Delays Hit New Schools ICT Framework

The new £300m ICT For Education framework has not issued its intention-to-award letters as originally planned after receiving an unprecedented amount of responses to the tender.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) notified suppliers that the 6^th March deadline would not be met in an email seen by channel IT publication CRN.

“We have had a high level of interest in this procurement and are continuing to evaluable responses,” CCS claimed.

“As such, we will not be issuing the intention-to-award letters today as expected. We will update you again shortly,” it added.

Bids for a place on the new schools ICT framework were required to be submitted by 19^th December while award letters would be issued on Friday,

The framework agreements were originally supposed to be issued on 24^th March to a successful maximum of 20 candidates, although it is unclear whether this will now be pushed back or not.

Equipment that will be supplied via the new framework includes hardware, software, networks, peripherals, AV, user devices and mobile connectivity.

ICT For Education will replace its predecessor framework Becta ICT and intends to provide customers with the capability to obtain ICT services and goods tailored for the specific needs of a diverse range of educational establishments.

Other Frameworks Affected By Delays

This is not the first time this year that CCS has been forced to postpone a new framework agreement after it could not cope with the volume of responses received.

The Network Services Framework, which was intended to replace two other agreements, has now been delayed three times.

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