The British Museum is seeking to procure a transport services manager to administer the provision of coach, or similar, vehicles with drivers to enable school trips to the British Museum and to a group of partner museums across the United Kingdom over a two year period running from September 2023 to July 2025.

The British Museum in partnership with the Art Explora Foundation and 13 further Partner Museums across the UK is embarking on a ground-breaking national initiative for 100,000 school children aged 7–11. Together, they are developing the Culture Bus project which will transform the traditional school trip into a cultural educational adventure at museums across the UK. It will operate over two academic years, September 2023 – July 2024 and September 2024 – July 2025. It will target schools in areas of high deprivation and communities under-served by existing museum provisions, including rural and coastal areas. It will support schools in areas of low cultural provision and engagement, meeting the UK government’s levelling up agenda. The project will cover the cost of coach transport and visits will be free for schools to participate, eradicating a significant financial cost and removing a barrier schools face when attempting to arranging these opportunities.

The Culture Bus aims to build children’s sense of entitlement to culture and our national heritage. Therefore, we are seeking to create an unforgettable day out with an end-to-end experience. The time pupils are on the coaches to and from their destination museum will be used to maximum effect using a carefully curated audio experience to lengthening and enhance their engagement before and after their museum visit. While at their destination, pupils will be supported by world class experts in teaching using museum collections and powerful digital technology to enhance their learning.

This procurement relates to the award of a contract to provide transport services for programme visits to the destination museums and will last for the two year duration of the programme. The successful tenderer will act as a single point of contact to ensure that coaches are made available to enable visits by class groups from schools to the British Museum and Partner Museums’ sites.