School improvement services contracts

• The five suppliers that won the most school improvement services contracts took 20% of them (20 of 98).
• The median contract, £37k, is 31% below the median across education & training contracts (£54k).
• North East had the most contracts: 73, or 75% of the total.

1. 1Department for Education75 contracts£3.2m
2. 2Kent County Council3 contracts£145k
3. 3City of Doncaster Council3 contracts£92k
4. 4Liverpool City Council1 contract£1.6m
5. 5Walsall Council e-Tendering1 contract£630k
6. 6Cardiff Council1 contract£218k
7. 7Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council1 contract£180k
8. 8Cheshire East Council1 contract£138k
9. 9Stoke-on-Trent City Council1 contract£103k
10. 10Northumberland County Council1 contract£96k

1. 1Brian Gale Associates5 contracts£202k
2. 2Propelo Limited5 contracts£143k
3. 3Red Kite Solutions (SEN) Ltd4 contracts£162k
4. 4NMK Consultancy Services3 contracts£144k
5. 5Cath Hitchen Consultancy Ltd3 contracts£128k
6. 6SkyBlu Solutions3 contracts£128k
7. 7Cullen Consultants Limited3 contracts£110k
8. 8Quire Consultancy Limited.3 contracts£97k
9. 9MPA Consultants3 contracts£56k
10. 10Aspire All Ltd2 contracts£158k

Latest

• THE PROVISION OF SCHOOL SUPPORT PARTNERSHIP COORDINATOR (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £38k

  Rutland County Council to Educational Consultancy · Awarded 24 September 2026

• Market Engagement Event - Delivery partner for partnerships supporting early years-school transitions (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £1.6m

  Department for Education to Mott MacDonald · Awarded 11 September 2026

• W5023 The provision of The School Improvement Service, The Quality Assurance Service and The Moderation Service (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £630k

  Walsall Council e-Tendering to Challenging Education · Awarded 4 September 2026

• Independent Scrutineer SEND (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £96k

  Northumberland County Council to Janet Arris Independent Consultant · Awarded 24 August 2026

• Local SEND Reform Plan Support (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £40k

  City of Doncaster Council to Reed Specialist Recruitment · Awarded 31 July 2026

• CP2856-26 EHCP Funding Framework Implementation Assurance & Transition Support (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £50k

  Devon County Council to Peopletoo Limited · Awarded 31 July 2026

• SESLIP DPS - Inclusion 2026-27 (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £45k

  Kent County Council to Cullen Consultants Limited · Awarded 30 July 2026

• SESLIP DPS - Targeted Support run-off (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £43k

  Kent County Council to Claire Woodcock Consulting · Awarded 30 July 2026

• SESLIP DPS - Project Support (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £58k

  Kent County Council to School Development Support Agency · Awarded 15 July 2026

• Delivery and Quality Support for School Age Childcare (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £69k

  Somerset Council to Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership · Awarded 8 July 2026

Largest

• Quality improvement support services for early education and childcare providers (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £1.6m

  Liverpool City Council to SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT LIVERPOOL LIMITED · Awarded 31 October 2025

• Call Off contracts awarded under ECSC Framework - Lot 10 (December 2025) (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £400k

  Department for Education to supplier not published · Awarded 10 December 2025

• Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £218k

  Cardiff Council to Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) · Awarded 1 June 2026

• School Improvement Services (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £180k

  Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council to Tykes Teaching Alliance · Awarded 3 June 2026

• Independent SEND Improvement and Assurance Board Chair (official notice, opens in a new tab)

  £138k

  Cheshire East Council to Better Future Consulting Ltd · Awarded 21 April 2026

Education-specialist advice, challenge and support for schools, trusts, dioceses and council education and SEND services: school improvement advisers and programmes, education and governance reviews and mock inspections, curriculum and SACRE advice, and SEND and AP improvement advisers for local areas.

• School improvement adviser and partner services
• Regional or council targeted improvement support packages
• Programme management of school improvement projects
• School improvement bought together with moderation
• External reviews of school governance
• Investigative reports on schools
• Expert quality assurance of initial teacher training provider design and content
• Mock inspections and quality of education reviews
• SACRE advisers and agreed syllabus development
• Drafting national curriculum programmes of study and subject content
• RE and subject training and resources for schools given by the adviser
• DfE SEND advisers to local authorities
• SEND and AP improvement support for at-risk local areas
• Advice to local area SEND partnerships
• Early years quality improvement advice (not yet seen)

• Teacher training, NPQs and CPD programmes (edu.sch.school-staff-cpd-and-leadership-development)
• Specialist teaching and outreach to pupils and schools (edu.sch.send-specialist-teaching-and-sensory-support)
• Educational psychology and EHC assessments (edu.sch.educational-psychology-and-ehc-assessment)
• Governing body clerking, governor training and admission appeal clerking (edu.sch.governance-clerking-and-admission-appeals)
• Qualification development (edu.assess.qualification-development-and-awarding)
• External marking and moderation bought on its own (edu.assess.test-development-and-selection-testing)
• Organisation-wide and service reviews (csl.strat.strategy-development)
• Finance and SEND high-needs value for money reviews (csl.acct.financial-sustainability-and-finance-function-reviews)
• Education research and evaluation (csl.research.programme-evaluation)
• Board effectiveness reviews outside schools (csl.strat.governance-reviews)
• SEND information, advice and support services for families (soc.advoc.statutory-functions-unspecified)
• School performance data software (it.lob.school-performance-analytics)

• Genitourinary medicine
• Pumping stations