Sector Data Capability Pilot

The Department for Education (DfE) is exploring a data capability support offer for the education sector, focusing on data professionals in multi-academy trusts, schools, and publicly funded early-years providers. This Discovery and Alpha phase will explore how to support data professionals with skills, career development, and help organisations use data more effectively to improve outcomes for children and young people. While data is a critical enabler, many organisations face challenges such as inconsistent data maturity, unclear roles, limited technical capacity, and reliance on individual champions over systemic processes. This is the Department's Contract Award Notice for the procurement of a Sector Data Capability Support Pilot seeking to deliver the below: - Engage a diverse sample of organisations and users to understand their data capability needs and barriers. - Develop and test deliverables aligned with DfE's Data Capability Skills Framework, informed by user research and prototyped across the sector. - Provide prioritised recommendations for short-, medium-, and long-term actions to strengthen data capability, including indicative costs and resource needs. - Deliver a final report with evidence-based findings and recommendations to inform DfE policy and a potential national support model. - Engage with related workstreams (e.g. data maturity research) to ensure alignment and avoid duplication. This strategic initiative aims to enable large-scale impact by improving how data is used across the education sector. The ideal supplier will have expertise in education, service design, user-centred design, and digital development. The agreement will last from 1st October until 31st March 2026. This contract was competed via the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) RM1043.8 Digital Outcomes 6 (DOS 6) Framework, Lot 1- Digital Outcomes.