DfE alerts contractors to £15.4bn schools framework

Generic-education-schools-classroom-resized_660.jpg

The Department for Education (DfE) is set to unveil a £15.4bn construction framework, it has announced.

The new framework is planned to run for six years, from December 2025 to December 2031, with a two-year extension period possible afterwards.

Potential work involves construction jobs in all areas of England, covering primary, secondary, special schools and further education buildings.

The DfE is holding the last of a series of bidders’ events on Monday (10 March), after which a full tender notice for the Construction Framework (CF25) panel will be published.

Officials from the DfE and Cabinet Office will be among the speakers at the hour-long engagement session, which will be held on Microsoft Teams.

Suppliers can sign-up for registration here.

The new programme will replace the existing four-year CF21, which is set to expire in November 2025.

Worth £7bn, the previous iteration was introduced in November 2021 and included a total of 22 lots.

Tier one contractors such as Bam, Bowmer & Kirkland, Kier, Wates and Willmott Dixon landed places in the highest-value lots for projects valued at £12m or more.

Morgan Sindall, ISG, Galliford Try and Tilbury Douglas also won places on all eight medium-value (£6m to £12m) regional lots in CF21.

Kier won a place on all 12 low-value lots for projects up to £6m.

Bowmer & Kirkland was the DfE’s top supplier in the 2023/24 financial year, data obtained by Construction News under the Freedom of Information Act showed.

It received £313.5m from the department in the period, up from £197m in the prior year, when it was also the contractor that received the most money from the DfE.

Bam Construct was the second largest supplier in 2023/24, earning £176.7m, while Kier was third with £167m.

Read More
Ian Weinfass

Latest

What Workplace Injuries Really Cost Your Business (It’s More Than You Think)

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways The highest costs of workplace injuries are often indirect — not medical bills or insurance claims, but lost productivity, higher premiums, hiring and training replacements and operational disruptions. Workplace injuries can damage company culture and reputation. Safety incidents can lower employee morale, increase turnover and

World Cup final is already the biggest ever prediction market as Kalshi bets top $1.27 billion—with Spain favored to beat Argentina

The World Cup is driving record-breaking activity on prediction markets, with popular platforms Kalshi and Polymarket reporting their highest trading volumes to date. Just days ahead of Sunday’s final, the Argentina–Spain contract has become the single largest market in the platforms’ history, while overall World Cup trading has outpaced other major sports-related contracts. According to

The AI Gold Rush Is Driving an Energy Crisis. Here’s What Every Business Needs to Know.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways AI is consuming more power than most businesses realize. A standard enterprise server rack draws roughly 5-10 kilowatts. An AI-optimized rack running GPU clusters can pull 40-100 kilowatts or more. Energy costs flow downstream, and so do supply chain constraints. For any business that relies

Amazon just beat Starlink to a market Musk can’t crack

Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker

Newsletter

Don't miss

What Workplace Injuries Really Cost Your Business (It’s More Than You Think)

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways The highest costs of workplace injuries are often indirect — not medical bills or insurance claims, but lost productivity, higher premiums, hiring and training replacements and operational disruptions. Workplace injuries can damage company culture and reputation. Safety incidents can lower employee morale, increase turnover and

World Cup final is already the biggest ever prediction market as Kalshi bets top $1.27 billion—with Spain favored to beat Argentina

The World Cup is driving record-breaking activity on prediction markets, with popular platforms Kalshi and Polymarket reporting their highest trading volumes to date. Just days ahead of Sunday’s final, the Argentina–Spain contract has become the single largest market in the platforms’ history, while overall World Cup trading has outpaced other major sports-related contracts. According to

The AI Gold Rush Is Driving an Energy Crisis. Here’s What Every Business Needs to Know.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways AI is consuming more power than most businesses realize. A standard enterprise server rack draws roughly 5-10 kilowatts. An AI-optimized rack running GPU clusters can pull 40-100 kilowatts or more. Energy costs flow downstream, and so do supply chain constraints. For any business that relies

Amazon just beat Starlink to a market Musk can’t crack

Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker

She Retired From Engineering at 58 and Turned Her Creative Hobby Into a Business. It’s Made Tens of Thousands of Dollars: ‘No Regrets.’

Key Takeaways Hudick began to explore her passion for design at a jewelry-making class in 2006. She honed her craft over the years, and friends suggested she start to sell her pieces. Now retired as an engineer, she’s focusing on the business and teaching workshops. In 2024, Anna Hudick, then 58 years old, retired from

Grey Business processes $61 million as stablecoins dominate payments

Grey Business enables startups and SMEs to open US Dollar (USD) corporate accounts, send and receive international payments, convert currencies, and transact using stablecoins such as USDC and USDT...

Utah Marketers to Host Free Business Networking Event in Layton on June 24

The custom web design company is hosting free monthly networking events for Northern Utah business leaders, with the next event scheduled for June 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. Utah Marketers is hosting a free local business networking event on June 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the company’s Layton office. The event is

WellnessVibe Announces Business DNA Workshop in Delhi and Mumbai, where Ancient Sound Wisdom Meets Modern Business Strategy

WellnessVibe has officially announced the launch of its transformative Business DNA Workshop on 7th June 2026 in Delhi and 20th June 2026 in Mumbai. (1888PressRelease) June 03, 2026 - Delhi/Mumbai, India - WellnessVibe has officially announced the launch of its transformative Business DNA Workshop on 7th June 2026 in Delhi and 20th June 2026 in