Find a TenderAwardedContract award notice
Published 8 Jan 2026, 09:02 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Digital Contingent Labour Framework

Official notice

Authority: THAMES WATER UTILITIES LIMITED (Public body)

Framework agreement4 lotsServicesCompetitive flexible procedureAbove thresholdUtilitiesSME suitable
Framework ceiling (notional)£0total for 4 lots · framework ceiling, not attributable revenue · 1 value update
Submissions closed 24 Feb 2026awarded 18 Jun 2026
Award (standstill) to North Highland UK Ltd.
Framework period 4 yrsends 12 May 2030 · up to 12 May 2034 with extensions · starts 13 May 2026

What is being bought4 lots · detail below

Published requirement description

Business Analysis:

Business Analysis at Thames Water drives successful change by analysing business situations, assessing feasibility, and defining clear requirements across people, processes, and technology. Acting as a bridge between stakeholders and delivery teams, it enables the delivery of solutions that achieve strategic outcomes and deliver key business benefits. Additionally, Business Analysis fosters process improvement, strengthens stakeholder engagement, and ensures governance compliance through high-quality analysis artifacts and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Key Roles looking for in this tender:

Junior Business Analyst (Gartner level 1) - works on small tasks or parts of a project, has a basic understanding of BA tools and techniques, good communication, eagerness to learn. Responsible for low-complexity tasks under close supervision and has limited decision-making authority. Document basic processes and simple requirements and create simple reports. Support more experienced BAs in workshops and stakeholder meetings.

Business Analyst (Gartner level 2) - Works on clearly defined tasks within projects, handles moderately complex analysis, usually within a single business area, works under direction of Senior or Lead Business Analyst; receives guidance on priorities and methods. Limited to project-level stakeholders.

Senior Business Analyst (Gartner level 3) - Leads BA activities across multiple projects or programmes (including strategic analysis); often covers multiple business domains, deals with high ambiguity and complex business situations, sets BA approach and advises others. Facilitates decision-making at senior stakeholder level. Coaches and mentors other BAs. Activities as per the BA above, whilst demonstrating a higher level of responsibility, complexity, autonomy, and influence.

Lead Business Analyst (Gartner level 4) - Focused on Strategic alignment and team leadership. Leads BA Activities across Enterprise-level initiatives, multiple projects, and strategic programs. Align requirements with strategic and technical roadmaps. Define BA standards, governance, and best practices. Manage and coach BA team members. Act as key liaison between business and technology leadership.

Project Management:

Project Management in the Digital function at Thames Water leads one or multiple projects depending on its size and scale of complexity. A project manager is a professional responsible for planning, organizing, and overseeing the execution of a project from start to finish following the Thames Water delivery framework/methodology. They ensure the project meets its goals within the agreed scope, schedule, budget, quality standards, and resources.

Key Roles:

Project Support Office role (Gartner Level 1): A Project Support Office provides the administrative, logistical, and coordination backbone that keeps programmes/ projects running smoothly. It supports project managers, teams, and sometimes entire programmes by ensuring consistency, documentation control, reporting, and governance.

Junior Project Manager (Gartner Level 1 or experience in supporting / PMO roles): A junior project manager assists with planning, execution, and monitoring of projects to ensure they are delivered on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards. Works as part of a project team / leads on a small workstream as part of a larger project.

Project Manager (Gartner Level 3): responsible for planning, executing, and delivering projects on time, within scope, and within budget. They coordinate teams, manage risks, and ensure that project outcomes align with organisational goals. Leads the day to day management of a project, ensuring all activities are organised, monitored, and delivered to the required quality standards

Senior Project Manager (Gartner Level 4): leads complex, high value projects and often oversees multiple project teams. They are responsible for ensuring delivery within agreed scope, time, cost, and quality constraints while aligning outcomes with strategic business objectives. Provides leadership, direction, and oversight for large or multiple projects, ensuring they meet organisational goals and deliver measurable results. They act as the primary point of accountability for senior stakeholders.

Programme Manager (Gartner Level 5): oversees and coordinates multiple related projects to ensure they collectively deliver strategic organisational outcomes. They provide leadership, governance, and direction across a programme of work, ensuring alignment with business goals and successful delivery of benefits. Act as the primary point of accountability into senior stakeholders / Executives.

Business Change:

Business Change function helps to support and embed change when implementing technology change projects. It ensures effective transitioning of our business and stakeholders to a desired future state (such as adopting new systems / new approaches) to create value and integrate into business operations.

The function includes taking a structured approach to managing change; ensuring awareness, willingness, capability and training to adopt change; understanding and tracking change impact; managing risks related to change implementation (including resistance and adoption barriers); delivering change interventions to office-based and field-based operational colleagues.

Key Roles:

Change Lead (Gartner level 3)

Own and lead the change impact assessment for the project / programme

Design, deploy and manage key change management deliverables such as the change plan, training needs assessment, communications plan and change readiness assessment

Identify and collaborate with Change Analysts (and Champions within each business area), building a strong internal network for change

Build and maintain strong relationships with external and internal teams to ensure alignment on goals and solicit feedback from stakeholders involved and impacted by the change

Undertake targeted pre-change activities including stakeholder mapping, change impact and communication, engagement and training plans

Undertake change transition activities (e.g. user acceptance)

Identify and collaborate with sponsor, programme manager, project team to manage risks (threats and opportunities) and issues regarding ability to adopt new ways of working

Work closely with the change areas to make sure we map out the change impact and dependencies

Manage change to scope, time and budget within agreed tolerances or escalate changes accordingly

Senior Change Analyst (Gartner level 2)

Support more complex change and engagement activity per the needs of the Change Strategy and Change Plan

Prepares for and co-ordinates change workshops

Co-ordinates communications and engagements in delivery of the Change and Communications Plans

Co-ordinates training requirements

Provides support in terms of monitoring, measuring and reporting change

Tracks and assures change benefits

All other activities per the Change Analyst (below)

Change Analyst (Gartner level 1)

Supports the Change Lead to conduct change impact assessments and stakeholder analysis

Supports the development and delivery of the change strategy, change plan and activities

Creates and delivers essential change communications and training materials

Understands initial readiness for change across impacted teams

Tracks change readiness and adoption metrics

Facilitates workshops and feedback sessions where interventions are needed

Works closely with the impacted teams to ensure the change impact is mapped and dependencies highlighted

Identifies and escalates risks and issues that would impact the adoption of the change

Communications Lead (Gartner level 3)

Provides change narrative for communications and engagements

Uses the Change Plan, Communications Plan and Communication Framework to develop a compelling change narrative for regular communications and engagements related to the project or programme

Monitors and measure the effectiveness of the communications and rapidly evolve the communication/engagement approaches

Delivers change communications interventions - e.g. briefings, newsletters, webinars, internal social media, workshops

Interfaces with other Change and Communications roles to enable alignment

Creates content to embed key messaging at programme and portfolio level aligned to overall company Purpose, Priorities and Values

Training Lead (Gartner level 3)

Understands training needs through stakeholder engagement, role analysis, and impact assessments (provided by Change Lead and Change Analysts)

Owns the relationship and works closely with Thames Water Learning & Development team

Drives the production of the training elements - per the training needs analysis - to meet the programme or project timescales

Ensures quality and effectiveness of learning and alignment with standards

Engages with the business to develop and agree training plans

Monitors training uptake and works with business stakeholders to ensure targets met

Identifies additional training needs (after go-live) and provides suitable training solutions

Works with subject matter experts (SMEs) and vendors to create training materials (e.g. eLearning, videos, user guides, classroom courses)

Organises, manages and supports the delivery of training sessions

Gathers feedback and continuously improves training effectiveness

Trainer (Gartner level 2)

Develops and designs face to face training in order to meet agreed learning objectives

Prepares training content to ensure maximum training effectiveness

Deeply understands the training content (ie 'the solution') and the business process / context

Personally delivers training to end users - ensuring the training meets learning objectives

Evaluates the training delivered and follows up to understand training effectiveness

Please note that that deadline for asking for access to the PSQ & submitting of the PSQ is 24th February 2026, at 5 pm.

  • The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 1 Dec 2034, 23:59 GMT.
  • How the procedure runs: PSQ followed by ITN, shortlisting further based on written submissions to presentations and award

CPV: Administrative services for business operations · Business and management consultancy services · Data services · Software-related services · System and support services · Systems analysis and programming services · Systems and technical consultancy services

How this framework works

From the published notice
Type
Closed framework
Call-offs
call-offs may be awarded directly or by further competition
Framework period
4 yrs · up to 8 yrs from 13 May 2026
Published description of the framework

Preferred supplier in each lot with agreed terms, rates and rebate structure in place

Lots and requirements (4)Procurement structure

4 lots · all with a published value · same evaluation weights on every lot
Lot #1Project management servicesAwardedRenewal 4 yrsSMEPublished value£0

The source published no individual description for this lot.

Contract period: 13 May 2026 – 12 May 2030 (4 yrs) · up to 12 May 2034 with extensions
Delivery: London, South EastEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: The initial period of the contract will be four (4) years. Thames Water may then elect at its sole discretion to extend this Agreement in whole or in part by 4 further periods of one year each (or for any alternative periods) to taking it to a total of 8 years from the Effective Date. · Thames Water retains the right to extend the framework in whole or in part for up to four one year extensions.
Lot #2Business Analyst ServicesAwardedRenewal 4 yrsSMEPublished value£0

The source published no individual description for this lot.

Contract period: 13 May 2026 – 12 May 2030 (4 yrs) · up to 12 May 2034 with extensions
Delivery: London, South EastEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: The initial period of the contract will be four (4) years. Thames Water may then elect at its sole discretion to extend this Agreement in whole or in part by 4 further periods of one year each (or for any alternative periods) to taking it to a total of 8 years from the Effective Date. · Thames Water retains the right to extend the framework in whole or in part for up to four one year extensions.
Lot #3Change Management ServicesAwardedRenewal 4 yrsSMEPublished value£0

The source published no individual description for this lot.

Contract period: 13 May 2026 – 12 May 2030 (4 yrs) · up to 12 May 2034 with extensions
Delivery: London, South EastEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: The initial period of the contract will be four (4) years. Thames Water may then elect at its sole discretion to extend this Agreement in whole or in part by 4 further periods of one year each (or for any alternative periods) to taking it to a total of 8 years from the Effective Date. · Thames Water retains the right to extend the framework in whole or in part for up to four one year extensions.
Lot #4TrainersAwardedRenewal 4 yrsSMEPublished value£0

The source published no individual description for this lot.

Contract period: 13 May 2026 – 12 May 2030 (4 yrs) · up to 12 May 2034 with extensions
Delivery: London, South EastEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: The initial period of the contract will be four (4) years. Thames Water may then elect at its sole discretion to extend this Agreement in whole or in part by 4 further periods of one year each (or for any alternative periods) to taking it to a total of 8 years from the Effective Date. · Thames Water retains the right to extend the framework in whole or in part for up to four one year extensions.

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
How bids were scored · same split on all 4 lots
Quality: 65%Price: 35%
Published sub-criteria (3)
  • Technical: 25%
  • Presentations: 40%
  • Commercial: 35%
Published award criteria (3)
  • Technical: We will be scoring your written submission including key areas reviewing your ability to deliver the services, value adding services, talent management and transition
  • Commercial: Pricing for each lot will be reviewed for the four year initial term
  • Presentations: Shortlisted bidders will be invited to present to Thames which will be evaluated by a panel
What this means for your bid
  • Price carries 35 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 3.5 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
  • “Digital Contingent Labour Framework” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract: call-offs may be direct or by further competition.

Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Competitive flexible procedure
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Awarded
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Utilities
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
Yes · next expected 1 Dec 2034
First published
8 Jan 2026, 09:02 GMT
Last source update
18 Jun 2026, 15:39 BST
Award evaluation window
Submission end – 1 May 2026
Authority reference
FA2433
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-007761
Latest notice
Contract award notice (UK6)
Classification (CPV)
Administrative services for business operationsBusiness and management consultancy servicesData servicesSoftware-related servicesSystem and support servicesSystems analysis and programming servicesSystems and technical consultancy services
Delivery area
London (UKI)South East (UKJ)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06016e Find a Tender
How it runs

PSQ followed by ITN, shortlisting further based on written submissions to presentations and award

How it was run

Official notice
Run through: portal not identified
Electronic submission allowedLanguage: EN
Requests to participate (first stage)
24 Feb 2026, 17:00 GMT
Appointment period ends
24 Feb 2026, 17:00 GMT
Clarification deadline
17 Feb 2026, 17:00 GMT
Submission channel
Official e-sourcing portal
Electronic submission
Allowed
Accepted languages
en
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release

If you would like to gain access to the PSQ documents, please fill out the details within this form

forms.office.com/e/YAWD6HJ84K ↗

Timeline

8 Jan 2026 → 29 Jun 2026 · 11 dates
  1. Planning notice published285 days ago
    8 Jan 2026, 09:02 GMT
  2. Next notice expected273 days ago
    20 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
  3. Market engagement273 days ago
    20 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Include information on the scope of the engagement, the locations and dates of any events, and instructions for submitting expressions of interest and clarification questions.

    The PSQ stage is expected to be issued via SAP Ariba from mid-January to mid-February. It will be open to all and used to shortlist up to 6 suppliers for each lot.

    The lots will be broken to Project management, Business Change and Business Analysis functions.

    The shortlisted suppliers will be invited to ITN stage which will which is expected to be held from the end of February to the end of March. Written responses will be used to shortlist to top three suppliers who will invited to present their solutions at Clearwater Court in Reading in early April. These presentations will be scored and used in the final evaluation along with commercial submissions and the ITN written responses to award each Lot to a preferred partner.

    The initial period of the contract will be four (4) years. Thames Water may then elect at its sole discretion to extend this Agreement in whole or in part by 4 further periods of one year each (or for any alternative periods) to taking it to a total of 8 years from the Effective Date.

  4. Tender notice published265 days ago
    28 Jan 2026, 16:55 GMT
  5. Clarification questions by245 days ago
    17 Feb 2026, 17:00 GMT
  6. Admission / appointment period ends238 days ago · period end, not a bid countdown
    24 Feb 2026, 17:00 GMT
  7. Award decision expected by172 days ago
    1 May 2026, 23:59 BST
  8. Contract starts161 days ago
    13 May 2026, 00:00 BST
  9. Assessment summaries sent125 days ago
    18 Jun 2026, 00:00 BST
  10. Latest notice published124 days ago
    18 Jun 2026, 15:39 BST
  11. Standstill ends113 days ago
    29 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST

Notice history

10 events · 5 releases on Find a Tender · since 8 Jan 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 Jan 2026, 09:02 GMT
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    16 Jan 2026, 10:38 GMT
    UK2
  3. Tender notice published
    28 Jan 2026, 16:55 GMT
    UK4
  4. Published value updated to £0
    28 Jan 2026, 16:55 GMT
    was £35,000,000
  5. Status changed to active
    28 Jan 2026, 16:55 GMT
  6. Procurement method changed
    28 Jan 2026, 16:55 GMT
  7. Tender notice published
    3 Feb 2026, 10:26 GMT
    UK4
  8. Contract award notice published
    18 Jun 2026, 15:39 BST
    UK6
  9. Status changed to complete
    18 Jun 2026, 15:39 BST
  10. Contract signature expected
    30 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
    scheduled
Published amendments (2)

This update serves to formally withdraw this published UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement Notice. Thames Water issued this UK2: Preliminary market engagement notice in error and is now withdrawing this to correct this error. Please note Thames Water does intend to undertake a procurement exercise for Digital Contingent Labour as such a UK4 Tender Notice is currently being prepared and is scheduled …

Please note the time of the submission has changed from 10 am to 5 pm - the date has not changed from Tuesday 24th February 2026.

Routine re-releases (5)
  • 2026-01: 2 releases · 8 Jan 2026, 16 Jan 2026

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast
Awarded toValueDateStatus
Across several lots1 award
North Highland UK Ltd.30 Jun 2026 – 29 Jun 2030 · up to 30 Jun 2034Extensions: Thames Water retains the right to extend the framework in whole or in part for up to four one year extensions which would take us up to 29/06/2034—18 Jun 2026standstill to 29 Jun 2026Standstill

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

THAMES WATER UTILITIES LIMITED

Contracting authorityPrivate utility GB-COH: 02366661 · GB-PPON: PNQQ-4647-DTCV Clearwater Court, Reading, South East, RG1 8DBContact email

Framework contractors & participating bidders

1 commercial party on the notice
  • NORTH HIGHLAND UK LIMITEDFramework contractorGB-COH: 04801815GB-PPON: PJYX-5349-WGDV 10 Bloomsbury Way, Floor 8 And Floor 9, London, London, WC1A 2SLContact email

Official documents & specifications (5)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure