Official UK procurement notice
003843 - Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) for Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets
Authority: Durham County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Council is inviting suppliers to participate in preliminary engagement to gain insight from the market with the purpose of making any potential future exercise, well framed, feasible, focused and of likely interest to the market.
Durham County Council (DCC) is looking to explore the market options for Virtual Reality (VR) headsets suitable for use in a range of care settings.
Scope
• Provision of standalone virtual reality headsets suitable for use in a range of care settings, including all required accessories and chargers
• The solution must provide immersive 360-degree experiences that can be delivered safely in seated, supervised one-to-one or small group sessions.
• Content should support reminiscence, relaxation, wellbeing, social interaction and meaningful activity primarily for older people, including people living with dementia and other adult service user groups as appropriate.
• The supplier should provide local content relevant to County Durham and the North East where available, with the option to develop or commission new experiences linked to local places, history, culture and service-user interests.
• Content should be refreshed regularly so the service has access to new experiences over time and can maintain interest for repeat users.
Read the full description (329 more characters)
• The specification should support both individual personalised use and planned group activity sessions within a range of care settings.
• The solution must be suitable for social staff to operate following training, with clear guidance on when VR may or may not be appropriate for an individual.
Written response questionnaires ca
CPV: Computer equipment and supplies · Multimedia equipment · Software package and information systems
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Lot 1Planned
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 17 Sept 2026, 11:58 BST
- Last source update
- 17 Sept 2026, 11:58 BST
- Authority reference
OPEN20262071- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07743a
How it was run
- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
3 published dates · Europe/London- Planning notice published2 days ago17 Sept 2026, 11:58 BST
- Market engagementin 20 days10 Oct 2026, 00:59 BSTWritten response questionnaires can be accessed free of charge by registering on the Open Tendering Portal at www.open-uk.org ↗ The deadline for written submissions, via the Open Portal is Friday 9th October at 12 noon.
- Contract startsin 134 days1 Feb 2027, 00:00 GMT
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Sept 2026, 11:58 BSTUK2
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender