The Department for Children, Schools and Families uses AWARD software in the successful letting of the Schools Recruitment Service

5th January 10 - Oxford, UK - QinetiQ Commerce Decisions, leading provider of AWARD software and services to support through-life procurement and delivery processes, has assisted the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in the successful letting of the Schools Recruitment Service. The DCSF was created in June 2007 and has responsibility for state schools in England. 

The Schools Recruitment Service is an innovative online system that is being used by  across England to upload their vacancies, manage their communications with applicants and track the candidate's progress from application right through to appointment. The primary function of the Service is to improve current recruitment practices for all permanent leadership, teaching and support staff in schools.

The Service makes the recruitment process more candidate-focused, better able to respond to the marketplace and the needs of the school; therefore reducing the cost per hire and increasing quality and productive time. It uses online applicant tracking technology designed to help modernise recruitment processes.

"The evaluation panel for the Schools Recruitment Service project was drawn from a number of geographically dispersed Local Authority and school staff who were impressed both with how easy AWARD software was to use and how much time it saved them. AWARD also assisted us in the process of maintaining the highest level of buy-in to the project from our stakeholders and in delivering a clear and transparent audit trail," observed Paul Howard, Head of Sector & ex-DIUS Procurement Shared Services, DCSF.

The AWARD software is a collaborative web-based software solution designed specifically to support the strategic procurement process from Request for Information preparation, through proposal evaluation to negotiation, delivery and post contract review. AWARD is proven to reduce time to contract, improve value for money and reduce risk. It has been used to support strategic procurements in a range of sectors including utilities, transport, local government, healthcare, aerospace and defence covering a broad range of activities including the provision of schools, hospitals, transport and defence systems across Europe and the US.

"Over the last eighteen months we have seen the rapid take up of AWARD software across the public sector including local, regional and central government and the NHS. With the implementation of the EU Remedies Directive, the value of AWARD in the procurement process has been further reinforced through its ability to generate a transparent audit trail and to capture and demonstrate evidence of decision making during the evaluation. The Schools Recruitment Service is an excellent example of the value that QinetiQ Commerce Decisions can add to the procurement process," said John Thompson, MD, QinetiQ Commerce Decisions.