Centre of Excellence for Literacy Teaching and English hubs

See 'Attachments' for further information.

The Department for Education (DfE) intends to undertake a procurement exercise to establish a Centre of Excellence for Literacy Teaching and a network of English Hubs.

In December 2017, the Secretary of State for Education announced funding for a network of English Hubs as part of the Social Mobility Action Plan, to improve early language and literacy teaching. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plan-to-boost-social-mobility-through-education

DfE will be seeking proposals from organisations or consortia to establish a Centre of Excellence. We envisage that the Centre of Excellence will manage a network of 35 English Hubs and will facilitate good practice in early language and literacy teaching. DfE is engaging with interested providers to advise them of a change to the intended procurement process and to update them on the English Hubs Programme.

Additional information: An initial supplier event was held on 27 February 2018, for organisations to gain a better understanding of DfE's requirements and as an opportunity for networking and possible consortia discussions.

A second supplier event will be held on 30 April 2018 between 11:30 and 13:00 at:

Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street London SW1P 3BT

We are holding a second supplier event to help organisations understand why we intend to change to a two-stage, Light Touch Regime procurement process in accordance with Regulations 74 to 76 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, what this will mean for potential providers and to update them on progress and timelines for the English Hubs Programme.