Attachment 1 – Service Specification
The Council is seeking to maintain and enhance KCC’s current software, Kent Teach
(www.kent-teach.com), which is a platform on which schools can advertise vacancies, as
well as a database that enables schools to register NQT’s and monitor their progress. The
website also acts as a information centre on which the TR&R team can place information on
Kent and why it is a great place to live and work. This in turn will improve performance and
recruitment in teaching, learning and support in educational establishments.
The Council is looking for a supplier to work alongside the Teacher Recruitment and
Retention Team, on the support maintenance and development of this delivery of service to
schools. In addition to providing a platform as an information centre, the website enables
costs to be reduced for recruitment for Kent schools. This is in line with Kent County
Councils Bold Steps for education of ensuring that all schools are able to procure support
services through EduKent*. The system also acts as a database as it enables schools to
register newly qualified teachers and monitor their progress.
* https://shareweb.kent.gov.uk/Documents/jobs/els-bold-steps.pdf
The contract will be for a period of two years starting May 2013, with a further two one year
extensions at the Council’s discretion.
Whilst KCC own the software and IPR’s, since 2000 the support maintenance and
development of the site is currently outsourced and the contract now needs to be renewed.
The existing service provision needs to be maintained as it is the platform for educational
employment in Kent. The Council expects that the use of the latest technologies will
enhance and improve the system functionality, improve system reliability, reduce the cost
of ongoing maintenance, provide a stable platform for future enhancement, development
and growth and, as far as is possible, use non-proprietary and open source software in
support of the system.
The Council expects to undertake quarterly service review meetings with the Supplier, which
will allow feedback and improvement to be made to the website.
The Objectives
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Reduce the cost of recruitment to Kent schools.
Act as a database to enable schools to register newly qualified teachers and monitor
their progress.
Provide a platform to act as a information centre to advertise jobs in schools in Kent
Applicants must be able to:
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The Supplier will be required to provide a help desk facility and support on NQT
matters. The helpdesk will need to be staffed by suitably trained staff.
Have the ability to host, maintain and improve a jobs board in the education market
Have an existing partnership with Teaching Agency (TA) and at least 3 years
experience working with a local authority
A commercial outlook
A thorough knowledge of recruitment in the education market and full
understanding of NQT registration, induction process and standards.
Opportunities
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Generate commercial opportunities from the system, to ensure the system is a
continued success.
Provide a stable platform for future enhancement, development and growth in
support of the system.
Develop the website, so it acts as a information centre not only on advertising jobs,
but a range of other services too.
The deliverables are:
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To provide assistance to the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Team that will help
educational establishments to reduce the cost of recruitment for Kent schools.
Providing maintenance and delivery of this service to the KCC software to register
newly qualified teachers and monitor their progress.
The project is expected to provide the following outcomes:
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Enable recruiters to effectively and efficiently recruit teachers who are enrolled on
the website, for available jobs
To be able to monitor newly qualified teacher progress, and discuss where
improvements and changes can be made in order to focus on improvements and
innovations in teaching and learning so that satisfactory teaching improves to a good
standard very quickly, as stated in Kent Bold Steps.
Improve and develop the website based on the feedback from the review meetings,
that will encourage more people to recruit via the Kent Teach website