Find a TenderOpen admission Tender notice
Published 30 Jul 2026, 14:20 BST

Official UK procurement notice

25013 Flexible Learning Support Framework - Round 2

Authority: Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (Local council)

Open framework schemeServicesOpen procedureAbove thresholdLight touch regime
Sectors: Education & Training (80) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Framework ceiling (notional)£0framework ceiling, not attributable revenue
Open framework scheme until 30 Dec 202623:59 GMT · period end, not a bid countdown
Framework period 2 yrs 8 moends 31 Aug 2029 · up to 31 Aug 2034 with extensions · starts 1 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is setting up a Flexible Learning Support Framework to provide high-quality education and support for children, young people, and young adults who need alternative, additional, or specialist provision. The aim is to make sure every learner can access flexible, personalised support that helps them stay engaged, improve their wellbeing, make progress, and achieve positive long-term outcomes.

We welcome a wide range of providers to apply. This includes education providers, alternative provision settings, specialist support services, training organisations, community and voluntary groups, therapeutic practitioners, employers, and organisations offering vocational, employability, or life-skills opportunities. We particularly encourage applications from small and medium-sized organisations (SMEs), voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, and local providers.

This framework is part of the Council’s wider work to improve the availability, quality, and choice of education and support services across Dudley. We want services that respond to local needs, meet statutory responsibilities, and create positive social value for children, families, and the wider community. Providers on the framework will need to demonstrate strong safeguarding, effective partnership working, good quality assurance processes, and a commitment to ongoing improvement.

We are looking for forward-thinking providers who can deliver accessible, high-quality support that helps children and young people achieve their potential and move successfully into education, employment, training, or independent adulthood.

The Council reserves the right to use the powers available to it under Section 21 of the Procurement Act 2023 and Schedule 8, paragraph 1(a) of the Procurement Act 2023.

This includes the Council’s ability under Section 21 PA23 to issue tender notices and associated tender documents as required for the lawful conduct of the procurement process, as well as its ability under Schedule 8, paragraph 1(a) PA23 to make permitted contract modifications without commencing a new procurement procedure, where such modifications meet the statutory conditions.

  • The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 5 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT.

CPV: Education and training services

How this framework works

From the published notice
Type
Closed framework · open framework scheme (admission reopens)
Call-offs
call-offs may be awarded directly or by further competition
Framework period
2 yrs 8 mo · up to 7 yrs 8 mo from 1 Jan 2027
Scheme runs until
1 Sept 2034
Published description of the framework

The framework is open to suppliers of learning support provision and will be called off using a mixture of direct award and mini-competition. Dates are subject to change due to the open nature of the framework.

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · value published
Lot #1Renewal 2 yrs 8 moPublished value£0
Contract period: 1 Jan 2027 – 31 Aug 2029 (2 yrs 8 mo) · up to 31 Aug 2034 with extensions
Extensions: Up to a period of five years.

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
How bids are scored
Quality: 100%
Published award criteria (1)
  • Quality
What this means for your bid
  • “25013 Flexible Learning Support Framework - Round 2” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract: call-offs may be direct or by further competition.

Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid

How Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council buys Education and training services (CPV 80), and who usually turns up

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Education and training services (CPV 80) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerDudley Metropolitan Borough Council · all categories
The marketEducation and training services (CPV 80) · West Midlands (authority’s region)
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 3 known-size awards · market: division 80 · West Midlands (authority’s region), n=31
0 of 358%

No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Here, local means registered in West Midlands (authority’s region).

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 of 5 known-location awards · market: division 80 · West Midlands (authority’s region), n=37
60%38%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in West Midlands.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 11 decided notices · market: division 80 · West Midlands (authority’s region), n=7
53 days48 days

Half of these awards were announced within 53 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 3 of 4 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 80 · West Midlands (authority’s region), n=13
3 of 423%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer3 lots with bid counts · all categories · too few to chart
The market36 lots with bid counts · division 80 · West Midlands (authority’s region)
8% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid8%
Market: 3 of 36 lots with published bid counts.
2–322%
Market: 8 of 36 lots with published bid counts.
4–625%
Market: 9 of 36 lots with published bid counts.
7+44%
Market: 16 of 36 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

Not comparable on a framework or DPS. The notice sets up a supplier panel and a ceiling value; what the work actually costs is agreed later, on each call-off or mini-competition, and those publish as contract notices of their own. The award-vs-estimate record of this market therefore sits on the call-offs; this page shows it on the contracts, not on the panel that frames them.

2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Our matching links this notice to “Flexible Learning Support Framework” of this authority, but none of the 20 panel members sit in a category matching this notice.

Lot #132 monthsNo real estimate
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

7expected bids1% single-bid risk
forecast from 29 past contests
Forecast chances for this lot
1 bid1%
Chance this lot gets 1 bid: 1%. This is a forecast.
2–36%
Chance this lot gets 2–3: 6%. This is a forecast.
4–66%
Chance this lot gets 4–6: 6%. This is a forecast.
7+87%
Chance this lot gets 7+: 87%. This is a forecast.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—Priced at call-off
On a framework or DPS the price is agreed on each call-off, so there is no award price to forecast here: the published figure is a ceiling.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

SupplierWon in this categoryLive contractsAward vs estimate
3 panel places
3 awards in 36m · last 26 months ago2 live · £5.3m
i

Public contracts this supplier still holds.

Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book.

Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity.

no comparable pairs
1 panel places
1 awards in 36m · last 26 months ago1 live · £4.8m
i

Public contracts this supplier still holds.

Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book.

Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity.

no comparable pairs
1 panel places
—None on fileno comparable pairs
1 panel places
—None on fileno comparable pairs
1 panel places
—None on fileno comparable pairs
About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

What this replaces
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

73% title match.

A past supplier may not bid again.

The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (73% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid

Flexible Learning Support Framework, winner not published; no contract end date published.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Open procedure
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Open admission
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Light touch regime
Commercial structure
Open framework scheme
Who may use this agreement
Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Yes · next expected 5 Jan 2027
First published
30 Jul 2026, 14:20 BST
Last source update
30 Jul 2026, 14:20 BST
Award evaluation window
Submission end – 31 Dec 2026
Authority reference
25013
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-072235
Latest notice
Tender notice (UK4)
Classification (CPV)
Education and training services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d7bd Find a Tender
Related procedures1

How to participate & submission route

Official notice Apply via In-tend
Submission portal named on this notice: In-tend · Who buys & how to bid on In-tend
Supplier login requiredElectronic submission allowedLanguage: EN
Access & registration note: Free · one account per buying organisation's portal · reCAPTCHA on signup
Requests to participate (first stage)
—
Appointment period ends
30 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
Clarification deadline
—
Submission channel
Official e-sourcing portal
Electronic submission
Allowed
Accepted languages
en
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release

Timeline

30 Jul 2026 → 1 Jan 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Tender notice published82 days ago
    30 Jul 2026, 14:20 BST
  2. Today
    20 Oct 2026
  3. Admission / appointment period endsin 72 days · period end, not a bid countdown
    30 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
  4. Award decision expected byin 73 days
    31 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 73 days
    1 Jan 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Tender notice published
    30 Jul 2026, 14:20 BST
    UK4

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Nothing awarded yet
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PWYJ-3537-GLBW Council House, Priory Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 1HFContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Tender pack and attachments

Notices published for this procedure

  • Tender notice tenderTender noticeUK4Tender notice on Find a Tender