Official UK procurement notice
CBC-2074-T-SK Aldbanks Supported Living Procurement
Authority: Central Bedfordshire Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Council is conducting this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise pursuant to Sections 16 and 17 of the Procurement Act 2023.
The Council intends to procure a Supported Living Provider to deliver care and support services to adults aged 18 and over with mental health needs at Aldbanks, a supported living setting in Dunstable, together with the provision of outreach-based support. The Council is seeking feedback from interested providers to help inform and shape the future service model prior to commencing a competitive procurement process.
This PME exercise will assist the Council in understanding current and emerging market practices, levels of supplier interest, and innovative approaches to service delivery. The information gathered will help ensure that the proposed procurement is well-designed, proportionate, and responsive to both service user needs and market capability.
Through this engagement, the Council aims to:
Develop and refine its service requirements and procurement approach.
Inform the design of the competitive procurement procedure, including conditions of participation, award criteria, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Identify potential providers with the capability and experience to deliver the required supported living and outreach services.
CPV: Health and social work services · Social work services with accommodation · Social work services without accommodation
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Central Bedfordshire Council buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up
Central Bedfordshire 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: 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.
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.
Here, local means registered in East of England (authority’s region).
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 62 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.
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.
1 bid0% / 22%
2–333% / 13%
4–633% / 38%
7+33% / 28%
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 estimate32% / 50%
Within ±2%47% / 41%
Above estimate21% / 9%
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 8531Estimate 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 32 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid22%
2–313%
4–638%
7+28%
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
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 8 Jul 2026, 15:31 BST
- Last source update
- 8 Jul 2026, 15:31 BST
- Authority reference
CBC-2074-T-SK- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-064331- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06c6a7Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
8 Jul 2026 → 2 Aug 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published105 days ago8 Jul 2026, 15:31 BST
- Market engagement87 days ago26 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
Request for Information via questionnaire
- Today21 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 133 days3 Mar 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 284 days2 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published8 Jul 2026, 15:31 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