Purpose

Following an Invitation to Tender (ITT), framework agreements were entered with RTC North to deliver Lot 1 Digital Roadmaps and Intensive Technical Support, and with Sheffield Hallam University to provide Lot 2 Skills delivery, under the Made Smarter Yorkshire & Humber programme, and subsequent call-off contracts were entered for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years.

Following successful delivery in 2025/26, Department of Business, Innovation, Science & Trade (DBIST) approved a request for additional “enhancement” funding within the 2026/27 financial year. This enhancement funding increases delivery targets for Digital Interns and wider support offering (including Intensive Technical Support), and introduces a further requirement to deliver Cyber Security support.
A decision has been taken in consultation with Procurement and Legal teams to vary the existing contracts with RTC North and Sheffield Hallam University to deliver this.
 

Decision

Decision to:
• Vary Lot 2 (Skills) contract with Sheffield Hallam University for the 2026/27 financial year to deliver Made Smarter Cyber Security support, and an increase offer for Digital Interns, in line with option 2 above at an additional cost of £382,178
• Approve a 10% expansion in contract value (of £80,000) of the Lot 1 (Technical) contract with RTC North to extend the Intensive Technical Support offering for the 2026/27 financial year, in line with option 2 above.

The revised overall Lot 1 contract value of £917,052 falls within the allocated £2.7m of the original procurement, and the revised overall Lot 2 contract value of £863,057.88 falls within the allocated £1.8m of the original procurement.
 

Alternative options considered

Sheffield Hallam University contract:
Option 1: Do not approve variation and go out to full procurement for delivery of Cyber Security support. As the additional funding and delivery requirements were confirmed during the financial year, any new procurement would risk leaving insufficient time for delivery to be viable.

Option 2 (recommended): Approve a variation to the contract for delivery of Cyber Security support and increased offer for Digital Interns. This allows mobilisation quickly, drawing on existing capability and processes already in place for Digital Interns delivery. Cyber Security support is already delivered as part of MSYH programme through digital training courses. Approving the variation allows the supplier to build on this and offer standalone Cyber Security support, reducing the risk of duplication or mixed messaging to beneficiaries that a separate re-procurement could create.

RTC North contract:
Option 1: Do not approve variation to contract to expand Intensive Technical Support offering. This would result in a gap in provision as the existing capacity is almost fully utilised.

Option 2 (recommended): Approve variation of 10% to the contract value to expand the Intensive Technical Support offering, allowing more businesses to access support and enabling full use of additional funding.