Quality Assurance Proof Readers Sought for National Curriculum Tests

The Invitation to Tender (ITT) has been issued by the Department of Education and Standards and Testing Agency (STA) in connection with a competitive procurement exercise under the Educational and Children's Social Care (ECSC) Framework.

The Educational and Children's Social Care (ECSC) Framework, established on 1 February 2025, is the Department for Education's primary route for procuring specialist and advisory services. It runs for four years, with an option to extend by two, ending no later than 1 February 2031. The framework is dynamic, allowing lots to be reopened and new lots added as needed to the framework.

In line with this flexibility, the Department is reopening the framework and adding Lot 13: Quality Assurance Proof Readers The purpose of this procurement is to acquire resource to support Quality Assurance processes within STA in relation to the tests that STA are responsible for developing.

STA is looking to procure a pool of proofers to quality assure key stage 1 and key stage 2 national curriculum tests and reception baseline assessment to ensure that these tests are accurate and of high quality.

The national curriculum tests include the year 1 phonics screening check, English grammar, punctuation and spelling (key stage 1 and key stage 2), English reading (key stage 1 and key stage 2), mathematics (key stage 1 and key stage 2), and the year 4 multiplication tables check (MTC). Government policy changes may bring other assessments within scope of any contracts awarded to successful suppliers.