VPN Provision

Descriptions

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is issuing this notice to notify the market to that we are engaging with suppliers on the Technology Services 4 (RM6190) to help shape a pending tender process for the provision of a fully managed VPN service.

The current contract that Ofsted has for providing this service is due to end in October 2026 and Ofsted are looking to start the process of procuring a new contract now.

Ofsted intends to appoint a supplier to deliver a fully managed VPN service that provides secure, encrypted network connectivity across the organisation. The appointed supplier will be responsible for the end‑to‑end design, implementation, operation, monitoring, and support of the VPN service. This approach will remove the requirement for in‑house management and ensure that the service is proactively maintained and supported by a specialist provider.

Ofsted is therefore looking at running a procurement exercise, starting as soon as is practicable in 2026, for a supplier to provide this service.

Our chosen route to market will be via CCS Framework Technology Services 4 (RM6190) - Lot 4: Infrastructure Management Services and engagement is currently limited to suppliers on this Framework.

Engagement

Ofsted issued an Expression of Interest to RM6190 Framework suppliers on 20th January 2026, with a deadline of 27th January 2026. Ofsted will now undertake some pre-market engagement sessions with suppliers who responded to the EOI. Ofsted do not guarantee that this exercise will result in a procurement exercise.