Department for Education National Education Nature Park and Climate Leaders Award

The Department is looking to procure a high-profile, prestigious national lead provider (or consortia) to design and deliver the National Education Nature Park (NP) and Climate Leaders Award (CLA) as announced by the Secretary of State for Education at the climate summit (COP26) in November 2021. Contract period being 2 years with the Department able to extend by a further 3 years in one year increments. The Department is looking for a successful provider to develop, launch and administer: - A prestigious National Education Nature Park that will drive the increase of biodiversity on the education estate, engage young people and develop their skills in sustainability and climate change, gather more information about the education estate and provide a platform for associated high quality learning materials. - A well-respected Climate Leaders Award recognised by employers and further and higher education providers that will increase and recognise: o the efforts of young people in improving the biodiversity of the education estate and their communities as well as taking wider climate action and o the achievements of children and young people in improving their analytical and numeracy skills and scientific knowledge of sustainability and climate change technologies through a structured, accredited programme of activity in conjunction with the development of the NP.

Once the Invitation to Tender has been issued, the Department will host a session for the sector to ask questions about the Park and Award. For further details on this session, please contact [email protected] with emails for those who would like to be invited with the subject 'Market Day - Park and Award ITT'.

ESTIMATED VALUE: £4m - £5.3m contract value for first three years of the contract, together with the responsibility to make decisions on the focus, allocation, evaluation and administration of grants to drive improvement and engagement with the NP and CLA's activities by children and young people. The successful supplier will be responsible for the management of these funds for which there will be a percentage management fee due.

Additional information: The Department is looking for a successful provider to launch a prestigious National Education Nature Park that will: Drive an increase in biodiversity on the education estate and in their communities; Engage young people in nature and develop their analytical and scientific skills and knowledge in sustainability and climate change technologies to help prepare them for future careers and further study; Provide a digital platform which provides rich and high-quality learning materials to support teachers/pupils.

The provider will also set up and manage a Climate Leaders Award designed to:

Increase the number and recognition of the efforts of children and young people in improving the biodiversity and sustainability of their education estate and community whether that be a nursery, school, college, or University; Specifically increase the participation in and engagement with these activities in diverse and underrepresented groups; Complement sustainability and climate education within the curriculum by providing opportunities to turn knowledge into practical, positive action. The award will enable young people to contextualise their learning while developing climate/biodiversity skills which will help them in their further studies and careers; Provide a structured programme of activities and learning for young people that supports the curriculum (possibly whole schools at primary/early years level with individual awards for children 11+) to enable them to earn 'credits' towards the CLA; Accredit existing schemes and awards in line with the developed programme to bring coherence and attention to what is already happening in the sector; Encourage participation in the biodiversity mapping activity which will provide a new insight into the current biodiversity baseline of the education estate and enable progress to be tracked; Annually recognise achievements in a prestigious CLA ceremony.

The successful supplier will be also expected to: Develop the NP and CLA in conjunction with children and young people to deliver a package that considers user needs alongside the intended policy objectives. Be responsible for the distribution of grant funding, oversight, and evaluation of associated projects and activities undertaken to support the work of the NP and CLA. The value of this grant funding is to be determined, and the contractor will need to confirm in their tender what percentage of such grants they would need to support the administration of these. Develop free at the point of use, high quality curriculum resources, so that teachers in all settings and subjects can confidently choose those that will support the teaching of sustainability and climate change. Work with stakeholders in the education and sustainability sectors to codesign these programmes, including a geospatial mapping supplier that will underpin the data for the NP and another supplier who will be responsible for the evaluation of the NP and CLA as a whole.