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AwardedFind a Tender · award

EHCP Process Improvement

Buyer: Bristol City Council →

BuyerBristol City Council
StatusAwarded
DeadlineNot published
ValueValue not published
Published21 Apr 2026

What is being bought

The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Safety Valve Programme is a key priority for the Council. Under its statutory duties in the Children and Families Act 2014, the Council must ensure the timely delivery of high-quality Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). Improving EHCP timeliness and addressing the current backlog of assessments are therefore central commitments within the Council's Safety Valve Improvement Plan. Educational Psychology (EP) advice is a mandatory component of the EHCP assessment process. Current internal capacity is insufficient to meet the required volume of statutory advice within prescribed timescales. Additional EP resource is therefore required to ensure compliance with statutory duties and to support delivery of the Safety Valve commitments. To address this need, the Council intends to commission a managed service from an agency provider for a fixed period of eight months. The service will provide additional EP capacity to support EHCP assessments and reduce the existing backlog. The arrangement will include provider management oversight and quality assurance to ensure consistency and effective delivery. The eight-month contract period is considered the minimum necessary to deliver a meaningful reduction in the backlog while stabilising ongoing assessment throughput. The service is required urgently and delaying procurement would risk the Council failing to meet Safety Valve conditions. The proposed procurement route is a direct award to Constellia through the SEWTAP (South East Wales Technical and Professional Services) framework, with delivery of services through Sanctuary Personnel Limited.

Delivery location

UKK11

Categories

Special education services 80340000

Lot details

Lot 1

The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Safety Valve Programme is a key priority for the Council. Under its statutory duties in the Children and Families Act 2014, the Council must ensure the timely delivery of high-quality Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). Improving EHCP timeliness and addressing the current backlog of assessments are therefore central commitments within the Council's Safety Valve Improvement Plan. Educational Psychology (EP) advice is a mandatory component of the EHCP assessment process. Current internal capacity is insufficient to meet the required volume of statutory advice within prescribed timescales. Additional EP resource is therefore required to ensure compliance with statutory duties and to support delivery of the Safety Valve commitments. To address this need, the Council intends to commission a managed service from an agency provider for a fixed period of eight months. The service will provide additional EP capacity to support EHCP assessments and reduce the existing backlog. The arrangement will include provider management oversight and quality assurance to ensure consistency and effective delivery. The eight-month contract period is considered the minimum necessary to deliver a meaningful reduction in the backlog while stabilising ongoing assessment throughput. The service is required urgently and delaying procurement would risk the Council failing to meet Safety Valve conditions. The proposed procurement route is a direct award to Constellia through the SEWTAP (South East Wales Technical and Professional Services) framework, with delivery of services through Sanctuary Personnel Limited.

Statuscancelled

Award criteria
price

What is included

ItemCategoryQuantity
1Not publishedNot published

Comparable-procurement analytics

Benchmarked against retained Find a Tender procedures with CPV division 80. The category anchor is Special education services (80340000); this is a deliberately broad market comparator. The comparison is shown at several levels rather than pretending one company or region is always the best benchmark.

Comparison setProceduresReported bids per procedureNamed award suppliersPrice evidence
Market: CPV division 803,5782 median · 35.6 average (1,419 of 3,578 with a bid count)3.4 average (1,548 of 3,578 with named award suppliers)1 comparable price pairs
Same buyer0Not publishedNot publishedNot published
Delivery region: UKK1191 median · 6 average (3 of 9 with a bid count)2.3 average (4 of 9 with named award suppliers)Not published

“Reported bids” is an official aggregate, sometimes reported per lot; it is the closest available competition measure. “Named award suppliers” are winners, not all applicants.

Price-outcome signal

Not enough comparable procedures currently publish both a GBP tender value and a usable lowest-valid-bid value to calculate a responsible price-reduction benchmark. Tenderline deliberately does not infer a saving from named award suppliers or from missing award values.

Procurement strategy & market signals

Framework agreementNot published
Dynamic purchasing systemNot published
Competitive procurementNot published
Recurring requirementNot published
Procurement method rationaleThis contract has been directly award to Constellia via the SEWTAPS Framework, therefore prior notification of this award was not required.
Rationale classificationsThe procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
Special regimeNot published
Covered byNot published
Submission policyNot published
Selection criteriaNot published
Risk detailsNot published

Planning & early market engagement

BudgetNot published
No-engagement rationaleNot published
Planning documents0
Planning milestones0

No planning milestones published.

Related procurements

No linked framework, prior procurement or reprocurement published.

Awards

Contracts

EHCP Process Improvement

Statusactive
Value£495,000

Documents & submission route

No documents are published in the current source record.

Source data inventory

Diagnostic view. “Not published” means this current release does not provide a value.

OCIDocds-h6vhtk-068720
Latest release ID035991-2026
Latest release timestampTue Apr 21 2026 10:19:49 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Sourcefind-a-tender
Official notice URLNot published
Tender statuscomplete
Procurement methodlimited
Procurement method detailsAward procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Main procurement categoryservices
Above thresholdNot published
Legal basis32014L0024
Tender period: startNot published
Tender period: endNot published
Expression of interest deadlineNot published
Enquiry deadlineNot published
Award period: startNot published
Award period: endNot published
Submission method detailsNot published
Submission languagesNot published
Electronic catalogue policyNot published
Total tender valueNot published
Tender lots in source1
Tender items in source1
Tender documents in source0
Awards in latest release1
Contracts in latest release1
Parties in latest release3

Notice history

DateEventReference
21 Apr 2026award, contract035991-2026

All source data

Unmodified official OCDS data retained by Tenderline for this procurement process.

Complete current OCDS release JSON
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  "bids": {
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        "value": 1,
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        "relatedLot": "1"
      },
      {
        "id": "2",
        "value": 0,
        "measure": "smeBids",
        "relatedLot": "1"
      },
      {
        "id": "3",
        "value": 0,
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  "date": "2026-04-21T11:19:49+01:00",
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  },
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      "id": "035991-2026-1-1",
      "title": "EHCP Process Improvement",
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        {
          "id": "GB-COH-08664789",
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    }
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  "tender": {
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    "items": [
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    ],
    "title": "EHCP Process Improvement",
    "status": "complete",
    "legalBasis": {
      "id": "32014L0024",
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    },
    "description": "The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Safety Valve Programme is a key priority for the Council. Under its statutory duties in the Children and Families Act 2014, the Council must ensure the timely delivery of high-quality Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). Improving EHCP timeliness and addressing the current backlog of assessments are therefore central commitments within the Council's Safety Valve Improvement Plan.\nEducational Psychology (EP) advice is a mandatory component of the EHCP assessment process. Current internal capacity is insufficient to meet the required volume of statutory advice within prescribed timescales. Additional EP resource is therefore required to ensure compliance with statutory duties and to support delivery of the Safety Valve commitments.\nTo address this need, the Council intends to commission a managed service from an agency provider for a fixed period of eight months. The service will provide additional EP capacity to support EHCP assessments and reduce the existing backlog. The arrangement will include provider management oversight and quality assurance to ensure consistency and effective delivery.\nThe eight-month contract period is considered the minimum necessary to deliver a meaningful reduction in the backlog while stabilising ongoing assessment throughput. The service is required urgently and delaying procurement would risk the Council failing to meet Safety Valve conditions.\nThe proposed procurement route is a direct award to Constellia through the SEWTAP (South East Wales Technical and Professional Services) framework, with delivery of services through Sanctuary Personnel Limited.",
    "classification": {
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    "procurementMethod": "limited",
    "mainProcurementCategory": "services",
    "procurementMethodDetails": "Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition",
    "procurementMethodRationale": "This contract has been directly award to Constellia via the SEWTAPS Framework, therefore prior notification of this award was not required.",
    "procurementMethodRationaleClassifications": [
      {
        "id": "D_OUTSIDE_SCOPE",
        "scheme": "TED_PT_AWARD_CONTRACT_WITHOUT_CALL",
        "description": "The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive"
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  },
  "parties": [
    {
      "id": "GB-FTS-40229",
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        "countryName": "United Kingdom",
        "streetAddress": "City Hall, College Green"
      },
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        "classifications": [
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      "identifier": {
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        "noIdentifierRationale": "notOnAnyRegister"
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      "contactPoint": {
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    },
    {
      "id": "GB-COH-08664789",
      "name": "Constellia Public Ltd",
      "roles": [
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      ],
      "address": {
        "region": "UKI",
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        "countryName": "United Kingdom"
      },
      "details": {
        "scale": "large"
      },
      "identifier": {
        "id": "08664789",
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    {
      "id": "GB-FTS-36633",
      "name": "Bristol Magistrates' Court",
      "roles": [
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      ],
      "address": {
        "locality": "Bristol",
        "countryName": "United Kingdom"
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      "identifier": {
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    }
  ],
  "language": "en",
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      },
      "status": "active",
      "awardID": "035991-2026-1-1",
      "dateSigned": "2026-03-31T00:00:00+01:00"
    }
  ],
  "initiationType": "tender"
}
Complete JSON history (1 releases)
21 Apr 2026 · 035991-2026 · award, contract
{
  "id": "035991-2026",
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        "id": "2",
        "value": 0,
        "measure": "smeBids",
        "relatedLot": "1"
      },
      {
        "id": "3",
        "value": 0,
        "measure": "electronicBids",
        "relatedLot": "1"
      }
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  "ocid": "ocds-h6vhtk-068720",
  "buyer": {
    "id": "GB-FTS-40229",
    "name": "Bristol City Council"
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  "awards": [
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    "id": "DN813656",
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        "description": "The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Safety Valve Programme is a key priority for the Council. Under its statutory duties in the Children and Families Act 2014, the Council must ensure the timely delivery of high-quality Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). Improving EHCP timeliness and addressing the current backlog of assessments are therefore central commitments within the Council's Safety Valve Improvement Plan.\nEducational Psychology (EP) advice is a mandatory component of the EHCP assessment process. Current internal capacity is insufficient to meet the required volume of statutory advice within prescribed timescales. Additional EP resource is therefore required to ensure compliance with statutory duties and to support delivery of the Safety Valve commitments.\nTo address this need, the Council intends to commission a managed service from an agency provider for a fixed period of eight months. The service will provide additional EP capacity to support EHCP assessments and reduce the existing backlog. The arrangement will include provider management oversight and quality assurance to ensure consistency and effective delivery.\nThe eight-month contract period is considered the minimum necessary to deliver a meaningful reduction in the backlog while stabilising ongoing assessment throughput. The service is required urgently and delaying procurement would risk the Council failing to meet Safety Valve conditions.\nThe proposed procurement route is a direct award to Constellia through the SEWTAP (South East Wales Technical and Professional Services) framework, with delivery of services through Sanctuary Personnel Limited.",
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    "description": "The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Safety Valve Programme is a key priority for the Council. Under its statutory duties in the Children and Families Act 2014, the Council must ensure the timely delivery of high-quality Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). Improving EHCP timeliness and addressing the current backlog of assessments are therefore central commitments within the Council's Safety Valve Improvement Plan.\nEducational Psychology (EP) advice is a mandatory component of the EHCP assessment process. Current internal capacity is insufficient to meet the required volume of statutory advice within prescribed timescales. Additional EP resource is therefore required to ensure compliance with statutory duties and to support delivery of the Safety Valve commitments.\nTo address this need, the Council intends to commission a managed service from an agency provider for a fixed period of eight months. The service will provide additional EP capacity to support EHCP assessments and reduce the existing backlog. The arrangement will include provider management oversight and quality assurance to ensure consistency and effective delivery.\nThe eight-month contract period is considered the minimum necessary to deliver a meaningful reduction in the backlog while stabilising ongoing assessment throughput. The service is required urgently and delaying procurement would risk the Council failing to meet Safety Valve conditions.\nThe proposed procurement route is a direct award to Constellia through the SEWTAP (South East Wales Technical and Professional Services) framework, with delivery of services through Sanctuary Personnel Limited.",
    "classification": {
      "id": "80340000",
      "scheme": "CPV",
      "description": "Special education services"
    },
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