Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 24 Apr 2026, 08:34 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) AI Pilot

Authority: Cambridgeshire County Council (Local council)

ServicesSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 30 Aug 2029 · starts 1 Sept 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Cambridgeshire County Council is inviting interested suppliers to participate in the market engagement exercise for its Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) AI Pilot.

The Council currently manages a significant and growing statutory Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) workload, with over 8,000 active plans requiring maintenance and annual review, alongside approximately 160 new referrals per month for assessment. Performance against the 20‑week statutory timescale remains poor, with a substantial backlog of assessments and limited capacity within casework teams to meet demand through existing ways of working.

EHCP drafting is a highly manual, time intensive process, typically requiring up to one working day per case which contributes directly to delays, inconsistency in quality and customer dissatisfaction.

At present, there is no AI enabled solution contracted or embedded within the EHCP drafting process, and drafting activity is undertaken using standard tools and manual processes. Therefore, the Council has undertaken this market engagement with suppliers offering AI assisted EHCP solutions. The exercise seeks to introduce a compliant, secure AI driven solution to support EHCP drafting that complements existing staffing investments and aligns with statutory requirements.

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 3 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Sept 2026 – 30 Aug 2029 (3 yrs)
Delivery: East of EnglandEligibility: SME eligible

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Cambridgeshire County Council buys IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72), and who usually turns up

Cambridgeshire County Council’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: IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCambridgeshire County Council · division 72
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 2 known-size awards · market: division 72 · East of England, n=513
2 of 239%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in East of England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 5 known-location awards · market: division 72 · East of England, n=616
20%11%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 5 decided notices · market: division 72 · East of England, n=56
19 days62 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 19 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 1 of 6 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 72 · East of England, n=782
17%60%

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 buyer5 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 72
0% had one bid
The market81 lots with bid counts · division 72 · East of England
7% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid0% / 7%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 81 lots with published bid counts.
2–320% / 26%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 21 of 81 lots with published bid counts.
4–660% / 37%
Buyer: 3 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 30 of 81 lots with published bid counts.
7+20% / 30%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 24 of 81 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 buyer51 lots with estimate and award · all categories
47% below estimate
The market65 lots with estimate and award · division 72 · East of England
42% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate47% / 42%
Buyer: 24 of 51 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 27 of 65 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%39% / 40%
Buyer: 20 of 51 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 26 of 65 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate14% / 18%
Buyer: 7 of 51 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 12 of 65 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 #1CPV 7236 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 72. The comparison uses that group.

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 81 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet7% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 81 similar lots
1 bid7%
6 of 81 similar past lots received 1 bid (7%).
2–326%
21 of 81 similar past lots received 2–3 (26%).
4–637%
30 of 81 similar past lots received 4–6 (37%).
7+30%
24 of 81 similar past lots received 7+ (30%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 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.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

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
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
24 Apr 2026, 08:34 BST
Last source update
24 Apr 2026, 08:34 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-037342
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Delivery area
East of England (UKH12)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068a33 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

24 Apr 2026 → 1 Sept 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published187 days ago
    24 Apr 2026, 08:34 BST
  2. Market engagement173 days ago
    8 May 2026, 23:59 BST

    Interested suppliers are required to access the Market Engagement documentation via the ProContract link here: procontract.due-north.com/Advert ↗

  3. Contract starts58 days ago
    1 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    24 Apr 2026, 08:34 BST
    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

Cambridgeshire County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PJVB-3262-VGVJ New Shire Hall Emery Crescent Enterprise Campus,, Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon, East of England, PE28 4YEContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure