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PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY

ID 1032027/L8 Legal Services for Strategic Partner Services & School Management System Solution Project

the Education Authority · award, contract

Tender information last checkedLast checked 26 Sept 2026, 16:57.

Opportunity overview

The provision of legal services for the Strategic Partner Services and School Management System Solution project.

Awarded to

Amounts belong to published awards or contracts. Where several suppliers share one value, it is labelled as shared and is not a supplier-specific allocation.

Carson McDowell LLP

Matched by exact name
Contract value
£462.5k
Awarded
Not supplied
Contract signed
14 Jul 2026
Award ID
070491-2026-1
Status
active
Location
Belfast, UKN, United Kingdom

Classification

  • CPV79100000 — Legal services

Lots

  • The provision of legal services for the Strategic Partner Services and School Management System Solution project.Value not stated

Published notice details

Additional information from the published procurement release. Fields appear only when supplied by the source; check the original notice and tender documents before acting.

Scope, procedure and submissions

Id
ocds-h6vhtk-06d3b8
Status
complete
Main Procurement Category
services
Procurement Method
limited
Procurement Method Details
Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Why this procedure was chosen
This contract was a call-off contract awarded under Lot 8 of the CPD Framework ID 1032027 for Legal Services and commenced on 11th January 2022 for a period of three years. The contract was subsequently modified to extend its term for a further period of 2 years until 10 January 2027 and to increase the value to cover this additional contract period, and a Modificaiton Notice was published to the market on 10 January 2025 (2025/S 000-000917). It has become necessary to further modify this contract until 31 March 2028 and to uplift the contract value by 50 percent of the original contract value (i.e. £462,500) to support the ongoing procurement of this requirement. The modification is permissible under the grounds of Regulation 72 (1) (b) of the PCR, 2015, and meets the following conditions; (b) for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor that have become necessary and were not included in the initial procurement, where a change of contractor— (i) cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations procured under the initial procurement, or (ii) would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority, provided that any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract; For technical reasons a change in supplier is not possible at this stage. The provider has been contracted to provide legal advice and support on this requirement since January 2022 and has built up critical knowledge and understanding which will be required to proceed with this complex strategic procurement exercise required over the next 2 years. To change supplier at this critical time would result in loss of expertise, knowledge and impact the project timelines significantly and would result in substantial duplication of costs for the EA. The contract is required to ensure continuity of legal advice and support in relation to development of critical work. Retaining the existing provider will enable the contracting authority to access consistent, informed, and timely legal services based on the supplier’s established understanding of the procurement environment and associated risks. EA has already issued the PSQ stage to market on 8th June 2026 via UK4 Tender Notice 2026/S 000-053968 which subsequently closed on 17th July 2026. The additional value is required to cover services in relation to support on the procurement.The value of this potential modification is £462,500 and does not exceed 50% of the original contract value.

Legal basis

Id
32014L0024
Scheme
CELEX

Classification

Scheme
CPV
Id
79100000
Description
Legal services

Covered By

GPA

Procedure reasons

Entry 1
Scheme
TED_PT_AWARD_CONTRACT_WITHOUT_CALL
Id
D_OUTSIDE_SCOPE
Description
The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Lots and requirements

Entry 1
Id
1
Description
The provision of legal services for the Strategic Partner Services and School Management System Solution project.
Has Options
No

Items and delivery

Item 1
Id
1
Related Lot
1

Delivery locations

Entry 1
Region
UKN

Buyer, suppliers and contacts

Organisation 1
Name
the Education Authority
Id
GB-FTS-84187

Identifier

Legal Name
the Education Authority

Address

Street Address
40 Academy Street
Locality
Belfast
Region
UK
Postal Code
BT1 2NQ
Country Name
United Kingdom

Contact

Roles

buyer

Details

Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
TED_CA_TYPE
Id
BODY_PUBLIC
Description
Body governed by public law
Entry 2
Scheme
COFOG
Id
09
Description
Education
Organisation 2
Name
Carson McDowell LLP
Id
GB-FTS-87001

Identifier

Legal Name
Carson McDowell LLP

Address

Locality
Belfast
Region
UKN
Country Name
United Kingdom

Contact

Roles

supplier

Details

Scale
sme
Organisation 3
Name
The UK does not currently have any such bodies with responsibilities for appeal/mediation procedures
Id
GB-FTS-185241

Identifier

Legal Name
The UK does not currently have any such bodies with responsibilities for appeal/mediation procedures

Address

Locality
Balfast
Country Name
United Kingdom

Roles

reviewBody

Award information

Award 1
Id
070491-2026-1
Status
active

Related lots

1

Suppliers

Supplier 1
Id
GB-FTS-87001
Name
Carson McDowell LLP

Contracts and changes

Entry 1
Id
070491-2026-1
Award ID
070491-2026-1
Status
active
Date Signed
15 Jul 2026, 00:00

Value

Amount
462,500
Currency
GBP

Recorded locations

  • Buyer location · Belfast · UK · BT1 2NQ · United Kingdom
  • Delivery location · UKN

Notice and amendment history

1 published notice version reviewed by ProcuraAxis.

1 VERSION
  1. 070491-2026award, contract ·