Social Care Tenders and Contracts

Social care tenders cover how councils commission support for adults who need help to live independently and not clinical treatment. Expect notices for supported living and extra care housing, day opportunities and short breaks, safeguarding reviews, direct payments administration, and residential or nursing care placements for older people or adults with a learning disability, autism or mental health need. Councils' adult social care or social services directorates publish most of these, often jointly with an NHS integrated care board.

Stotles brings together social care tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Scottish councils call off care and support from Scotland Excel's framework, and many councils place care packages through their own dynamic purchasing systems.

Social care tenders are scored on quality as well as price, so bids show how you recruit and keep staff, keep people safe, meet outcomes and work with families and other services. Many councils run open frameworks or dynamic purchasing systems, so joining them is usually the first step.

Providers of regulated care activities in England must be registered with the Care Quality Commission, and care in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is regulated by the Care Inspectorate, Care Inspectorate Wales and the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar services at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Most social care work is let through multi-provider frameworks or dynamic purchasing systems, where a council appoints a pool of providers to a lot rather than a single winner, then calls off individual placements as needs arise. Extra care housing and supported living schemes are more often single-provider contracts tied to a specific building or scheme, re-tendered on multi-year cycles. Smaller placements, particularly an individual's residential or nursing care, are frequently spot-purchased outside any framework when a person's needs do not fit an existing lot.

Social care contracts mostly run through the Scotland Excel care and support services flexible framework, approved provider lists and dynamic purchasing systems. Councils lead commissioning, often jointly with NHS integrated care boards, and NHS trusts and health boards buy mental health accommodation and crisis services.

Social care contracts are usually signalled well before a formal notice appears. Councils publish market position statements setting out future commissioning intentions for their area, run supplier engagement events ahead of framework re-procurements, and issue prior information notices when a multi-provider framework or extra care scheme is approaching retender. Cabinet papers and adult social care strategy documents often name the service areas under review months ahead of a tender. Stotles surfaces these pre-tender signals alongside the buyer, so a supplier can follow a scheme from market engagement through to the live notice.

Social care tenders are classified under the CPV 85000000 Health and social work services group, most often the narrower 85300000 Social work and related services, 85310000 Social work services and 85311000 Social work services with accommodation codes, the last of which covers residential and nursing placements. A scheme that includes new-build or refurbishment work, such as an extra care housing development, sometimes carries a construction code alongside these.