Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 26 Oct 2026, 19:11 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

26067 - Unpaid Adult Carers Support Services

Authority: Cambridgeshire County Council (Local council)

ServicesLight touch regimeSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£5,320,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 5 Jan 2027from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 1 Aug 2029 · up to 1 Aug 2030 with extensions · starts 2 Aug 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Unpaid Adult Carer Support Service is a key part of Adult Social Carer’s (ASC) statutory and preventative approach to unpaid carer support.

It helps people to remain independent and delays the need for more intensive intervention by providing personalised support and connecting carers to services and activities in their local communities.

This not only improves outcomes for people receiving the support and those they care for but also enables the Council to effectively manage demand and associated costs.

The service is open to all adults aged 18 and over with caring responsibilities for people who are ordinarily resident in Cambridgeshire, with the goal of the service being to offer early intervention to adult carers, to improve health and wellbeing and prevent escalation of issues.

The PME questionnaire is available along with the instructions for completion/submission via our Intend e-tendering portal where you can search our opportunity and register to view further information via the following link:

sell2.in-tend.co.uk/cambridgeshire/home ↗

Please also ensure you are registered on the Government tendering portal in order to participate and obtain your share code - supplierregistration.cabinetoffice.gov.uk ↗

CPV: Social work and related services · Social work services · Social work services without accommodation

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 2 Aug 2027 – 1 Aug 2029 (2 yrs) · up to 1 Aug 2030 with extensions
Delivery: East of EnglandEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Cambridgeshire County Council buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up

Cambridgeshire County Council’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Social work services (CPV 8531) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCambridgeshire County Council · all categories
The marketSocial work services (CPV 8531) · East of England
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: 319 of 345 known-size awards · market: CPV 8531 · East of England, n=98
92%34%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in East of England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 198 of 380 known-location awards · market: CPV 8531 · East of England, n=133
52%49%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 25 decided notices · market: CPV 8531 · East of England, n=36
42 days60 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 42 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.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 54 of 125 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 8531 · East of England, n=141
43%54%

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 buyer57 lots with bid counts · all categories
9% had one bid
The market56 lots with bid counts · CPV 8531 · East of England
27% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid9% / 27%
Buyer: 5 of 57 lots with published bid counts. Market: 15 of 56 lots with published bid counts.
2–332% / 18%
Buyer: 18 of 57 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 56 lots with published bid counts.
4–639% / 30%
Buyer: 22 of 57 lots with published bid counts. Market: 17 of 56 lots with published bid counts.
7+21% / 25%
Buyer: 12 of 57 lots with published bid counts. Market: 14 of 56 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.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer51 lots with estimate and award · all categories
47% below estimate
The market42 lots with estimate and award · CPV 8531 · East of England
48% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate47% / 48%
Buyer: 24 of 51 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 20 of 42 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%39% / 40%
Buyer: 20 of 51 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 17 of 42 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate14% / 12%
Buyer: 7 of 51 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 42 lots with an estimate and award.
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

Lot #1CPV 8524 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£5.3m

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 85. The comparison uses that group.

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. The bar shows 266 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet19% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 266 similar lots
1 bid19%
51 of 266 similar past lots received 1 bid (19%).
2–329%
78 of 266 similar past lots received 2–3 (29%).
4–630%
79 of 266 similar past lots received 4–6 (30%).
7+22%
58 of 266 similar past lots received 7+ (22%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 bids.
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £5.3m, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

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.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Light touch regime
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
26 Oct 2026, 19:11 GMT
Last source update
26 Oct 2026, 19:11 GMT
Authority reference
26067
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-101272
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Social work and related servicesSocial work servicesSocial work services without accommodation
Delivery area
East of England (UKH12)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0790ab Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

26 Oct 2026 → 2 Aug 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice publishedearlier today
    26 Oct 2026, 19:11 GMT
  2. Today
    26 Oct 2026
  3. Market engagementin 14 days
    9 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT

    The PME questionnaire is available along with the instructions for completion/submission via our Intend e-tendering portal where you can search our opportunity and register to view further information via the following link:

    sell2.in-tend.co.uk/cambridgeshire/home ↗

    Please also ensure you are registered on the Government tendering portal in order to participate and obtain your share code - supplierregistration.cabinetoffice.gov.uk ↗

  4. Tender notice expectedin 71 days
    5 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 279 days
    2 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    26 Oct 2026, 19:11 GMT
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Cambridgeshire County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PJVB-3262-VGVJ New Shire Hall Emery Crescent Enterprise Campus,, Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon, East of England, PE28 4YEContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure