Awarded contract

Assessment of Needs Tool and Digital Platform for Children at Risk of Deprivation of Liberty

Details

Buyer: Department for Education
Supplier(s): Thalamos Ltd
Value: £1,128,943.41
Duration: 3 years
Topic: Industry specific software development services
Published: 17 August 2026
Source: uk:find_a_tender

Tender description

The Department for Education (DfE) has awarded a contract for the provision of a validated Assessment of Needs Tool and an integrated digital platform to support the delivery of Home Again via Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs). Home Again brings together children’s social care, health, youth justice, education and other relevant partners to provide earlier, coordinated and evidence-based responses for children and young people (CYP) who are at risk of, or subject to, deprivation of liberty. The contracted solution provides a validated assessment of need tool designed to deliver a holistic view of each child’s needs, risks, strengths and required support. The tool supports the development of multidisciplinary plans through the Home Again service and enables proactive and timely interventions. The integrated digital platform supports secure assessment completion, appropriate multi-agency information sharing, local reporting on activity and outcomes, and the generation of anonymised aggregated data for national analysis. The solution is intended to improve system-wide understanding of this cohort, support commissioning and planning decisions, and provide insights to inform practice approaches that help keep children and young people safe while avoiding unnecessary deprivation of liberty. The contract also supports the generation of learning regarding the implementation of a validated assessment of need tool across different local systems, including organisational, cultural, technical and commercial factors that influence adoption, usability, sustainability and impact within children’s social care, health and youth justice settings. Contract awarded to: Thalamos Limited. ## Contract award ## Contract award

Timeline

Completed: Award date13 August 2026
Completed: Award published17 August 2026
Current notice
Next: Contract expiry date31 March 2029in 3 years

About the buyer

The Department for Education is a ministerial department responsible for children's services and education policy in England, procuring both for itself and its executive agencies. Requirements are advertised on the Find a Tender service, published through the department's Jaggaer etendering system. Suppliers awarded a contract must register on the Central Digital Platform. Framework purchases follow the matching Crown Commercial Service terms. Many contracts are let on standard government terms, such as Cabinet Office short-form or model services agreements. Schools and academy trusts buy separately, using framework options the department reviews and approves in advance.

Procurement spend from central entities makes up 66% of overall UK public spend.

Over the past 5 years, most of the Department for Education's contract awards have been in business services, construction work and education and training.

Relevant CPV codes

72212100 · Industry specific software development services
72222300 · Information technology services
72316000 · Data analysis services
72330000 · Content or data standardization and classification services
85300000 · Social work and related services
85320000 · Social services

Decision makers

Connect with the people behind this procurement.

Job title	Phone number	Work email
Head of Procurement	+44 •••• ••••••	••••••••@department-for-education.gov
Commercial Director	+44 •••• ••••••	••••••••@department-for-education.gov
Procurement Manager	+44 •••• ••••••	••••••••@department-for-education.gov
Category Lead	+44 •••• ••••••	••••••••@department-for-education.gov
Senior Buyer	+44 •••• ••••••	••••••••@department-for-education.gov
Contracts Manager	+44 •••• ••••••	••••••••@department-for-education.gov