Deadline for tender submissions – Tuesday 30 June 2026, 11:59pm (UK time)
1. Purpose
The purpose of this procurement process is for the Archives and Records Association and The National Archives to select a supplier with significant leadership training experience to deliver two training courses, aimed at early and mid-career professional focused on developing their leadership skills.
2. About us
The National Archives is the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and for England and Wales. In 2011, The National Archives took on leadership responsibilities for the archive sector in England, working with over 2,500 archives across the country. The National Archives Strategy 2025 – 2030 sets out its ambition to lead the future of archives and address the resilience of the sector. The National Archives’ sector leadership role is driven by the Government’s vision for archives. The foundation of the vision is the integral role of archives at the heart of society. To achieve this, the vision is underpinned by three key themes by which archives must excel in order to reach their potential, by becoming accessible, inclusive, and sustainable.
The National Archives also has responsibility for the management of Public Records held locally across England and Wales and performs the Historical Manuscripts Commission’s functions in relation to independent archives across the UK. Its support and advice help archives to develop and enhance their services, facilities and collections
The Archives and Records Association (ARA) is the UK and Republic of Ireland’s lead professional membership body for archivists, records managers and archive conservators. It is not a trade union: its several thousand members work across the public, private and voluntary sectors and are specialists. ARA promotes continuing professional development and professional standards, encourages innovation in the sector with a range of partners locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
The Archives and Records Association also provides members with a range of services, including training, workplace research, professional registration, competency frameworks and policy advocacy. It represents those with professional interests in record keeping. It promotes working together to maximise heritage collections and to offer the best possible services in access, outreach and collections’ stewardship.
3. Background
On 20 June 2023, The National Archives and ARA entered into a Collaboration Agreement for 2023 – 2025. This Collaboration Agreement builds on the desire for cooperation and collaborative working between The National Archives and ARA. The agreement outlines how both organisations will continue to build on their relationship to date to ensure strong leadership and clarity for the archive, records management and archive conservation disciplines.
Both organisations are committed to finding solutions to challenges related to workforce development. It is an acknowledged problem that there are issues related to career mobility within the archive sector. In April 2024, The National Archives and ARA commissioned Louise Ray to undertake research into the barriers, opportunities and solutions related to career mobility and leadership skills within the record keeping sector. Building on the research, in July 2025, The National Archives and ARA hosted The Leadership for Recordkeepers Summit at Friends House, London. This event aimed to celebrate leadership across the recordkeeping sector and provide delegates with the chance to understand better their current skills, improve their confidence and explore opportunities to develop their leadership. Following feedback from the summit, The National Archives and ARA hosted an event in May 2026 at Conference Aston, Birmingham, focused on communication, confidence, and influence.
Building on the evaluation of the summit and recent event, ARA and The National Archives are developing a programme of support to help recordkeepers to develop their leadership skills. These two training courses will sit within the programme.
We define early-career and mid-career professionals as:
- Early Career: Perhaps you have 1-10 years’ experience in the sector. Examples might include those who have recently completed a professional qualification (or are working towards it) or are thinking about working towards ARA Registration. You might be in more junior roles, focused on developing more technical skills with limited management responsibility.
- Mid-Career: You may have more than 10 years’ experience. You may have responsibility for managing staff, budgets or other resources. You actively continue with your professional development, and you might be working towards or have gained Registered Membership of the ARA.
4. Requirement
4.1 Scope of work
The supplier will be responsible for developing and delivering two training courses, one aimed at early-career professionals and the other aimed at mid-career professionals. The courses will be delivered online before December 2026.
It is up to the supplier to propose the number of workshops and their length; however, we recommend that there are no more than 3 workshops and 8 hours, per course. The workshops could be delivered over a few weeks, to allow for participants to complete work in-between the sessions. The final format will be agreed with the project leads after the contract has been awarded.
4.2 Required deliverables
4.2.1 Two training courses aimed at early-career and mid-career professionals
These courses will:
- Introduce leadership theory
- Focus on developing leadership skills
- Be appropriate to the career stage of the participants
- Include the importance of continuing professional development
- Advocate for both the individual and sectoral benefits of strong leadership
- Sign-post to relevant support
- Introduce the concept of action learning sets, and establish groups, to ensure long-term sustainability and implementation of learning from the course (The National Archives will take over administration of this once established).
4.2.2 Training course format
- Delivered online via Zoom (The National Archives’ can provide their Zoom account)
- Interactive, involving a mixture of presentation, facilitated discussion, and group/or individual work
- Include evaluation, through in-workshop and post-event evaluation methods to measure impact and inform future planning
4.3.3 Accompanying resources:
- Produce presentation slides and materials for the workshop
- Create a short evaluation sheet summarising feedback and the supplier’s comments
- Develop a resource pack (a summary of the content and workshop material) for the delegates to refer to post-event
4.3.4 Preparation for the supplier includes:
- Attend a project set-up meeting with The National Archives and ARA
- Liaise with the project leads to plan the training courses and accompanying materials panel and case study speakers to co-ordinate the content of the sessions.
4.3.5 Follow-up for the supplier includes:
- Attend an evaluation meeting with The National Archives and ARA
Consultants may also collaborate and submit a proposal as a consortium to deliver the two training courses. Consortiums will be expected to propose who will deliver which training course based on experience and suitability. The final decision will be approved by The National Archives and the ARA.
5. Budget
We anticipate this work will take approximately eleven days, including:
- 2 days liaising with The National Archives and ARA
- 6 days course design and development
- 2 days delivery
- 1 day follow-up resources and evaluation meeting
The total contract price is £8800 excl. VAT (£800/day), inclusive of all other expenses.
6. How to respond
If you have any clarification questions related to your response, please submit these to ASL@nationalarchives.gov.uk by Monday 11:59pm (UK Time), 22 June 2026.
Please submit your response via the SmartSurvey expression of interest form by Tuesday 23:59 (UK Time), 30 June 2026.
It is for you to determine what format your Tender Response should take so as to describe your offer in a clear, comprehensive fashion. However please ensure your Tender Response includes as a minimum:
- your understanding of the project and deliverables.
- details of your prior experience suited to this project, including understanding of sector-related guidance and standards.
- your proposed methodology for delivery of the project deliverables (refer to section 4 above)
- names and experience of the individuals you will assign to the project, and their involvement with each phase of unit of the work.
- your contract price, including breakdown of costs for each phase or unit of work, day rate for each team member and other costs or expenses.
The SmartSurvey expression of interest form above includes compulsory sections on contact details and contract price. Suppliers are then welcome to submit their tender in the comment box provided, or as an attachment. Suppliers are also welcome to submit additional attachments to support their tender response, such as a CV.
7. Evaluation
Your Tender Response will be evaluated using the following criteria:
- Extent to which proposal demonstrates an understanding of the brief
- Knowledge and experience relevant to the project, including understanding of the archive or wider culture and heritage sectors
- Quality of methodology
- Contract price
Each of the four criteria will be assessed against a maximum score of 5 points (1 being the lowest). The Tender Response will receive an overall score out of 20 points.
8. Timetable
Invitation to Tender published:
Thursday 4 June 2026
Deadline for potential suppliers to submit clarification questions to ASL@nationalarchives.gov.uk:
11:59pm (UK Time), Monday 22 June 2026
Deadline for potential suppliers to submit tender responses:
11:59pm (UK Time), Tuesday 30 June 2026
Contract award, week commencing:
Monday 6 July 2026