26039 Cambridgeshire County Council Connect to Work Programme

Authority: Cambridgeshire County Council (Local council)

Framework agreement12 lotsServicesOpen procedureAbove thresholdLight touch regimeSME suitableVCSE suitableMax 6 lots to bidMax 6 lots per supplier

Sectors: Business Services & Consultancy (79)Health & Social Care (85) Delivery: East of England (UKH11)

Framework ceiling (notional)£8,400,000total for 12 lots · framework ceiling, not attributable revenue

Submissions closed 4 Sept 2026

Lots 12max 6 won per supplier · max 6 to bid

Framework period 1 yr 5 moends 31 Mar 2028 · up to 31 Mar 2030 with extensions · starts 1 Nov 2026

What is being bought12 lots · detail below

Published requirement description

Connect to Work is a new, voluntary supported employment initiative funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It is the first major element of the Get Britain Working Strategy and will take a collaborative, locally led approach designed to help people with health conditions, disabilities, or other barriers, find and maintain paid work.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) have appointed Cambridgeshire County Council as Prime Provider to manage the delivery across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Therefore, we are now seeking experienced providers to deliver the supported employment models as detailed below.

Connect to Work combines two supported employment delivery models:

IPS - Individual Placement and Support

IPS is an intervention which integrates employment support alongside primary and secondary health services and other support services. For more information please see the links in the specification and ITT.

SEQF - Supported Employment Quality Framework, intensive supported

employment for people with learning disabilities, autism, and complex

barriers. SEQF is a more intensive intervention, where in delivery terms the Participant will receive more contact and support from their Employment Specialist.

For more information please see the links in the specification and the ITT

As well as experienced providers of IPS and SEQF, we also encourage smaller voluntary and community organisations who want to learn and develop their own supported employment delivery to apply. We will provide full support and training to facilitate development of supported employment models to fidelity requirements.

CPV: Career guidance services · Guidance services · Job search services

How this framework works

From the published notice

Type: Closed framework
Call-offs: call-offs are awarded directly to appointed suppliers, without further competition
Framework period: 1 yr 5 mo · up to 3 yrs 5 mo from 1 Nov 2026

Published description of the framework

Potential bidders are asked to complete the conditions of participation questionnaire which also contains the quality questions for this framework. Bids will be scored according to the evaluation methodology set out in Section 3 of the ITT found on ProContract. Once this has been completed and assuming a compliant pricing sheet has been provided, the three highest scoring bidders from each Lot will be awarded a place on that Lot.

Going forward, all referrals for each of the Lots will work in a taxi rank style system. The highest scoring bidder will be assigned referral one, the second highest will be assigned referral two and third highest, referral 3. This will then repeat with referral four going to bidder 1 and so on.

If at any point there is a need for a specific Lot to reopen, this will be advertised individually and all providers currently on the Lot will also need to reapply.

This framework will operate as a flexible light touch framework meaning that there is no requirement to reopen the framework unless a reason to do so occurs.

Lots and requirements (12)Procurement structure

12 lots · all with a published value · a supplier may bid for at most 6 and win at most 6 of them · same evaluation weights on every lot

Every one of these 12 lots carries the same published figure, £8,400,000: it is the framework's maximum for the whole notice, not each lot's own budget, and no share per lot is published. The cards below say ceiling above rather than repeat it.

Lot #1IPS - PeterboroughRenewal 1 yr 5 moSMEVCSEceiling above

For the provision of IPS services in Peterborough City. Please note that the value of this Lot is embedded in the overall framework value and not specifically provided for individual Lots.