Procurement description
The Schools Water Strategy is an “invest to save” strategy aimed at reducing the risk of flooding in schools. This planned procurement is to enable the expansion of the current Property Flood Resilience (PFR) installations across the school estate, specifically targeting members of the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) for schools in high-risk flood areas and schools that have suffered repeated flooding disruption.
These works are anticipated to include design and build of grey, green (nature- based) and blue property flood resilience solutions.
The DfE is looking to award 5 regional contracts that will deliver PFR measures in specific schools (selected by the DfE based upon flood risk) in each region.
The procurement will be structured into five regional Lots to ensure equal coverage across England. Each Lot will be split into regions as follow:
• Lot 1: North West
• Lot 2: North East
• Lot 3: West Midlands and South (excluding London)
• Lot 4: London
• Lot 5: East Midlands and East of England
Each Lot will have a target to complete a minimum of 10 schools per year over the contract period; however, suppliers would be expected to work on more than 10 projects a year to achieve the targets, accounting for potential slippage.
Bidders will be able to apply for all five Lots but will only be awarded a maximum of three Lots. The planned procurement will follow an Open Competitive Procedure, and the evaluation will use a price-per-quality-point methodology.
The planned procurement will include social value as part of the evaluation criteria weighted at 10% and may cover MAC2a: Skills for Growth, focusing on skills development in property flood resilience, and MAC4b: Influence staff, suppliers, customers and communities through the delivery of the contract to support climate and nature protection and improvement.
Contract dates (estimated)
01 September 2026, 00:00AM to 31 March 2030, 23:59PM
Extension end date (if all the extensions are used): 31 March 2032