Awarded contract

Evidence-Based Early Years Maths Programme

Details

Buyer: Department for Education
Supplier(s): National Day Nurseries Association
Value: £4,407,915
Duration: 4 years
Topic: Education and training services
Published: 6 February 2026
Source: uk:find_a_tender

Tender description

The Department for Education is commissioning an evidence-based early maths programme aimed at improving numeracy outcomes for children in early years settings across England. Early maths skills are strongly linked to later academic achievement and workforce success, yet many children begin school without the expected level of development in maths. Despite its importance within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), maths remains one of the lowest-performing areas, partly due to limited training and confidence among educators. This contract will support the delivery of an evidence-based early maths programme to at least 5,000 settings, with a minimum completion rate of 80%, and requires programmes to be backed by robust evaluation, either a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) or Quasi-Experimental Design (QED) plus an implementation and process evaluation (IPE). ## Contract award

Timeline

Completed: Award published6 February 2026
Current notice
Completed: Award date6 February 2026
Next: Contract expiry date31 August 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. 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.

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.

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