Department for Education

How to win their contracts

Measured from Department for Education's own published record — no estimates, no generic advice.

• Plan for about 32 days to prepare a bid — that is the median gap between publication and deadline across 212 of their tenders.
• They publish about 11.4 tenders a month, measured over 67 months of history.
• Half of their 197 awarded contracts are worth £1.6m or less — size your bid to that range.
• Most of their buying falls in education and training services, it services: consulting, software development, internet and support, business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing, security.
• Their most frequent suppliers are National Children’s Bureau (4), Mutual Ventures Ltd (4), Ambition Institute (3) — expect to bid against incumbents who already know this buyer.