School Presenter Services Tender

Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) is a registered charity, responsible for the care, conservation and presentation of HM Tower of London (TOL), Hampton Court Palace (HCP), Kensington Palace State Apartments, (KP) the Banqueting House at Whitehall (BH), Kew Palace (KEW) and Hillsborough Castle and Gardens, (HCG) the official residence of HM The King in Northern Ireland and residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

We love and look after six of the most wonderful palaces in the world. The palaces are the setting for the stories that shape us all, and we’re bringing them to people in ways that mean more to them. We want everyone to find themselves in the spaces and stories we share.

HRP is a charity for everyone. We are committed to preserving and sharing the stories of our six magnificent palaces and making them accessible to all. Through partnerships, innovation, and storytelling, we strive to break down barriers, inspire curiosity and stir the spirit in people of all ages and backgrounds. Our curriculum-linked schools programmes bring palace stories to life through costumed, presenter-led sessions, alongside digital learning, teacher training events and activities for local community groups and families.

HRP is an independent charity, receiving no government funding and derives its income principally from admissions, retail, licensing, commercial events, sponsorship and support from donors and members.

We will be running a tender process with the intention of awarding a contract for the provision of School Presenter Services and are seeking expressions of interest from suitably experienced / qualified organisations.

We are seeking a skilled and collaborative partner to deliver one of the UK's largest and most established heritage learning programmes. Each year, Historic Royal Palaces welcomes over 200,000 school visitors across our sites, with approximately half participating in a curriculum-linked learning session delivered by our presenter team. The contract includes the delivery of around 3,000 educational sessions annually across the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace, together with Home Educator Days, occasional community activity and opportunities to contribute to new programme and content development.

This is an opportunity to join a highly regarded and well-established programme that combines rigorous historical scholarship with immersive, participatory and site-based learning. Working in partnership with HRP, the successful supplier will recruit, train and manage a team of presenters capable of delivering engaging learning experiences for diverse audiences, including primary and secondary schools, specialist settings, SEND learners and home-educating families.

We are looking for an organisation that shares our commitment to educational excellence, inclusion, safeguarding and collaboration, and that can maintain consistently high standards whilst operating across multiple sites and busy heritage environments. The successful supplier will play an important role in helping young people connect with the stories, people and places that have shaped our past.

HRP’s requirements:

The successful supplier will be expected to:

•Deliver approximately 3,000 curriculum-linked school sessions per year across our London sites

•Recruit, train, schedule, line manage and support a team of presenters, ensuring sufficient staffing capacity and contingency arrangements to ensure reliable delivery of the programme.

•Deliver learning sessions for a diverse range of audiences, including primary and secondary schools, specialist and SEND settings, international groups and home-educating families.

•Deliver all activity in accordance with HRP's educational approach, Core Principles and commitment to high-quality, site-based learning.

•Maintain consistently high standards of delivery, quality assurance and presenter performance

•Demonstrate a strong commitment to inclusion, accessibility and representative historical interpretation, adapting delivery to meet a wide range of learning and access needs.

•Provide day-to-day management, coordination and operational oversight of the programme, working collaboratively with HRP teams across all sites.

•Maintain appropriate safeguarding policies, training and workforce checks, and comply with HRP safeguarding requirements and procedures.

•Deliver activities safely within busy public-facing heritage environments and ensure compliance with relevant health and safety, conservation and security requirements.

•Contribute to the development of new content, learning resources, events and bespoke projects where commissioned by HRP.

•Support the delivery of Home Educator Days, community activity and other learning programmes as required.

Exclusion criteria:

Suppliers who are unable to demonstrate the following will not be considered eligible for award of this contract

•Suppliers must have appropriate safeguarding policies, procedures and reporting arrangements for working with children, young people and vulnerable adults, including arrangements for safer recruitment, workforce training and the management of safeguarding concerns.

•Suppliers must have relevant experience and organisational capacity to deliver learning, engagement or interpretation programmes for children and young people within museum, heritage, arts or cultural settings at a scale and complexity broadly comparable to this contract.

Tender documents:

The tender process will be run through HRP’s e tendering system, Delta e-Sourcing. Tender documents will be made available on Delta to those suppliers who expressed an interest.

Suppliers will need to register on Delta in order to participate in the tender process. Suppliers can register here www.delta-esourcing.com/register/ ↗

Anticipated contract start date: September 2027 (with contract mobilisation commencing March 2027)

Contract period: 3 + 2 years

HRP reserves the right not to award a contract.

In addition, HRP reserves the right to negotiate with short-listed tenderers or the preferred supplier.

If you experience any technical difficulties from accessing Delta, please contact the Delta eSourcing Helpdesk. Call 0800 923 9236 or email helpdesk@delta-esourcing.com.

For more information about this opportunity, please visit the eSourcing portal at:

www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-East-M… ↗

To respond to this opportunity, please click here:

www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/67HNTVQ4E6 ↗