Official UK procurement notice
Children's Short Breaks Services: Follow-up Event
Authority: Metropolitan borough of Bury (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionPreliminary Market Engagement (PME) Follow-Up Event
Following the Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) event held on 31 July 2026, Bury Council (the Authority) is hosting an additional engagement session in response to feedback received from participants and the wider market.
This follow-up session has been designed to improve accessibility and reduce barriers to engagement, particularly for voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), micro-providers, personal assistants, and locally based providers. No substantive changes have been made to the proposed service model, commissioning intentions, or procurement approach presented at the original event. The content remains materially the same, with adaptations focused solely on communication, presentation, and accessibility to ensure all organisations can participate meaningfully in the engagement process.
While the session has been tailored to support participation from smaller and community-based providers, attendance is not restricted. The event is open to all organisations and individuals with an interest in the future delivery of SEND Short Breaks services in Bury, including those who attended the original session and those who were unable to attend.
Bury Council is preparing to recommission its SEND Short Breaks Service and, in advance of any procurement activity, is seeking expressions of interest and market intelligence from suitably experienced and accredited providers through this preliminary market engagement process. The PME provides an opportunity to share the Council's emerging proposals, seek feedback from the market, and better understand provider capacity, appetite, local reach, innovation, and pricing considerations.
We welcome participation from a diverse range of organisations, including existing providers, VCSE organisations, faith-based organisations, youth, play and activity providers, specialist care and overnight providers, Ofsted-registered children's homes, personal assistants, micro-providers, and locally based provision of all sizes across Bury's six townships: Bury, Prestwich, Radcliffe, Ramsbottom, Tottington and Whitefield.
This notice is issued pursuant to Section 16 of the Procurement Act 2023 to invite the market to participate in a structured pre-market engagement process ahead of a formal competitive procurement.
The purpose of the engagement is to inform the Council's procurement strategy, service model and lot structure ahead of publication of the tender notice.
CPV: Child daycare services · Children's holiday-camp services · Community action programme · Daycare services · Daycare services for disabled children and young people · Guidance services · Holiday centre services · Holiday home services · Homedelivery of provisions · Social work services with accommodation · Welfare services not delivered through residential institutions
How this framework works
From the published notice- Framework period
- 4 yrs · up to 8 yrs from 1 Feb 2027
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedWhat it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
- “Children's Short Breaks Services: Follow-up Event” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Metropolitan borough of Bury buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up
Metropolitan borough of Bury’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. 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.
No supplier sizes published for this authority.
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.
No winner locations published for this authority. Local means a registered address in North West 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 40 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.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
No awards recorded for this authority in this market.
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 bid14%
2–336%
4–627%
7+23%
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.
On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Not comparable on a framework or DPS. The notice sets up a supplier panel and a ceiling value; what the work actually costs is agreed later, on each call-off or mini-competition, and those publish as contract notices of their own. The award-vs-estimate record of this market therefore sits on the call-offs; this page shows it on the contracts, not on the panel that frames them.
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£13m
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 22 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid14%
2–336%
4–627%
7+23%
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
- Framework agreement
- Who may use this agreement
- Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 17 Jul 2026, 15:59 BST
- Last source update
- 21 Aug 2026, 14:17 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-079962- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ce30Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Appointment period ends
- —
Timeline
17 Jul 2026 → 1 Feb 2027 · 5 dates- Planning notice published97 days ago17 Jul 2026, 15:59 BST
- Latest notice published62 days ago21 Aug 2026, 14:17 BST
- Market engagement33 days ago18 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
The engagement session will be held via Microsoft Teams Live Event on Wednesday 2 September at 10am. The joining link can be accessed here:
events.teams.microsoft.com/event/a034bd8b-48cc-… ↗
Following the presentation, market engagement questions will be issued to all registered participants via Microsoft Forms. The deadline for responses is Friday 18th September 2026. Responses will be used solely to inform the Authority's procurement strategy and Scope of Works. All responses will be treated in confidence and anonymised in any published summary.
- Today22 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 11 days1 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 102 days1 Feb 2027
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 17 Jul 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Jul 2026, 15:59 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published21 Aug 2026, 14:17 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 (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender