Procurement arrangement is first for the sector since the abolition of Becta in 2011
The government has set up a new framework, ICT Services for Education, for educational institutions to procure IT services, hardware and infrastructure.
It is under the wing of the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and has been built in collaboration with the Department for Education and the Education Funding Agency.
The CCS said the new framework will provide education establishments with a diverse pool of suppliers. The offerings all come under a single procurement lot but include a range of products and services such as hardware, software, network equipment, user devices, support and maintenance, systems configuration and management, and managed IT services.
It is the first arrangement for the education sector since the abolition of the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) in 2011. Becta was a non-department government body and had a broader range of responsibilities, including running the National Grid for Learning and developing policy in IT in education, but fell foul of the post-election spending review in 2010.
Picture from National Archives under Open Government Licence v3.0
