter into any agreement, or provide funding. Information provided during the engagement is indicative only and may be subject to change.
If you are interested in attending this market engagement please register via Jaggaer before the event.
Once registered, the supplier event area can be accessed by clicking "View Opportunities" on the main page.
By registering for this market engagement event, you acknowledge that the information shared through this market engagement is provided in confidence and must not be disclosed outside your organisation. Please ensure all attendees from your organisation are aware of and comply with this requirement.
Please register for Jaggaer using the URL link below: education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html ↗
Following registration, you will receive a message via the Jaggaer portal asking you to confirm this acknowledgement. You must respond in confirmation to this message before an event invite will be issued.
Participants who have registered an expression of interest will receive a link to join the session via Microsoft Teams.
If you do not receive the invite at least 24hrs before the event, please also email [email protected] to ensure you receive joining instructions in time.
The event listing on Jaggaer is: SSSNB Secretariat Procurement
- Tender notice expectedin 16 days27 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 90 days10 Feb 2027
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 6 Nov 2026- Pipeline notice published6 Nov 2026, 13:01 GMTUK1
- Preliminary market engagement notice published6 Nov 2026, 14:11 GMTUK2
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
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender