Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 30 Jul 2026, 09:00 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Charity Commission Futures Programme

Authority: The Charity Commission for England and Wales (Central government)

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yr 3 moends 31 Mar 2028 · up to 31 Mar 2029 with extensions · starts 18 Dec 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Charity Commission is currently in Year 1 of a 3-year Digital Transformation Programme (the "Futures Programme") and invites prospective suppliers to attend a Supplier Engagement session to provide an overview of the Futures Programme as a whole, the work underway and our intended outcomes for the programme as well as a Commercial update.

The contract start and end dates included in this notice cover the remaining period of the programme - actual start and end dates will be determined by individual procurement exercises.

Previous notices shared on Contracts Finder can be found below:

www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/1df22275-078e… ↗

www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/1df22275-078e… ↗

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software package and information systems

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 1 yr 3 moSME
Contract period: 18 Dec 2026 – 31 Mar 2028 (1 yr 3 mo) · up to 31 Mar 2029 with extensions
Delivery: UKEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How The Charity Commission for England and Wales buys Software package and information systems (CPV 48), and who usually turns up

The Charity Commission for England and Wales’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: Software package and information systems (CPV 48) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bidWhat 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: 1 of 1 known-size awards · market: division 48 · North West England, n=272
1 of 135%

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 North West England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 3 known-location awards · market: division 48 · North West England, n=381
1 of 313%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside North 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: no decision dates published · market: division 48 · North West England, n=38
—60 days

Half of these awards were announced within 60 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 2 of 3 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 48 · North West England, n=426
2 of 367%

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 buyerNo bid counts published
The market67 lots with bid counts · division 48 · North West England
12% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid12%
Market: 8 of 67 lots with published bid counts.
2–321%
Market: 14 of 67 lots with published bid counts.
4–631%
Market: 21 of 67 lots with published bid counts.
7+36%
Market: 24 of 67 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 buyerNo estimate-and-award pairs published
The market31 lots with estimate and award · division 48 · North West England
52% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate52%
Market: 16 of 31 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%29%
Market: 9 of 31 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate19%
Market: 6 of 31 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 #115 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
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 67 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet12% single-bid risk
Past bids on 67 similar lots
1 bid12%
8 of 67 similar past lots received 1 bid (12%).
2–321%
14 of 67 similar past lots received 2–3 (21%).
4–631%
21 of 67 similar past lots received 4–6 (31%).
7+36%
24 of 67 similar past lots received 7+ (36%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 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
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
30 Jul 2026, 09:00 BST
Last source update
3 Aug 2026, 11:49 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-073096
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportSoftware package and information systems
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d721 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

30 Jul 2026 → 18 Dec 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published83 days ago
    30 Jul 2026, 09:00 BST
  2. Latest notice published79 days ago
    3 Aug 2026, 11:49 BST
  3. Market engagement50 days ago
    31 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST

    To register interest in attending the engagement session on 24th August 15:00 - 16:00, Suppliers are asked to complete the information in the following form by midday on Friday 21st August forms.cloud.microsoft/e/Mxqa0Wn3Ly ↗

  4. Today
    21 Oct 2026
  5. Contract startsin 58 days
    18 Dec 2026

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 30 Jul 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    30 Jul 2026, 09:00 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    3 Aug 2026, 11:49 BST
    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

The Charity Commission for England and Wales

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PZCQ-3997-YYJM PO BOX 211, Bootle, North West, L20 7YXContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure