Northern Ireland tries (again) to expel Capita from schools IT contract

PUBLIC SECTOR

New procurement could be worth £851M after previous Fujitsu award was scrapped

Four years after its first attempt, Northern Ireland's Education Authority (EANI) is trying once again to replace Capita, with a procurement for an IT services deal worth up to £851 million.

An earlier effort to replace the UK tech services company foundered when EANI ended its £485 million contract with Fujitsu by "mutual agreement" after "extensive negotiations" in November 2024.

The deal's collapse led to an extension of the authority's contract with Capita, which bagged an additional £107 million to continue to provide IT services to schools in Northern Ireland until March 2027. The deal was first signed in 2012 and has been extended a number of times without competition. The total value of the Capita contracts is likely to be around £650 million.

In an official notice published earlier this month, EANI said it was looking for a supplier to provide Education Technology Managed Services (ETMS) covering more than 1,100 schools, 350,000 pupils, 22,000 teachers, and 40,000 non-teaching staff.

The ETMS contract is set to "replace and transform the technical infrastructure and services for schools known as the Education Network for Northern Ireland" – the service Capita currently provides.

The value of the ETMS deal is around £246 million for core services paid over the initial term of the contract. A further £605 million may be awarded for contract extensions, a schools catalog, and potential optional services. The maximum potential value is £851 million including tax.

EANI has previously attempted to replace its Capita contract. It began a procurement in March 2022 for IT services and a new schools management system designed to support teaching and learning through technology.

Fujitsu eventually won that competition in December 2023, securing a contract worth up to £485 million for ten years, with a possible two-year extension. Capita, TCS, and Fujitsu were initially in the running. By the time final tenders were submitted, both Capita and TCS had withdrawn their bids.

The Fujitsu contract was canceled after just 11 months following "extensive negotiations" on a "mutually agreed" and "no-fault basis," according to the authority.

The new competition does not include the development of a schools management system, although its wider IT services scope overlaps with the Fujitsu contract.

The Register has asked EANI how much it has spent on the replacement IT services procurement since the process began in 2022. ®