Schools

DfE offers £3.9m for contractor to help schools on climate action plans

Provider will recruit 'expert' volunteers to offer schools advice on meeting government's new climate change strategy requirements

Provider will recruit 'expert' volunteers to offer schools advice on meeting government's new climate change strategy requirements

12 Apr 2023, 10:25

More from this author

The DfE is looking to hire an external provider to recruit volunteer experts to help with its climate change strategy for education

An external provider will be paid £3.9 million to help schools implement the government’s climate change strategy for education – including recruiting and managing a team of expert volunteers to provide advice.

An early tender for the ‘sector engagement and support’ contract shows the successful bidder will “identify appropriate experts” to help schools develop their own climate action plans.

The government said that by 2025 every education setting would need to nominate a “sustainability lead” to oversee the plans, in its strategy published last year.

The plans are expected to cover decarbonisation and energy efficiency, “adaptation and resilience”, biodiversity and green infrastructure, as well as climate education and green skills and careers.

The provider, or joint providers, are expected to draw voluntary experts from education, academia and industry and will be contracted for two years from July.

They will also be responsible for developing a “co-ordinated approach” to providing advice to sustainability leads in schools, as well as assisting in the development of individual climate action plans.

Under the contract, which businesses have been invited to register interest in bidding for, virtual or physical regional ‘sustainability hubs’ would also be set up to allow education settings to “engage in peer-to-peer learning”.

A mentor-match service would also be established, which would allow experts to be assigned to support sustainability leads over a set period.

Online self-assessment tool to be set up

The provider will also need to develop an engagement strategy to reach education settings who are “not yet engaged with climate action planning”.

They will also work with the Natural History Museum to encourage sector participation with the Department for Education’s National Education Nature Park and Climate Action Award initiatives from autumn.

A separate early tender for a £840,000 contract – also running from July 2023 to 2025 – shows the department is also looking to hire a provider to design an online ‘sustainability leadership in education’ support hub.

The hub, according to the DfE, would offer schools guidance, information and “capability” to embed climate change and sustainability.

This includes through an online self-assessment tool that would allow sustainability leads to assess their setting’s capacity to “deliver a wholistic approach to sustainability”.

Once the self-assessment is completed, the support hub is expected to point out resources that would enable schools to develop climate action plans.

The winning bidder will be asked to assemble directories of “high-quality” environmental sustainability training courses for sustainability leads and organisations who can provide assistance in developing climate action plans.

They will also need to develop a communications and engagement campaign to ensure schools are aware of the resources.

As part of the government’s efforts to decarbonise the sector, exams regulator Ofqual has also been researching the impact of the exams system on the environment.

A government document shows Pa Consulting Services Limited received £108,000 to undertake the work, which took place between February 6 and March 31.

Latest education roles from

Chief Education Officer (Deputy CEO)

Chief Education Officer (Deputy CEO)

Romero Catholic Academy Trust

Director of Academy Finance and Operations

Director of Academy Finance and Operations

Ormiston Academies Trust

Principal & Chief Executive

Principal & Chief Executive

Truro & Penwith College

Group Director of Marketing, Communications & External Engagement

Group Director of Marketing, Communications & External Engagement

London & South East Education Group

Sponsored posts

Sponsored post

AI Safety: From DfE Guidance to Classroom Confidence

Darren Coxon, edtech consultant and AI education specialist, working with The National College, explores the DfE’s expectations for AI...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

How accurate spend information is helping schools identify savings

One the biggest issues schools face when it comes to saving money on everyday purchases is a lack of...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Building Character, Increasing Engagement and Growing Leaders: A Whole School Approach

Research increasingly shows that character education is just as important as academic achievement in shaping pupils’ long-term success. Studies...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Educators launch national AI framework to guide schools and colleges

More than 250 schools and colleges across the UK have already enrolled in AiEd Certified, a new certification framework...

SWAdvertorial

More from this theme

Politics, Schools

Reform government would ‘root out teachers brainwashing kids’ says MP Lee Anderson

Reform UK members tell party conference of need to crack down on 'brainwashing' teachers and stop schools 'becoming indoctrination...

Lydia Chantler-Hicks
Schools

Farage: ‘Let’s start teaching trades and services at school’

Reform leader also says he ‘will not stand for kids’ minds being poisoned in schools with a twisted interpretation...

Lydia Chantler-Hicks
Schools

Staff want compensation after summer cyber-attack

Schools warned incident could increase risk of phishing, fraud and identity theft for impacted employees

John Dickens
Schools

Lockdown: The schools forced to take emergency measures

Union calls for 'comprehensive' guidance as leaders warn of communications difficulties during incidents

Jack Dyson

Your thoughts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *