Children’s Social Care – Sector Capability, Capacity and Skills

The purpose of this PIN is to initiate market consultation; it is not a call for tenders. The PIN is intended to:

1. Raise awareness with the market of a potential future procurement process, and to enable time for organisations to begin early discussions with the Department for Education (the department) and each other as to how they may be able to deliver any future contract.
2. Inform the market that the department will be undertaking market consultation activity, to gather information about the supply market; to explore potential delivery models and associated benefits of those models; and to inform its understanding of the risks and issues relevant to managing transition to, and mobilisation of, any new service arrangements. This will consist of an online event which will take place on 20 February 2025, time to be confirmed. If you are interested in joining this event, please contact emilie.wilkinson@education.gov.uk and sahir.iqbal@education.gov.uk who will arrange for an online invitation to be issued in due course. We intend to share the questions and answers from the events with all potential suppliers. This PIN, and the online event, relate to the department’s interest in providing a support offer to help local authorities (LAs) improve their data and digital maturity with respect to children’s social care (CSC) services, to help achieve the strategic objectives set out in the Children’s Social Care Data and Digital Strategy (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-social-care-data-and-digital-strategy/5106bf76-259a-474c-acd3-b187812007c6): supporting strong data culture and leadership; supporting systems and technology to meet sector need; and improving the data we collect, share, and use. There is an estimated budget of £750K - £1m for year one (25/26), with expectations (subject to future funding decisions) to grow spend to approximately £2m per year for a further 2 years.