Department for Education signs £575m schools ICT deal

A Department for Education (DfE) framework agreement worth £575m has been awarded to 18 suppliers. Schools, colleges and other education services will be able use the framework to obtain information management services, according to the Official Journal of the European Union. Learning services, including ICT service managed provision and the integration of learning platform' components, are also covered by the framework. The agreement was set up by the Government Procurement Service on behalf of the DfE, although the department will be responsible for specifying technical principles and functional requirements for the services it covers. Companies appointed to the framework are: Bromcom Computers; Capita; CDSM; Civica; FrogTrade; ILC Manchester; itslearning; Learning Possibilities; Novatia; Pearson Education; RM; Serco; ScholarPack; Studywiz; Tribal; UniServity; Wauton Samuel; and Webanywhere. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Guardian Government Computing network here.