Connect to Work · Staffordshire County Council (Jul 2025)

Authority: Staffordshire County Council (Local council)

Framework agreement6 lotsServicesOpen procedureAbove thresholdLight touch regimeSME suitableVCSE suitableMax 4 lots per supplier

Sectors: Education & Training (80) Delivery: West Midlands (UKG2)

Framework ceiling (notional)£10,708,007total for 6 lots · framework ceiling, not attributable revenue · 1 value update

Submissions closed 25 Sept 2025awarded 24 Oct 2025

Awarded to ACORN TRAINING LTD +6 more15 awards

Framework period 5 yrsends 24 Nov 2030 · starts 25 Nov 2025

What is being bought6 lots · detail below

Published requirement description

The recently launched "Get Britain Working" White Paper outlines the Government's strategy to invest £240m to support this ambition and help improve workplace health and keep people in work, including trials of combined public services for those out of work due to ill health. The strategy will bring fundamental reform that transforms relationships with local areas and ensures a strong foundation of partnership working to support people into good, sustainable work.

Connect to Work is the first major element of the Get Britain Working Strategy. It will take a collaborative, locally led approach to tackling 'Hidden Unemployment'. It will help connect local work, health and skills support. The funding provides a coherent, systematic and joined up approach to maximise the benefits available for individuals and local communities.

Connect to Work will support the wider development of locally planned systems to drive growth, working jointly with the Government. It will be an important strand in local plans to tackle inactivity and expand employment opportunity. By encouraging join up between health systems and employment support, Connect to Work will support those, primarily, currently outside the workforce and facing greater labour market disadvantages, to stay in work and get back into work. In turn, supporting the Government's ambition for a more inclusive economy, supporting local people to realise their potential and supporting local and national growth.

Connect to Work will provide out of work participants with intensive employment support for up to 12 months. It will also include support for up to 4 months for people in-work who are at risk of losing their job. The support will be based on the well evidenced Individual Placement and Support (IPS) or Supported Employment Quality Framework (SEQF) Fidelity models as appropriate to the participant. Help will include early access to jobs based on job preferences, access to a wide range of support including job and skills matching, on the job training and help to sustain employment, which might include job coaching at work, training, support from a workplace mentor and regular workplace reviews. Support will be provided to the employer as well as the participant. Connect to Work will also provide tailored self-employment support where appropriate.

The planned duration of the programme is 5 years commencing 2025/26 and completing at the end of 2029/30 subject to government spending reviews.

No preliminary market engagement: A Prior information notice was issued on the 16.01.2025 https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/001462-2025?

CPV: Education and training services

How this framework works

From the published notice

Type: Closed framework
Call-offs: call-offs may be awarded directly or by further competition
Bids received: 5 bids on the busiest of 6 lots · 7 suppliers appointed
Framework period: 5 yrs from 25 Nov 2025

Published description of the framework

Direct award and Further Competition options

Call-offs published through it1

Connect to Work · Staffordshire County Council · 1 Dec 2025

Notices that name this framework as their framework in the official record. Many call-offs are never published, so this is a floor, not utilisation.

Lots and requirements (6)Procurement structure

6 lots · all with a published value · win at most 4 of them · same evaluation weights on every lot

Lot #1Individual Placement Support (IPS) covering Staffordshire Moorlands and Newcastle under Lyme - NorthAwarded 5 yrsSMEVCSEPublished value£1,487,599

Individual Placement Support (IPS) covering Staffordshire Moorlands and Newcastle under Lyme - North. For further information please refer to the specification.

Contract period: 25 Nov 2025 – 24 Nov 2030 (5 yrs)Value: £1,487,599 exc. VAT · £1,785,119 inc. VAT