Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 4 Mar 2026, 16:12 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Appropriate Adults Service Market Engagement

Authority: London Borough of Croydon (Local council)

Services
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Jul 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 31 Jul 2031 · starts 1 Aug 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Croydon Council is intending to recomission a high-quality Appropriate Adult Service to safeguard the rights and welfare of children and young people. The service will operate 24/7, 365 days a year, delivered by trained and qualified staff across Croydon.

The current contract for Appropriate Adults is due for renewal, and it is therefore necessary to recommission this essential service to ensure continuity. A tender will be released in the coming months

Croydon Council invites potential providers with an interest in delivering Appropriate Adult Services, to participate in a short market engagement survey.

The survey link is forms.office.com/e/7RXCJ9MKJp ↗

This form will close on 16th March 2026

CPV: Community action programme · Health and social work services · Social work services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How London Borough of Croydon buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up

London Borough of Croydon’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 buyerLondon Borough of Croydon · division 85
The marketSocial work services (CPV 8531) · Greater London
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: 7 of 12 known-size awards · market: CPV 8531 · Greater London, n=163
58%49%

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 Greater London.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 12 of 16 known-location awards · market: CPV 8531 · Greater London, n=244
75%69%

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: 9 decided notices · market: CPV 8531 · Greater London, n=36
97 days79 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 97 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 6 of 17 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 8531 · Greater London, n=209
35%67%

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 buyer15 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 85
13% had one bid
The market77 lots with bid counts · CPV 8531 · Greater London
29% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid13% / 29%
Buyer: 2 of 15 lots with published bid counts. Market: 22 of 77 lots with published bid counts.
2–347% / 39%
Buyer: 7 of 15 lots with published bid counts. Market: 30 of 77 lots with published bid counts.
4–627% / 22%
Buyer: 4 of 15 lots with published bid counts. Market: 17 of 77 lots with published bid counts.
7+13% / 10%
Buyer: 2 of 15 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 77 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 buyer10 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 85
30% below estimate
The market57 lots with estimate and award · CPV 8531 · Greater London
21% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate30% / 21%
Buyer: 3 of 10 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 12 of 57 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%60% / 70%
Buyer: 6 of 10 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 40 of 57 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate10% / 9%
Buyer: 1 of 10 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 57 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 8560 monthsEstimate not published

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 342 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet27% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 342 similar lots
1 bid27%
91 of 342 similar past lots received 1 bid (27%).
2–333%
113 of 342 similar past lots received 2–3 (33%).
4–624%
82 of 342 similar past lots received 4–6 (24%).
7+16%
56 of 342 similar past lots received 7+ (16%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 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.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

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
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
4 Mar 2026, 16:12 GMT
Last source update
4 Mar 2026, 16:12 GMT
Authority reference
LBC/TN/660
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-019638
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Community action programmeHealth and social work servicesSocial work services
Delivery area
London (UKI62)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-066270 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

4 Mar 2026 → 1 Aug 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published234 days ago
    4 Mar 2026, 16:12 GMT
  2. Market engagement221 days ago
    16 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT
  3. Tender notice expected114 days ago
    1 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts84 days ago
    1 Aug 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    4 Mar 2026, 16:12 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

London Borough of Croydon

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PJTH-3594-VXYL Bernard Wetherill House, Fell Road, Croydon, London, CR01EAContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure