Official UK procurement notice
Careers Support for Young People
Authority: Department for Education (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe purpose of this preliminary market engagement notice is to inform the market of a forthcoming supplier engagement event regarding future support for schools and colleges to deliver careers education, information, advice and guidance for young people in England.
The Department for Education (DfE) will be undertaking an online market engagement event via MS Teams at 13:30 on 4 June 2026 for interested parties. The event is anticipated to last for a duration of 120 minutes.
The slide deck will be published on Jaggaer (ssq_747) following the event.
If you wish to attend the market engagement event, please use the link below:
teams.microsoft.com/meet/37330634720732 ↗
We last carried out supplier engagement regarding future support for schools and colleges to deliver careers education, information, advice and guidance on 31 March 2026.
In this event we shared our broad plans for how we want to continue to support schools and colleges to improve careers guidance from the 2027/28 academic year and to support partnership working with strategic and local authorities through careers hubs. We used a supplier survey to test bidder appetite and delivery viability with potential suppliers.
The purpose of the follow up supplier engagement webinar on 4 June is to:
- Respond to insights and questions gathered in the survey we issued after the supplier engagement event on 31 March, including providing further detail on proposed requirements.
- Outline and test a draft service specification and outline Key Performance Indicators and seek supplier views to inform these.
This Notice is not a binding statement of intent or a call for competition.
It does not signify the commencement of any competitive process and does not constitute any commitment by the DfE.
If DfE decides to commence any competitive process(es) as contemplated by this notice, a separate notice(s) will be published at the relevant time.
The information contained in this notice, including information relating to the nature and scope of the authority's requirements, and the service classification of this requirement from the list of CPV codes, is only indicative of the authority's current thinking, and is neither exhaustive nor binding and the DfE reserves the right at its absolute discretion to amend this notice at the time of issue or at any other time.
The DfE will not be liable for any bid cost, expenditure, work or effort incurred by a provider in acting on the basis of this notice.
Any funding estimates referenced are indicative only and subject to change. The Department makes no commitment at this stage to the final scope or funding envelope of any future contractual activity.
The current funding estimates are between £90m and £180m for a 3-5 year contract, plus a mobilisation period of up to 6 months if required.
CPV: Career guidance services · Education and training services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewalPublished value£180,000,000
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Department for Education buys Personnel services except placement and supply services (CPV 7963), and who usually turns up
Department for Education’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: Personnel services except placement and supply services (CPV 7963) →
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.
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.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 37 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 bid0% / 17%
2–370% / 22%
4–620% / 50%
7+10% / 11%
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 estimate14% / 50%
Within ±2%86% / 29%
Above estimate0% / 21%
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 7963Published estimate£180m
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 36 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid17%
2–322%
4–650%
7+11%
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- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 17 Mar 2026, 12:14 GMT
- Last source update
- 20 May 2026, 13:27 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 29 Jan 2027
- Authority reference
project_10249 / ssq_747- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-046368- Latest notice
- Planned procurement notice (UK3)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-066c17Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 14 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
17 Mar 2026 → 1 Mar 2027 · 7 dates- Planning notice published222 days ago17 Mar 2026, 12:14 GMT
- Latest notice published158 days ago20 May 2026, 13:27 BST
- Market engagement71 days ago14 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
Attend online market engagement event – 31st March 2026
teams.microsoft.com/meet/33123569370825 ↗
(Meeting ID: 331 235 693 708 25
Passcode: Gr6Pm9RF)
Please direct all correspondence via Jaggaer (ssq_747), any correspondence recieved via email will be redirected to Jaggaer.
Following the market engagement event on 31st March, DfE launched a survey to test initial thinking around the future offer.
The link to the survey is below, and we'd really appreciate responses by 15th April - forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx ↗
- Tender notice expected66 days ago19 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
- Submission deadline10 days ago14 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Award decision expected byin 97 days29 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 127 days1 Mar 2027
Notice history
7 events · 4 releases on Find a Tender · since 17 Mar 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Mar 2026, 12:14 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published2 Apr 2026, 10:05 BSTUK2
- Pipeline notice published20 May 2026, 13:05 BSTUK1
- Status changed to planned20 May 2026, 13:05 BST
- Planned procurement notice published20 May 2026, 13:27 BSTUK3
- Procurement method changed20 May 2026, 13:27 BST
- Deadline published: 14 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST20 May 2026, 13:27 BST
Published amendments (1)
Added a link to a survey published post market engagement event.
Routine re-releases (4)
- 2026-03: 1 release · 17 Mar 2026
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 (5)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Bidding documents and specificationsAccess: The Invitation to Tender will be published on Jaggaer, and all relevant documentation will be attached.
Notices published for this procedure
- Planned procurement notice Planned procurement notice on Find a Tender
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender