Purpose

The Department for Education awarded funding to East Sussex County Council to deliver Adult Skills Fund provision during the 2026/27 academic year. The procurement covered Adult Skills Fund Core provision and Free Courses for Jobs across 6 provision areas.

A light-touch Request for Quotation process was managed by the Adult Learning Team with Procurement support and oversight. Twenty-six bids were received. Submissions were independently assessed by a panel of 3 against the published evaluation criteria and moderated to support consistency and fairness.

Decision

The Director of Communities, Economy and Transport approved the award of Adult Skills Fund 2026/27 contracts to the recommended providers following the completed procurement, evaluation and governance process.

Alternative options considered

Not awarding the contracts was rejected because this would prevent or delay delivery of the commissioned Adult Skills Fund provision and risk the effective use of the available funding for East Sussex residents.

Re-running the procurement was not preferred because a competitive process had been completed, 26 bids had been evaluated against the published criteria, and a recommended provider had been identified for each provision area. Re-procurement would delay mobilisation without an identified justification for setting aside the completed evaluation.

Awarding to providers other than those recommended was rejected because it would not reflect the outcome of the published evaluation and moderation process. The preferred option was therefore to approve the panel’s recommendations, as endorsed through the governance process.