Official UK procurement notice
Early Market Engagement on Health and Work Outcomes‑Based Contracting
Authority: Department of Health & Social Care (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionIn line with the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), working with NHS England, is exploring outcomes‑based approaches that enable new partnerships to address health‑related economic inactivity and support sustained employment for people with health conditions.
This early market engagement seeks to gather views from potential investors and service providers on the feasibility, attractiveness, and design of proposed Health and Growth outcomes‑based contracts, ahead of any potential future formal market activity.
CPV: Administration, defence and social security services · Benefit services · Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security · Health and social work services · Other community, social and personal services · Research and development services and related consultancy services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Planned
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Department of Health & Social Care buys Benefit services (CPV 7531), and who usually turns up
Department of Health & Social Care’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Benefit services (CPV 7531) →
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 43 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.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
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.
1 bid20% / 26%
2–320% / 34%
4–660% / 28%
7+0% / 13%
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.
Below estimate50% / 43%
Within ±2%50% / 50%
Above estimate0% / 7%
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 7531No real estimate
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 47 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid26%
2–334%
4–628%
7+13%
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
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 23 Mar 2026, 17:18 GMT
- Last source update
- 10 Apr 2026, 17:28 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-032997- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0671faFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
23 Mar 2026 → 16 Apr 2026 · 4 dates- Contract starts216 days ago23 Mar 2026
- Planning notice published215 days ago23 Mar 2026, 17:18 GMT
- Latest notice published197 days ago10 Apr 2026, 17:28 BST
- Market engagement191 days ago16 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), working with NHS England, is undertaking an early market engagement to inform the potential development of Health and Growth outcomes‑based contracts, aligned to the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England and its ambition to use outcomes‑driven, “pay by impact” approaches to address complex public challenges.
Health‑related economic inactivity continues to present a significant and growing challenge among the working‑age population. In response, DHSC and NHS England are exploring how outcomes‑based contracting models could support people with health conditions to remain in, or return to, sustained employment, while delivering value for money and contributing to wider economic growth objectives.
Through this engagement, DHSC and NHS England are seeking views from potential service providers and investors, including organisations with experience of outcomes‑based contracting as well as those newer to this approach. The engagement will test the attractiveness, feasibility, and deliverability of potential models, including considerations around outcomes and metrics, data, payment mechanisms, risk allocation, contract duration, and scalability.
We are seeking responses from organisations that have experience/expertise in the below:
o Experience of investing in outcomes-based contracting
o Experience of providing/delivering services in outcomes-based contracting
o Interesting in potential investment within a health or employment outcome-based contracting opportunity
o Interest in providing/delivering services within a health or employment outcomes-based contracting opportunity.
This market engagement is being issued on Monday 23rd March 2026. The closing date for responses is 17:00pm, Sunday, April 12th, 2026.
Please respond to the questions listed in the survey using this link: forms.office.com/e/cTTX5qq3WX ↗
For more detailed guidance on the questionnaire please use the following link: atamis-1928.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/0O000000rwim/a… ↗
This engagement is issued for information‑gathering purposes only and does not constitute a procurement or a commitment to undertake any future commercial process. Participation will not form part of any future assessment or pre‑qualification of organisations.
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 23 Mar 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published23 Mar 2026, 17:18 GMTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published10 Apr 2026, 17:28 BSTUK2
Published amendments (1)
This notice is being amended to extend the response window.
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