Official UK procurement notice
A028PA Direct Payment Support Services
Authority: Essex County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionEssex County Council ("the Council") is inviting providers to participate in a market engagement exercise to inform the Councils commissioning considerations regarding the provision of direct payment support services supporting adults and children with their self-directed support offer through the delivery of direct payments.
Essex County Council are committed to increase the number of people who wish to access a social care direct payment that enables individuals to remain independent through developing their own packages of care and support. Direct payments are intended to give people greater choice, control and flexibility to arrange and manage their care and support needs, through the receipt of regular funds from the Council. However, we recognise that for some people, choosing a direct payment may not be an option without support managing this arrangement.
The Council intends to achieve the following aims and objectives within a direct payment support service:
- Improve and increase support to recruit Personal Assistants (PAs) for direct Payment recipients. In turn increasing the market for Pas
- Ensure DP recipients have access to good quality information, advice and Guidance, including generic direct payment advice and specialist employment advice and support
- The delivery of a PA hub, supporting recruitment, the management and retention of PAs
- Access to high-quality account management for the people who need it
- Provide easy access to payroll and payments services
- Increase confidence in Direct Payments across the system
- Increase knowledge of the benefits and responsibilities of Direct Payments, as well as the options available to people who wish to take a direct payment.
Essex County Council are seeking to understand:
•What services in relation to direct payments support providers can offer and better understand supplier capacity, capability and appetite to deliver a contract of this size
•Receive feedback to create better service requirements for future tenders from the market who are currently delivering successful high-quality services.
- Learn about challenges and solutions for managing direct payments, such as managing payroll and training, supporting and recruiting personal assistants
•Understand Barriers: to gain a better understanding of any potential barriers and how best to overcome them.
Please note that the Council reserves the right to refine the scope of any future procurement following this market engagement process. In addition, please note that any future procurement remains subject to governance approval. Therefore, the Council will confirm
the final scope of any procurement, including but not limited to, the contract duration and confirmed procurement timetable in the corresponding Tender Notice following the conclusion of the requisite governance process.
CPV: Health and social work services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Essex County Council buys Health and social work services (CPV 85), and who usually turns up
Essex County Council’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Health and social work services (CPV 85) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning. Small firms win less of this buyer’s work than the market’s: 33% against 55%, n=33.
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 East of England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in East of England.
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.
Half of these awards were announced within 55 days of the bid deadline.
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.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
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.
1 bid3% / 14%
2–328% / 26%
4–622% / 33%
7+47% / 26%
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.
Below estimate44% / 33%
Within ±2%56% / 59%
Above estimate0% / 8%
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.
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 #1Estimate not published
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 299 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid14%
2–326%
4–633%
7+26%
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.
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.
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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Penderels Trust LimitedEarlier contract | Direct Payment Support Servicesnotice published Feb 2023 | Direct Payment Support Services: Lot 2 - Payment/Payroll/Account Management services | £2.8m | Matched as the earlier contract |
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.
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.
What this replaces i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
82% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
82% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (82% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid
Direct Payment Support Services — held by The Penderels Trust Limited and The Penderels Trust Limited; no contract end date published.
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
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 20 Oct 2026, 15:45 BST
- Last source update
- 20 Oct 2026, 15:45 BST
- Authority reference
A028PA- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-099138- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078c22Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
20 Oct 2026 → 1 Apr 2028 · 3 dates- Planning notice published1 day ago20 Oct 2026, 15:45 BST
- Today21 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 14 days4 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
Details regarding the current direct payment support service commissioned via Essex county council and the soft market questions can be located via:
www.open-uk-org/opportunities ↗
Please note that you will need to undertake a registration process to secure a user account to access the aforementioned briefing document via OPEN. However, please be advised that the registration process is free of charge and will also provide access to any forthcoming procurement opportunities which Essex County Council issues in due course.
If you experience any technical system issues regarding this soft market test, please contact NEPO's helpdesk via the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of OPEN's homepage:
Please note that OPEN uses ProClass to classify procurement opportunities instead of Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) Therefore, the opportunity within OPEN has been prepared using the following ProClass codes which represent the closest matches to the CPV code which this notice is based on 311600
The deadline for responding to the questions will be 17:00 on Wednesday 4th November 2026 and all responses must be
submitted via the online questionnaire functionality within OPEN. Likewise, if you require any clarification regarding the questions, please use the messaging functionality within OPEN.
- Contract starts1 Apr 2028
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published20 Oct 2026, 15:45 BSTUK2
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
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