Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 25 Nov 2025, 08:12 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Class Support · UK public procurement notice

Authority: Student Loans Company (Central government)

Framework agreementServicesBelow threshold
Sectors: IT Services & Software (72) Delivery: UK
Planned pipeline value£1,500,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 5 Jan 2026from the planned procurement notice
Framework period 3 yrsends 28 Feb 2029 · starts 1 Mar 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

CLASS is an ageing bespoke application and supported by ageing on premise hardware and virtualisation. It is the key function for Pay and Repay services. SLC strategy is to reduce reliance on physical data centres, and technology which needs to be renewed, maintained, and supported. Hosting CLASS on the Cloud will reduce reliance on data centres and the associated effort to support them.

The proposal aligns with overall government Cloud First approach and modernises the technology which supports CLASS.

The requirement shall be for the design and procurement of a cloud based platform in order to meet SLC requirements in an ongoing basis.

This is a retrospective notice as premarket engagement was undertaken by issuing a premarket engagement questionnaire to all companies listed on CCS Framework reference RM6292 (Cloud Compute 2) Lot 1 -Core Services. The questionnaire was issued via the Delta Esouring portal on 21/07/2025 and closed on 11/08/2025

CPV: Platform interconnectivity software development services

How this framework works

From the published notice
Framework period
3 yrs from 1 Mar 2026

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 3 yrs

What it takes to win
i

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 more
What this means for your bid
  • “Class Support” 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 Student Loans Company buys Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221), and who usually turns up

Student Loans Company’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: Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerStudent Loans Company · all categories
What 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: 2 of 4 known-size awards · market: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=12
2 of 425%

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 the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 4 known-location awards · market: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=13
2 of 431%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in North East 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: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=9
—113 days

Half of these awards were announced within 113 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.

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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 0 of 1 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=15
0 of 147%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer4 lots with bid counts · all categories · too few to chart
The market17 lots with bid counts · CPV 7221 · UK-wide
18% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid18%
Market: 3 of 17 lots with published bid counts.
2–324%
Market: 4 of 17 lots with published bid counts.
4–60%
Market: 0 of 17 lots with published bid counts.
7+59%
Market: 10 of 17 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.

On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

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.

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 #1CPV 722136 monthsPublished estimate£1.5m
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 17 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet18% single-bid risk
Past bids on 17 similar lots
1 bid18%
3 of 17 similar past lots received 1 bid (18%).
2–324%
4 of 17 similar past lots received 2–3 (24%).
4–60%
0 of 17 similar past lots received 4–6 (0%).
7+59%
10 of 17 similar past lots received 7+ (59%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 10 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.

—Priced at call-off
On a framework or DPS the price is agreed on each call-off, so there is no award price to forecast here: the published figure is a ceiling.

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
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Standard
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
25 Nov 2025, 08:12 GMT
Last source update
25 Nov 2025, 08:12 GMT
Authority reference
2025-TR-0067
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-076682
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Platform interconnectivity software development services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05e7e5 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Appointment period ends
—

Timeline

25 Nov 2025 → 1 Mar 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published331 days ago
    25 Nov 2025, 08:12 GMT
  2. Tender notice expected289 days ago
    5 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
  3. Contract starts235 days ago
    1 Mar 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    25 Nov 2025, 08:12 GMT
    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

STUDENT LOANS COMPANY

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-COH: 02401034 · GB-PPON: PMXL-3278-BCWT Memphis Building Lingfield Point, Darlington, North East, DL1 1RWContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure