Education Case Study: Sheffield City Council Project
Project Overview
This framework sought experienced providers to deliver accessible adult learning across Sheffield’s communities.
The contract covered:
- Health and wellbeing
- Employment skills
- English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
Within this contract, the providers are responsible for the full learner journey, from promotion and enrolment through the teaching, support and progression.
The provider is also responsible for recruiting qualified tutors, arranging suitable community venues, marketing courses, enrolling and assessing learners, providing careers guidance and learner support, and maintaining the required funding, safeguarding and performance records.
Client Overview
Our client is an established higher education provider delivering training, skills development, employability support and government-funded upskilling programmes.
Although they already had the systems, trainers and technical capability needed to deliver public-sector services, they had limited bidding experience.
The main challenge was not proving they could deliver but translating a large amount of complex information into clear, persuasive responses tailored to each specification.
Why This Was a Good Fit
This opportunity was a strong fit because of the client’s experience delivering flexible education within local communities and supporting learners from varied academic and professional backgrounds.
Their established presence in Sheffield and focus on widening access to education aligned closely with the framework’s adult learning and employability objectives.
Our Approach (Challenges/Solutions)
Opportunity Assessment
Our approach began by helping our client to understand which opportunities were most suitable and, more importantly, which were worth pursuing. After finding the Sheffield City Council opportunity we completed a bid/no bid checklist to ensure our client was compliant and matched what the authority was looking for.
Planning & Timeline
As a Council bid, we sifted through the technical language and specific requirements necessary before dissecting each question to determine exactly what points, evidence and examples to focus on.
This bid had a fairly tight deadline and, having been completed around Easter, client communication and a stringent timeline was essential.
Our client said: “I know we were working with tight deadlines around Easter. Being able to get through to someone within minutes was good and getting quick responses really made the difference.”
Writing
Each question required us to clearly present our client’s unique approach to teaching, tutor management, safeguarding, quality assurance, learner engagement and performance monitoring to match what we knew the buyer was looking for.
We carefully tailored the language and terminology to the specification and separate questions, ensuring our client was providing detailed and precise responses that targeted all pain points within the specification.
The Result
This specific bid was successful and our client secured a place on the framework.
BWS has now secured two public-sector wins for the client, with around 12 bids included or planned as part of the wider relationship moving forward.
What began as support for a provider with limited procurement experience has developed into an ongoing framework strategy and structured bidding pipeline, helping the client pursue sustainable public-sector growth with greater confidence.
Client Feedback
Following this project, our support for this client has extended over the past 8-9 months. We now work as an extension of the client’s team, helping them build and manage a structured pipeline centred on frameworks, DPS’s and flexible procurement systems that support their individual business growth strategy.
Our client said: “We were pretty new to the bids and tender market, but the guidance we received from BWS, including all of the documents provided, really helped us to choose what we can apply for.
The approach was really hands-on, we had weekly meetings and regular catch up to determine what services were most suitable for our business needs.
BWS has a good understanding of our business and recommends what’s most suitable and how we can best approach each bid. Everything has been really good.”
Writer Insight
"This was a great project to work on, despite the tight deadlines. We worked really closely with our client to make sure we were submitting (from our perspective) a strong, compliant, evidenced and persuasive bid, but also showcasing exactly what our client wanted us to.
I’m thrilled they were awarded the contract and it now puts us in a great position to win more opportunities for them in the future."
If you’re looking for support on an education or Council bid, get in touch with us today on info@bidwritingservice.com for more information.
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