Official UK procurement notice
Bidders Information Event: Best Start in Life
Authority: Bradford Children & Families Trust (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionAs set out in the notice published on 3 July 2026, Bradford Children and Families Trust (BCFT) has been established as a community interest company limited by guarantee and is wholly owned by Bradford Council. The Trust provides a long-term, sustainable platform to drive improved performance and deliver high-quality, innovative social care services for children, young people, and families across the Bradford Metropolitan District. In 2025, the Government announced the Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life programme, building on the previous Family Hubs Start for Life programme. The strategy highlights the importance of supporting children and families throughout the early years, helping to lay the foundations for future success. This includes a commitment to ensuring that 75% of children achieve a Good Level of Development (GLD) in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment by 2028 and begin school ready to learn. The Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies: Guidance for Local Authorities informs the core funded services that are within the scope of this commissioning activity. These services will be commissioned across the following two lots:
- Lot 1: Parenting Support
- Lot 2: Parent-Infant Relationships and Perinatal (Parent-Infant) Mental Health. Feedback from the market engagement event held on 27 July 2026 has helped inform our approach. A further Bidders Information Event will be held online as follows: Date: Monday 14 September 2026 Time: 10:30am to 11:30am Format: Microsoft Teams. To express an interest in attending, please register for the event via the EU Supply portal.
CPV: Health and social work services · Social services · Social work and related services · Social work services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
Social work services (CPV 8531) in Yorkshire and the Humber, and who usually turns up
Bradford Children & Families Trust has too little published record in this market to describe on its own. Published market evidence for the same work stands beside whatever it has. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Social work services (CPV 8531) →
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.
Across this market, small firms won 40% of awards with a known supplier size.
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 Yorkshire and the Humber.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Across this market, 57% of winners were registered in the delivery region.
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 57 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.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Across this market, at least 67% of awarded procurements had no recorded rival.
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 bid55%
2–325%
4–620%
7+0%
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 estimate28%
Within ±2%72%
Above estimate0%
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 #1CPV 8531Published estimate£6.1m
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 40 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid55%
2–325%
4–620%
7+0%
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.
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.
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
- 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
- 24 Aug 2026, 18:01 BST
- Last source update
- 24 Aug 2026, 18:01 BST
- Authority reference
BE- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-080581- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06eb04Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
24 Aug 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published58 days ago24 Aug 2026, 18:01 BST
- Tender notice expected37 days ago14 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
- Market engagement37 days ago14 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today21 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 162 days1 Apr 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published24 Aug 2026, 18:01 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