Win high-value education contracts with our bid writers
Our team of expert bid and tender writers help UK businesses win new education sector contracts. Whether you are bidding for CIF funding, a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), a university framework or a Department for Education DfE grant or contracts, you need to score highly across all qualitative criteria and our team has the experience to help you win. We have:
- A 90% success rate writing education sector bids in 2025
- Two bid and tender writers that specialise in education sector bids
- Over 35 years combined experience writing bids to and helping clients win contracts with the education sector.
With the new £207,720 2026 threshold having started on January 1, we will continue to see an increase in contracts with for schools and local authorities.
We will help win contracts with DfE and other education frameworks and institutions
Our team of writers based in London, Manchester and Leeds, as well as remotely across the UK. We will help you:
- Write your bid response.
- Answer all of the question comprehensively.
- Write a quality social value response.
- Comply for the DfE requirements.
- Ensure that you add an education flavour to your bid.
- Develop and strategise win themes to help you deliver clear messaging.
- Submit your bid or tender.
- Identity suitable tender opportunities
- Build a bid library with AI to ensure you develop and submit bids efficiently.
Experience across all education sector frameworks
Our team has experience writing bids and tenders for all frameworks, trusts and funds in the education sector including:
- Condition Improvement Fund (CIF)
- Pupil Premium Grants
- T Level Capital Fund
- In-tend Education Portal
- Jaggaer (the e-tendering portal used by the Department for Education for national (and other large) contracts.
We have worked on bids in the education sector across multiple industries such as:
Construction and estate renewals including bids to:
- LHC Procurement Group
- Pagabo
- GEM (Good Estate Management)
- DfE (for the Construction Framework 2025)
- Crown Commercial Services
- Crescent Purchasing Consortium
ICT and Digital Transformation with strong experience helping Saas and infrastructure service providers capitalise on the ‘smart skills’ initiative and write winning bids and secure frameworks with:
- G-Cloud 15 (popular for cloud software contracts)
- Everything ICT (hardware and managed services)
- CPC (Crescent Purchasing Consortium) for IT Hardware and library services
Back offices and administration services including bids to frameworks and consortia such as:
- NEPRO
- SUPC / LUPC – based in London we know the London Universities Purchasing Consortium well as well as other University sector consortiums across the country.
- KCS Procurement Services – for national bids related to different services in education.
Our service extends from helping you not only get onto these frameworks. We believe the real challenge lies in turning them into real revenue. We help you write and participate in mini-competitions whilst on the frameworks as well as direct call-offs.
Key themes we focus on to help you win education sector contracts
Standards and compliance
We go further than simply ticking the boxes and ensuring you have supporting documents that meet the minimum standards. We will ensure that your bid, and processes, align with the KCSIE, Ofsted/IFI and any specific DfE requirements.
Compliance is critical to even have a chance of winning the tender, and a culture focused on compliance that is demonstrated throughout your bid will certainly help you score well and put the procurement personnel in a positive mindset.
Evidence-based real impact
You can write anything and anything in a bid or tender. Regardless of if you are bidding to provide catering to students, maintenance to school facilities or other services, you need to back up what you write with evidence in order to have any real credibility in your bid.
Our expert bid writers will ensure you quantify your success, quantify what you propose to deliver, and put forward measurable and achievable objectives.
Innovation and technology
Innovation and technology continues to be a major driving force in the education sector. The classroom environment is evolving, online learning is becoming more commonplace and there is increased acceptance of Saas solutions in the education sector.
Our expert tender writers draw on their experience both in the education sector and writing IT and technology related bids to help you put forward a bid that is compelling and engaging. We demonstrate how you will leverage technology as part of your service to deliver better educational outcomes.
Value for money
The balance between money and quality is a common one in many sectors and education is no different. Our bid writers take the time to think through and clearly demonstrate in your bid how deliver value.
We clarify your pricing, clearly spell out to the reader and procurement teams the reason for your pricing and the value and service the client will receive.
Social value and net zero – critical in 2026
Social value and net zero are now critical non-qualitative components of nearly all education sector tenders. We will help you respond to PPN 06/21 on carbon reduction PPN 06/20 (Social Value) and put forward evidence of existing initiatives and new initiatives on how you will support the local community and environment.
You need to submit a high quality response to social value that covers your economic, social and environmental impact and we will help you develop and propose initiatives which are measurable.
How to find contract opportunities in the education sector including Department for Education contracts and VET contracts
The education sector is a major sector of the UK Government and Economy. Finding contract opportunities with the Department for Education is a logical way for businesses of all sizes to tap into the market.
DfE contracts give you access to many business growth opportunities. Jaggaer is the contract portal used by the DfE in order to release bid, tender and contract opportunities and manage the procurement process.
In addition to Jaggaer, using Contracts Finder to find a potential tender opportunity is also a useful tool. A good strategy when undertaking a tender search is to conduct market research by searching for awarded tenders. This gives you an idea of who is operating in your market from a public contracts perspective, and what their capabilities and experience levels are. You can also use the UK Government’s ‘Find a Tender Service’ to find contract opportunities with the DfE.
When you find a tender opportunity you wish to go for, it’s always a good and necessary idea to check the mandatory criteria and requirements of the contract and bid (or framework) and ensure you can comply with them.
The are generally outlined in the RFP, ITT or bid docs. After that, ensure that you have the experience and expertise to be able to put forward a decent response to the questions in the ITT.
The process for submitting a bid to the Department for Education
Our bid writers have experience in helping businesses write tailored and compelling bids to the Department for Education that win. Although the exact process varies from bid to bid, a general outline of the process includes:
Find an opportunity
Find a suitable tender through contracts finder or register onto the DfE portal for opportunities. (as our team for assistance)
Review the ITT
Review the Invitation to Tender (ITT) and make sure you can comply with the requirements and specifications that are detailed.
Write your tender or bid
Write your bid or tender from start to finish. Collect supporting documentation as required and make sure your bid is compliant. Project manage the tender response so that you are sure you don’t miss anything and score well in every tender. Our bid writers can provide assistance if you require including taking care of the entire process for you.
Submit and upload
Submit and upload your proposal and ensure you allow extra time for any difficulties in the upload process. Even for seasoned bid writers, this can cause issues.
Await and clarify
Await the decision and answer any clarifications throughout the evaluation process. You may be invited to provide a revised offer or alternatively, additional clarifications or information. Then they will award the tender and you will know if your bid was successful as you will receive an award notice.
Request feedback
Request feedback on the result if you are not successful. This will provide valuable insights into future bids and where you scored well and what you need to improve.
Documents you will need to develop to write winning tender to the Department for Education (DfE) and other frameworks
Compliance is key with the DfE and in addition to responding to the bid (which is often in excel or word format) you will often be asked to provide supporting documentation. You need to ensure you reference the supporting documentation clearly so that it’s easy for the reader to interpret. Examples of documentation:
- Proof of qualifications
- Financial statements to evidence your financial history
- Risk Assessments
- Project Plans
- Pricing Schedule
- Proof of testimonials
Our 2026 Guide to Writing winning Department for Education (DfE), schools and academies, VET and education tenders and bids
Department for Education tenders, as well as all bids and contract opportunities in the education industry, are highly competitive. A professional and methodical approach is required to help you win. Our writers will help you create and submit an exemplary response full of supporting evidence and a compelling offer
Our bid writers will ensure you comply with the requirements; your writing is concise and your win themes shine through. Strategies and tips we will employ to help you win include:
Ensuring your bid has an education flavour and focus.
Where you are supplying a product, or alternatively a service which spans across different sectors, you may find some of your general content doesn’t have an education focus. When bidding to the DfE, you need to ensure that your bid is tailored to the education sector and has an education flavour. Keep the students in mind as well as their needs and present your bid as a solution that solves problems in the education sector as a whole.
Conducting a compliance check
Conduct a compliance check at the start and prior to submission so you have a checklist of what needs to be completed and how.
Creating another checklist for supporting documentation
Make sure your supporting documentation are tailored to the opportunity / education sector. It’s also important to put cover pages on your supporting documentation so they are well presented and clearly labelled. Cross reference your supporting documentation and other evidence you have provided within your bid, including in different responses if it is relevant.
Don’t overly use technical terminology.
The procurement personnel and experts in every and every field. You should write using concise and easy to understand language with bullet points and simple sentence structure.
Keep an eye on clarifications and addendums
This is important as some people ask clarification questions and the result is a complete change to your response for a specific question. Be sure to keep an eye out – but at the same time – submit your bid early with enough time to spare because the upload portal isn’t full proof.
Write a quality response to the Social Value question.
Why choose Tsaks for your next education sector bid or tender?
Here at Tsaks Consulting, we understand the education sector and know how to write winning bids. We have the experience, sector knowledge, industry know how and tender writing capability to develop bids that are compelling and engaging.
Education sector tenders generally involve goods and service that are critical to the general population with a focus on the younger demographic. Many businesses bidding in education field trust us to manage the bid writing process and help them secure government and private sector contracts.
The key is translating your expertise, experience and systems and processes as a business, combined with our sector knowledge and bid writing experience, to create compelling bids. We don’t just focus on ticking the boxes or compliance, we focus on scoring well in each and every question to give you the best prospects of success.
By working with us here at Tsaks consulting, you know you have engaged a safe, methodical and collaborative set of hands that knows how to write and win education sector bids and contracts.
The Department for Education’s (DfE) SME Action Plan – Helping small and medium businesses win bids
The DfE is committed to helping SMEs and businesses of all sizes win contracts and access the market. It’s one of the reasons we often encourage clients who are too afraid to bid to give it a shot. They have put some initiatives in place to make their contracts more accessible including:
- They have simplified their procurement processes so that it’s easier to bid. You will need to go through the tender and bidding process, however, there are some templates and contracts which make the process easier.
- There are market engagement events you can go to. These help with building relationships. The financial thresholds for winning bids are also less – which has been designed to ensure that the contracts can be awarded to smaller boutique businesses with less turnover but still solid financial stability.
- They have internal support for SMEs. They constantly monitor through internal processes their contracts to ensure they appeal to SMEs business. They also have guides to assist people bidding for the first time – and our bid writers are also able to assist of course.
Future contract opportunities with DfE
Contracts which are up-coming for the DfE and provide some idea of the types of bids and tenders available include:
- ITT scholarships – 2025 Re-procurement
- SKE Framework 2025 Re-procurement
- National Careers Service Digital Services – Live Service and DevOps
- National Centre for Computer Education 3 (NCCE3)
- National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), from 2025
- National Careers Service Digital Delivery support
- Artificial Intelligence and Data Systems
- Recruitment and Training of High Potential Trainees into Teaching (HPITT Programme)
- Advanced Mathematics Support Programme 2025
- Breakfast Clubs re-procurement
- Digital Development Testing and Architecture
- Live Running Services Apprenticeship Service
- Agile Service Delivery
- Data Science Services – Testing: Data Science utilises testing services across all programmes
- User Centred Design
Testimonials from our clients
We used Tsaks Consulting, in particular Jason and Paula to assist us in writing a bid to the Department for Education. We found them to be professional, efficient and results driven. They are very responsive and are good at bid writing strategy. They have written lots of bids to DfE in the past and it shows. they also understand the education industry and are a friendly bunch of bid writers to work with.
Tony C | Education Services Provider | London
Jason and the team at Tsaks Consulting UK are great. They are very good bid writers and they can handle the intensity of large bids. They follow up with everything and make the process easy.
They know their way around Jaggaer and will take care of the whole download and upload process for you. The team are committed to best practice. They are committed to being the best, writing the best, and delivering the best outcome for us. Overall – we are very happy with them.
Sarah G | Educational Resources Provider | Manchester
I have use Tsaks Consulting UK on three occasions now, two of which were for Department for Education bids. The team has solid IT experience both in the hardware and software space. They worked with us on a highly technical tender to deliver a digital learning platform. I think the unique point which is a big benefit of Jason and the Tsaks Consulting team is that they combine knowledge of the education sector with knowledge of the IT sector.
Also, they can turn a really complex IT solution, be it software or hardware, into something that is easy for an evaluator or procurement team to read, understand and interpret – and this is helpful for scoring well. Also, we don’t really specialise in Social Value, however, Jason and the team always come up with some good suggestions of what we can do.
Sandeep P | IT Services (Software) | Leeds
If you want a bid writing services to help you win a Department for Education (DfE) contract – call Tsaks Consulting. In my view they are the best because they know about the school and education operating environment. This means when they are writing your bid or framework application, they can help you tailor your response and score well in each of the criteria.
If you are a facilities management company and your a bidding on a school project, it’s easy to complete the program and methodology, but it’s hard to convince DfE that they should chose you to operate in education and you know what you are doing. Jason and the team can write responses that show that you are an education industry specialists. That’s why in my view they are an excellent bid writing consultancy.
Trevor H | Facilities Maintenance Business | Bristol
Frequently Asked Questions
What is your win rate for education tenders and bids in the UK?
The Tsaks Consulting success rate for 2025 for bids and tenders in the education sector was 90%. We are excited to keep on helping our clients win contracts in this year. We use a bid/no bid process to ensure you don’t waste your time and resources on bidding for opportunities which you have no real chance of winning.
Will you ensure we comply with Safeguarding and KCSIE requirements in our bid?
Yes. Our bid writers are experienced in the education sector. We will work with you to ensure your bid clearly articulates how you will comply with Safeguarding and KCSIE requirements.
Do your bid writers at Tsaks Consulting assist with CIF (Condition Improvement Fund) bids?
Yes certainly. Our education sector bid writers, work closely with our bid writer who specialise in the construction and maintenance sector, as well as other sectors, to help clients win CIF bids.
Do you help businesses write bids to public schools and private schools?
Yes. At Tsaks Consulting UK, we help businesses write bids to public and private schools as well as the university sector as well. We take a different approach to public and private schools depending on the tender and services to be provided.
Will you answer the questions on Social Value in our education framework application?
Yes. We have extensive experience writing social value responses which are critical to any successful tender and now often represent up to 10% of the total weighting criteria. More information on our experience and strategies writing social value responses is available here. We know the importance of putting forward measurable an practical social value initiatives that reflect the needs of the education sector.
We have an urgent education sector bid that is due in a week. Can you help with short deadlines?
Yes of course. That’s what we are here for. We have a rapid response team for assisting with urgent tenders and our Director, Jason Cooney, as well as our senior writers, will work round the clock to assist with your bid and help you win. We generally recommend providing two weeks notice for when you require assistance, although we have worked to shorter deadlines and once completed a tender in four days.
Will you complete the portal upload for us or only write the bid or tender?
Yes of course. We provide an end-to-end bid writing service which includes uploading your bid onto the portal and we are familiar with all portals in the education sector including ProContract and In-Tend.
Do you provide bid and tender writing for all types of education bids?
Yes – everything in the education sector from school catering to cleaning, construction and IT.
Can you help our Academy Trust write a Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) bid?
Yes certainly. We work closely with you and your surveyors to write the project justification in a way that aligns with the 2026 scoring criteria. Demonstrating urgency and deliverability is critical.
Do you write bids for Multi-Academy Trusts or only specific schools?
At Tsaks Consulting, we support both. When bidding for MATs, we often work on high value, strategic bids and tenders including grants for trust wide expansions. There a specific governance structures in the MAT approvals process which our writers will help you comply with.
Will you align our bids with the latest Ofsted inspection framework?
Yes of course. We are education sector bid writing specialists and will align your funding request to the Quality of Education and Personal Development pillars. These need to be tailored to each individual project or service.
If we you to write our bid, how much involvement do you require from us?
We will do the majority of the writing and coordination. We will need input and information from you, which we generally gather, and turn into compelling and persuasive text for the bid.
Do you incorporate “Social Value” into educational bids?
Yes of course. We incorporate Social Value into education bids by:
- Putting forward practical, measurable initiatives
- Develop and work on ideas such as creating local apprenticeships, reducing carbon footprints and holding community workshops.
- We integrate Social Value as a win theme throughout your bid, not just in the social value question.
How much does a professional education sector bid writer cost in the UK?
It depends on the service and assistance you require. For example, for complex tenders we work off a day rate of 650 + VAT per day. We also provide fixed fees for bids that are smaller or easier to quantify. These generally start at 2,500 + VAT depending on complexity. We provide a free quote so call Tsaks Consulting UK today to get arrange a quote for your bid.