How can these be used to improve social care tender success rates?
Care providers seeking a head start with winning UK social care contracts should engage with the tender process as early as possible. This includes participating in preliminary market engagement activities and events to fully understand commissioning priorities and to shape future tender documents and processes.
What are Preliminary Market Engagement Events?
Preliminary market engagement events are a contracting authority’s way of gaining information from its suppliers. This is done through various methods including questionnaires, events, soft market launches, focus groups surveys, webinars, or in-person meetings. Preliminary market engagement events take place before a tender is published and are usually advertised via pipeline or planning notices on the Find a Tender website.
A key benefit of preliminary market engagement events is that care providers can gain early insight into an upcoming tender. Consultation can enable contracting authorities to gauge interest in a tender and obtain feedback regarding the proposed evaluation criteria, pricing, service specification, or other aspects of the tender. Following market engagement, contracting authorities may adjust their requirements in response to feedback. For example, if following a soft market test a council realises that their requirements for a tender would result in a very limited number of care providers expressing an interest, they may adjust the requirements to attract a wider pool of applicants.
The UK Government’s Find a Tender service is a key tool for identifying preliminary market engagement events. Health and social care providers can filter searches by selecting ‘85000000: Health and social work services’ as the Industry CPV code and selecting ‘Pipeline’ and ‘Planning’ notices.
Here is an example of a preliminary market engagement event by NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board for a virtual event that intends to get feedback on its delivery model. This notice falls under the notice type ‘U F01: Prior information notice (prior information only)’.
Here are some other samples of preliminary market engagement events in the health and social care sector that are using questionnaires to obtain feedback and information from providers.
- Pre-Market Engagement – York and North Yorkshire Force Control Room Mental Health
- Workwell Market Engagement Event for Notts, Lincs & Derby
- CYP Weight Management Service
- LBH Supported Accommodation Services – Adults with Learning Disabilities and Autism
- Residential and Nursing Care in Gloucestershire – Pre Market Engagement Survey
Each contracting authority will have their own aims regarding what they wish to achieve from market engagement. For example, the main purpose of the Gloucestershire County Council’s survey is for the Council to obtain feedback on providers’ current cyber security and digital capabilities, experience of social value requirements and readiness for the future procurement process. The Council want to understand better how to streamline procurement, reduce administrative burdens, and ensure future requirements are proportionate and achievable. This preliminary market engagement notice also includes the estimated publication date of the tender, providing potential bidders with an indicative timeline to prepare for the tender release.
In-person market engagement events are particularly useful to meet the buyer in person, engage in Q&A sessions, provide feedback, and fully understand the requirements of an upcoming tender. The following is a sample of current in-person market engagement events available for health and social care service providers to attend:
- Care in Your Home Partnership – Meet the Buyer / Market Engagement Events September 2026
- Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) event related to the provision of Specialist Children’s Residential Provision
- Provision of Healthcare Services in Custody
Preliminary market engagement events are often virtual, providing easy access for providers to attend, including those who may not already be operating in the local authority area. An example of a current virtual event is for the Strategic Partnership Framework for Commissioning of Children’s Services with Liverpool City Council, in which the market engagement event will cover an overview of the proposed scope for the tender.
Other market engagement events will be specifically aimed at understanding providers’ capabilities, interest in, and capacity to deliver proposed tenders through soft market testing. For example, St Helens Borough Council is currently considering opportunities to build its existing respite offer to include a strong and consistent shared lives offer for residents aged over 18 years. An initial soft market test is being completed during September 2026 to determine market capacity. Care providers can participate in this soft market test here.
What is a pipeline notice?
In addition to notices that advertise market engagement events, health and social care providers can gain early notification of future tenders by tracking all pipeline notices in their sector. Pipeline notices were introduced under the Procurement Act 2023, and are a notice that provides information about any public contract above £2 million that will be published in the future[1].
For example, Swansea Council has recently published a pipeline notice to alert care providers about the future tender for services to deliver domiciliary care to people who fall into one of the following categories, Older Persons (65 years plus), Younger Adults (18-64 years) with a Physical Disability and/or Sensory Impairment (Individuals) and Individuals with Mental Health or Learning Disabilities who are presenting needs. Care providers that want to follow this notice can access this here.
Health and social care providers can gain significant benefit from setting up email alerts to receive pipeline notices and from participating in preliminary market engagement events to shape and prepare for future tenders.
BFT Consult’s website lists live health and social care tenders on a regular basis. Click here for the latest tender publications. We publish tenders on a daily basis in the health and social care sector.
[1] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/section/93/data.html
Interested in current tenders? View live tender opportunities here.
