Top suppliers
Top suppliers to DfE
Top-five suppliers hold 27% of contract value — a moderately competitive market.
Procurement categories
What DfE buys
Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) breakdown of contracts awarded over the reporting period.
Education and training services
80000000Software-related services
72260000Business and management consultancy
79410000Research services
73110000Construction work for schools and colleges
45214200Programming services of packaged software
72210000Marketing and advertising services
79340000Recent contracts
Latest DfE contracts awarded
The most recently published award notices on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder.
Apprenticeship service digital platform — next-gen build
Capita Business Services Ltd · 2026-02-08
£42.3M
School Condition Allocations — national surveys (Lot 3)
Mott MacDonald Ltd · 2026-01-30
£18.4M
T-Levels qualification development & quality assurance
Pearson Education Ltd · 2025-11-12
£14.7M
SEND review — evidence and analysis services
PA Consulting Services Ltd · 2025-09-22
£8.9M
School attendance data analytics platform
Deloitte LLP · 2025-08-15
£6.4M
BIDDING AGAINST THESE SUPPLIERS?
See your match score against DfE
ENKII scores your business against live tenders and identifies the certifications you need to compete with the suppliers above.
Open opportunities
Open DfE tenders
Tenders currently inviting bids. SMEs can respond via the official tender portal.
Skills Bootcamps delivery partner Dynamic Purchasing System
DPSDeadline: 2026-06-30
£280.0M
School building design framework — 5-year extension
FrameworkDeadline: 2026-05-30
£96.0M
Careers advice digital platform — design and build
Deadline: 2026-05-15
£24.0M
Education research and evaluation framework
FrameworkDeadline: 2026-06-15
£48.0M
Pipeline
Contracts expiring in the next 12 months
When these contracts end, DfE typically re-tenders. SMEs preparing bids 3-6 months ahead win disproportionately often.
Find a school and choose a school service
Expires: 2026-09-30
£18.4M
Teachers' Pension Scheme administration IT support
Expires: 2026-11-30
£14.6M
Apprenticeship eligibility verification services
Expires: 2026-08-31
£8.2M
School census and data collection systems
Expires: 2026-12-31
£6.7M
Market analysis
Bidding into DfE — what to expect
Supplier concentration and timing patterns that shape SME bid strategy.
27%
Top-5 supplier share
42d
Avg response window
35d
Median response window
30mo
Avg contract duration
Frequently asked
Common questions about selling to DfE
How much does DfE spend on procurement?
DfE awarded 487 contracts totalling £312.4M between 2023-04-01 and 2026-03-31, working with 318 unique suppliers. Average contract value is £642K.
Who are DfE's top suppliers?
The largest suppliers to DfE by total award value are Capita Business Services Ltd, Pearson Education Ltd, Mott MacDonald Ltd. The top five suppliers together hold 27% of contract value.
What does DfE buy from suppliers?
DfE's procurement is concentrated in education and training services, software-related services, business and management consultancy, alongside specialist categories. See the full CPV breakdown below.
How can my business bid for DfE contracts?
DfE publishes open tenders on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder. ENKII matches your business against live tenders, identifies certifications you'll need, and surfaces frameworks worth applying to. Free Readiness Score in 3 minutes.
What's the typical response window for DfE tenders?
DfE typically gives suppliers a median of 35 days to respond (average 42 days). Standard contract duration is around 30 months.
Continue reading
Related ENKII resources
GUIDE
PQQ & Selection Questionnaire — Procurement Act 2023
How UK central-government departments evaluate suppliers at the pre-qualification stage.
GUIDE
Cyber Essentials — for government contracts
Most central-government contracts handling personal data require this certification.
SECTOR
UK Government IT Services
G-Cloud, DOS, Crown Commercial frameworks. Software + consultancy is DfE's largest spend area.
INDEX
All UK public-sector buyers
Browse procurement profiles for every UK government department and major buyer.
Sources & methodology
How this profile is compiled
Analysed by ENKII · Updated 2026-03-31
This profile aggregates public-record procurement data published by the UK Government under the Open Government Licence v3.0. ENKII fetches, deduplicates, and aggregates source records; we don't edit the underlying facts.
Source portals
- · Find a Tender Service (find-tender.service.gov.uk)
- · Contracts Finder (contractsfinder.service.gov.uk)
- · DfE transparency publications (gov.uk)
- · Department metadata: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education
Source records remain subject to Open Government Licence v3.0 attribution. ENKII doesn't warrant accuracy beyond the source portals' own publication.