Find a TenderPlanned procurementPipeline notice
Published 22 May 2026, 16:16 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Alternative Education Provision Services

Authority: Plymouth City Council (Local council)

Services
Planned pipeline value£5,800,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Jan 2027from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 31 Mar 2030 · starts 1 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The procurement will establish a strategic contract for the delivery of Alternative Provision (AP) in Plymouth, enabling the Council to meet its statutory duties under Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to provide suitable, full-time education for children unable to access mainstream schooling due to illness, exclusion, or other reasons.

CPV: Education and training services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 3 yrs
Contract period: 1 Apr 2027 – 31 Mar 2030 (3 yrs)
Delivery: South West

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Plymouth City Council buys Education and training services (CPV 80), and who usually turns up

Plymouth City 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: 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 buyerPlymouth City Council · all categories
The marketEducation and training services (CPV 80) · South West 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: 53 of 78 known-size awards · market: division 80 · South West England, n=516
68%45%

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.

Here, local means registered in South West England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 46 of 81 known-location awards · market: division 80 · South West England, n=724
57%51%

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

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: 7 decided notices · market: division 80 · South West England, n=47
87 days43 days

Half of these awards were announced within 87 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 73 of 110 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 80 · South West England, n=558
66%71%

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 buyer13 lots with bid counts · all categories
31% had one bid
The market103 lots with bid counts · division 80 · South West England
18% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid31% / 18%
Buyer: 4 of 13 lots with published bid counts. Market: 19 of 103 lots with published bid counts.
2–354% / 28%
Buyer: 7 of 13 lots with published bid counts. Market: 29 of 103 lots with published bid counts.
4–60% / 33%
Buyer: 0 of 13 lots with published bid counts. Market: 34 of 103 lots with published bid counts.
7+15% / 20%
Buyer: 2 of 13 lots with published bid counts. Market: 21 of 103 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 buyer14 lots with estimate and award · all categories
21% below estimate
The market79 lots with estimate and award · division 80 · South West England
39% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate21% / 39%
Buyer: 3 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 31 of 79 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%71% / 46%
Buyer: 10 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 36 of 79 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate7% / 15%
Buyer: 1 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 12 of 79 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 #136 monthsPublished estimate£5.8m
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 103 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet18% single-bid risk
Past bids on 103 similar lots
1 bid18%
19 of 103 similar past lots received 1 bid (18%).
2–328%
29 of 103 similar past lots received 2–3 (28%).
4–633%
34 of 103 similar past lots received 4–6 (33%).
7+20%
21 of 103 similar past lots received 7+ (20%).
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 £5.8m, 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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueWhy listed
Security Management South West Ltd.Earlier contractProvision of Security Servicesnotice published Sept 2025Security for Facilities Management£6.3mMatched 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.

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.

40% title match.

A past supplier may not bid again.

The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (40% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid

Provision of Security Services — held by Security Management South West Ltd. and Security Management South West Ltd.; 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
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
22 May 2026, 16:16 BST
Last source update
22 May 2026, 16:16 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-048210
Latest notice
Pipeline notice (UK1)
Classification (CPV)
Education and training services
Delivery area
South West (UKK41)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06a217 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

22 May 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published151 days ago
    22 May 2026, 16:16 BST
  2. Today
    20 Oct 2026
  3. Tender notice expectedin 73 days
    1 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
  4. Contract startsin 162 days
    1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Pipeline notice published
    22 May 2026, 16:16 BST
    UK1

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

Plymouth City Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PBQP-8499-TLMP Ballard House, West Hoe Road, Plymouth, South West, PL1 3BJContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Pipeline notice planningPipeline noticeUK1Pipeline notice on Find a Tender