Invitation to Tender - Communities of Practice Development

CONTEXTNature Towns and Cities is a UK-wide mission to bring nature and green space to urban areas for everyone's benefit. It is backed by coalition of public, private and third sector organisations committed to putting accessible nature at the heart of vibrant, healthy, resilient places and communities, focusing on those areas that will benefit the most. Over the next 10 years we're aiming to help 5 million more people enjoy better access to green and blue space close to home, and 1 million more children to be able to play in nature on their doorstep. THIS COMMISSIONTo support places and communities on their journey we have already provided training, peer mentoring, action learning, case studies and how to guides, conferences and events and informal opportunities to collaborate, though the Nature Towns and Cities Network. We now wish to develop and establish a small number of Communities of Practice to connect people and organisations working to create, improve and care for urban nature across the UK. These spaces will connect local government and wider public sector, national NGOs, VCSE organisations and possibly private sector organisations around shared ambitions for greener, fairer, healthier towns and cities. Communities of Practice is a working concept, intended to start coalescing the large Nature Towns and Cities network around purposeful activity on specific themes. We want to create spaces where network members can work through live challenges, share experience, learn from different perspectives and identify practical next steps. This commission will determine what these spaces look and feel like, and how they are delivered.INFORMATION TO BE RETURNEDTender responses should be sent to david.coughlin@nationaltrust.org.uk by the deadline of 12pm (midday) on 18/09/26 and include details of the following: • Outline of your proposed approach, including outputs • Description of your relevant experience, including examples of at least two pieces of similar work you have carried out. • Project timeline or Gantt chart • Key responsibilities of team members and time allocations • Proposed budget breakdown The budget available for this work is £50,000 inc VAT.Please see the full ITT document attached for further details. Research and development services and related consultancy services, Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security Contract start: 2026-10-01T00:00:00+01:00 Contract end: 2027-02-28T00:00:00Z Suitable for SMEs Suitable for VCSEs