Guidance and Counselling Tenders and Contracts

It covers employee assistance and workplace counselling, student and school counselling, and careers guidance and advice for young people or jobseekers. Some contracts bundle these together, others are let separately.

Councils, NHS trusts and integrated care boards, universities and combined authorities are the main buyers. Fire and rescue authorities and central government departments also run these contracts for staff wellbeing.

Most run as open tenders for a single supplier, awarded under the Procurement Act's light touch regime for health and social services. Larger public bodies sometimes call off from an existing framework agreement instead of running a fresh competition.

Yes. Many notices are below-threshold contracts aimed at a single specialist provider, such as a local counselling charity or an occupational health firm. Larger authority-wide contracts, like an employee assistance programme, draw bigger national providers.