Find a TenderPlanned procurement
Published 15 Oct 2026, 09:06 BST

Official UK procurement notice

COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY SERVICE

Authority: Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (Central government)

Services
Planned pipeline value£258,135pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 16 Nov 2026from the planned procurement notice

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is seeking market engagement in relation to the future provision of a Community Mental Health Advocacy Service for adults aged 18 and over residing in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. The service will provide independent, confidential, rights-based advocacy to support individuals accessing mental health services, ensuring their views, wishes and rights are effectively represented. The service must be delivered across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan and operate in accordance with relevant mental health, equality and human rights legislation.

CPV: Guidance and counselling services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is seeking to engage with suitably qualified…Planned

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is seeking to engage with suitably qualified and experienced providers regarding the future provision of a Community Mental Health Advocacy Service for adults aged 18 years and over who reside within Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

The service will form part of a wider, whole-system approach to supporting individuals experiencing mental health difficulties. Its purpose will be to ensure that service users can participate meaningfully in decisions affecting their care and treatment, have their views and wishes appropriately represented, and understand and exercise their rights, particularly when they may be unable or find it difficult to advocate effectively for themselves.

The successful provider will be expected to deliver an independent, confidential and rights-based advocacy service through appropriately trained and experienced advocates. Support may include helping individuals to understand available information and options, communicate their views, participate in meetings and care-planning processes, access appropriate services, raise concerns and make informed decisions regarding their care and support.

The service will support eligible individuals accessing community-based mental health services, including those subject to Section 117 aftercare arrangements, individuals supported through the Care Programme Approach, Community Mental Health Teams, Assertive Outreach Teams, Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams, and former service users seeking to re-engage with mental health services under the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010.

Service delivery will be required across both Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, providing equitable and accessible support for individuals living within urban, rural and diverse communities. The provider will be expected to work collaboratively with the Health Board, local authorities, mental health teams and existing advocacy and support services to promote coordinated pathways, avoid duplication and ensure that service users are directed to the most appropriate source of advocacy support.

The service must be responsive to the communication, accessibility, cultural and equality needs of the local population. Delivery arrangements should support fair access to advocacy and provide reasonable adjustments where required.

The provider will be required to maintain appropriate standards of safeguarding, confidentiality, information governance, workforce competence, quality assurance, performance monitoring and service-user involvement. The service must operate in accordance with all relevant legislation, statutory guidance and professional standards, including the Mental Health Act 1983, the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010.

This Prior Information Notice is intended to support early market engagement and assist the Health Board in understanding provider interest, capability and capacity to deliver the proposed service. It does not constitute a call for competition or a commitment by the Health Board to commence a formal procurement process.

Delivery: Wales

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Cardiff and Vale University Health Board runs Social work services (CPV 8531) tenders for its clients, and who usually turns up

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board procures on behalf of other bodies; its record below covers every client it has tendered for, 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) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCardiff and Vale University Health Board · all its clients
The marketSocial work services (CPV 8531) · Wales (Cymru)
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: 17 of 49 known-size awards · market: CPV 8531 · Wales (Cymru), n=40
35%50%

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 Wales (Cymru).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 22 of 80 known-location awards · market: CPV 8531 · Wales (Cymru), n=60
28%68%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Wales (Cymru).

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: 11 decided notices · market: CPV 8531 · Wales (Cymru), n=21
65 days42 days

Half of these awards were announced within 65 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 74 of 95 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 8531 · Wales (Cymru), n=61
78%49%

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 buyer14 lots with bid counts · all categories
7% had one bid
The market37 lots with bid counts · CPV 8531 · Wales (Cymru)
27% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid7% / 27%
Buyer: 1 of 14 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
2–357% / 49%
Buyer: 8 of 14 lots with published bid counts. Market: 18 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
4–636% / 16%
Buyer: 5 of 14 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 37 lots with published bid counts.
7+0% / 8%
Buyer: 0 of 14 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 37 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 buyer10 lots with estimate and award · all categories
40% below estimate
The market26 lots with estimate and award · CPV 8531 · Wales (Cymru)
23% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate40% / 23%
Buyer: 4 of 10 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 6 of 26 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%30% / 77%
Buyer: 3 of 10 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 20 of 26 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate30% / 0%
Buyer: 3 of 10 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 26 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 #1Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is seeking to engage with suitably qualified…CPV 8531Published estimate£258k
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 37 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet27% single-bid risk
Past bids on 37 similar lots
1 bid27%
10 of 37 similar past lots received 1 bid (27%).
2–349%
18 of 37 similar past lots received 2–3 (49%).
4–616%
6 of 37 similar past lots received 4–6 (16%).
7+8%
3 of 37 similar past lots received 7+ (8%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 2 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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £258k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

No supplier with a record in this category fits this lot yet.

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 match score 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 · publisher note attached
Legal basis
CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Yes (GPA)
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
15 Oct 2026, 09:06 BST
Last source update
15 Oct 2026, 09:06 BST
Authority reference
CAV-MSPP-(26-27) 98
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-097266
Classification (CPV)
Guidance and counselling services
Delivery area
Wales (UKL22)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078816 Find a Tender

Publisher note: This is a Provider Selection Regime Wales (PSR Wales) intended approach notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Services (Provider Selection Regime) (Wales) Regulations 2025. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015/Procurement Act 2023 do not apply to this award. The award decision makers for this Contract will be the relevant people within the Health Board who manage the provision of care for Mental Health. The intention is to utilise the Most Suitable Provider Process. NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=171831. (WA Ref:171831)

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

15 Oct 2026 → 16 Nov 2026 · 2 dates
  1. Notice published2 days ago
    15 Oct 2026, 09:06 BST
  2. Today
    17 Oct 2026
  3. Tender notice expectedin 30 days
    16 Nov 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

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Contracting authorityCentral GovernmentBody governed by public lawHealth 2nd Floor, Woodland House, Maes-Y-Coed Road, Cardiff, UK, CF14 4HHContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.