SEN Unit and Resourced Provision Guidance

The purpose of this early engagement notice is to notify the market of a forthcoming market engagement event relating to a potential procurement of an experienced Delivery Partner (DP) to develop best practice guidance, in partnership with DfE, to operate (and set up) SEN units, resourced provision, and pupil support units within mainstream schools. The guidance will be DfE guidance hosted on gov.uk. The department will be undertaking an online event on 24th July 2025 for interested suppliers.

The Delivery Partner must:

1. Have access to lead practitioners with an excellent understanding and proven track record of setting up and operating SEN units, resourced provision, and pupil support units (sometimes referred to as Internal AP) (collectively hereafter referred to as ‘bases’).
2. Understand the needs of mainstream schools and local authorities, so that the guidance helps senior leaders and staff to deliver high quality practice.
3. Have a track record of producing high quality and impactful sector facing resources, including guidance.
4. Have experienced facilitators able to engage and coordinate a wide range of stakeholders.
5. Have capacity to arrange and deliver facilitated working group sessions, work in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE) to develop interim and final guidance, over a 6 month period.

A delivery partner will be selected via ECSC Dynamic Procurement System. Registration details can be found here:

educationgovuk.sharepoint.com/sites/SURPGuidancePr… ↗

The Department will be undertaking a market engagement webinar event on the 24th July at 14:00. We would like to invite you to the webinar, where we will provide further detail on the requirement and an opportunity to ask questions. It is anticipated that the event will last 45 minutes. The objectives of the event will be to:

• Give you an understanding of the aim of the potential procurement.
• Give you the opportunity to provide feedback.

Please note that a maximum of two people from each organisation can attend the event. You do not need to have completed DPS registration to attend the event, but you must be registered on the DPS to submit a bid.

We may record all questions asked, as well as answers given, and make these publicly available as reference for all interested parties.

If the procurement exercise goes ahead, it is expected to open in August 2025 for a window of around 14 days. More information on the potential procurement process will be provided following this market engagement activity.

This notice is for information only and is not a call for competition. The Department reserves the right not to enter a formal procurement process and not award contracts. Accordingly, the Authority will not be liable for any bid cost, expenditure, work or effort incurred by a provider in acting on the basis of this PIN. All future information will be issued to potential providers via the DfE eTendering Portal.

Kind regards

DfE