Pre-market engagement – Legal Adviser Services for Teacher Misconduct Cases (Teaching Regulation Agency)

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) intends to procure external legal adviser services to support the lawful, fair and efficient operation of Professional Conduct Panel (PCP) hearings. These services will build on the model used under the current Legal Adviser (LA) contracts and will ensure panels receive independent, high quality legal advice throughout the misconduct hearing process. Legal advisers provide essential and impartial advice to PCPs on matters of law, mixed questions of law and fact, procedure, precedent, and any other issues relevant to the case before the panel. They also draft the panel’s written findings of fact, announced decision, and final decision document, ensuring these are clear, legally sound and fully compliant with the Teachers’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012 and TRA’s published guidance. The TRA will conduct early market engagement to present our high level approach to the future service model and ensure suppliers have clarity ahead of the formal procurement. These sessions will provide an opportunity to explore practical aspects of delivering legally compliant hearings, understand market capacity and discuss how suppliers can support resilience and consistency across panels. After the event, suppliers will be invited to complete a questionnaire to provide feedback that will support the TRA’s development of its service model. The resulting procurement will therefore establish a resilient, high quality legal adviser service capable of supporting the current statutory framework and the future expansion of the Teacher Misconduct regime. The TRA will work closely with contracted suppliers to maintain high standards of legal accuracy, consistency in decision making and operational stability across all panel hearings. *Please be aware that registration is for the Market Engagement Event only. This event does not signify the commencement of any procurement process and does not constitute any commitment by the Department for Education. This is NOT an invitation to tender for a contract opportunity and any suppliers invited to the event will not have a privileged position in relation to any future contract opportunity. Any subsequent procurement(s) that DfE conducts will be based on the fair and objective outcome of a procurement process.* 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.