Find a TenderOpen for tender Tender notice
Published 9 Oct 2026, 10:16 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Evaluation Services: Events & Participation Programme (2026-2029)

Authority: North East Combined Authority (Local council)

ServicesBelow threshold - open competitionBelow thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Published estimate£90,000≈ £42k / year · £90,000 inc. VAT
Submission deadline 6 Nov 202612:00 GMT · 27d 10h left
Clarification cut-off 30 Oct 202612:00 GMT · questions to the authority
Contract term 2 yrs 2 moends 31 Mar 2029 · up to 31 Dec 2029 with extensions · starts 18 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The North East MSA intends to appoint a single supplier to deliver independent evaluation services for the Events & Participation Programme (2026-2029).

The appointed supplier will be required to design and deliver a comprehensive programme-level evaluation covering all approved activity funded through both the Events Investment Programme and the Sport and Cultural Participation Programme.

The evaluation will assess:

 Programme delivery and implementation

 Achievement of programme outputs and outcomes

 Economic impact and value for money

 Participation and behaviour change

 Health and wellbeing outcomes

 Volunteering impacts

 Equality, diversity and inclusion impacts

 Environmental sustainability impacts

 Social value generated through investment

 Lessons learned and recommendations for future investment

The estimated contract value is £90,000 excluding VAT.

The proposed contract period is from January 2027 to March 2029, with the option for the North East MSA to extend until December 2026 if required to complete final evaluation reporting and dissemination activities.

CPV: Evaluation consultancy services · Social research services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · value published
Lot #1Renewal 2 yrs 2 moSMEVCSEPublished value£90,000
Contract period: 18 Jan 2027 — 31 Mar 2029 (up to 31 Dec 2029 with extensions) · up to 2 yrs 11 mo with extensionsEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligibleDelivery: North EastTurnover guideline: ~£81,721/yr≈ 2× annual value
Value
£90,000 exc. VAT · £90,000 inc. VAT
Extensions
1 x 9 month option to extend
79315000 Social research services79419000 Evaluation consultancy services

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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 are scored
Quality: 90%Price: 10%
Published award criteria (2)
  • Quality
  • Price

No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.

What this means for your bid
  • Price carries 10 of 100 points — a 10% discount moves about 1 point. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
  • Turnover usually expected at this size: about £81,721 (twice the annual value).

Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring — the tender pack may use another formula. Turnover is an indicative market norm (≈2× annual value), not a published condition.

Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid

How North East Combined Authority buys Market research services (CPV 7931) — and who usually turns up

North East Combined Authority’s own published record, next to the North East England market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Market research services (CPV 7931) →

1

How the contest usually goes

This buyer’s published record next to the market where the work is delivered — contested contracts only, counted per lot

Question for the bid
This buyerNorth East Combined Authority · all categories
The marketMarket research services (CPV 7931) · North East England
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: 3 of 5 known-size awards · market: CPV 7931, n=15
60%60%

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.

Here, local means registered in North East England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 7 of 11 known-location awards · market: CPV 7931, n=27
64%11%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in North East England.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 decided notices · market: n=15
44 days35 days

Half of these awards were announced within 44 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.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 7 of 13 awarded contracts without a rival · market: n=26
54%15%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer4 lots with bid counts · all categories · too few to chart
—
The market23 lots with bid counts · CPV 7931
4% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid4%
Market: 1 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
2–322%
Market: 5 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
4–630%
Market: 7 of 23 lots with published bid counts.
7+43%
Market: 10 of 23 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 buyerNo matched awards
—
The market21 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7931
48% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate48%
Market: 10 of 21 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%48%
Market: 10 of 21 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate5%
Market: 1 of 21 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 79314% single-bidPublished estimate£90,000
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 23 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—4% single-bid risk
Past bids on 23 similar lots
1 bid4%
1 of 23 similar past lots received 1 bid (4%).
2–322%
5 of 23 similar past lots received 2–3 (22%).
4–630%
7 of 23 similar past lots received 4–6 (30%).
7+43%
10 of 23 similar past lots received 7+ (43%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the winning 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 guide, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet — the published estimate is £90k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueMatch
—

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.

SupplierWon in this categoryLive contractsAward vs estimate
—
Coverage and what to read with care
  • Each figure explains itself. The on a figure says what it is, how it is counted and which scope this notice’s own record came from (class, division, all categories, or the authority’s 24-month row). The two sides are never blended. A lot’s own market is read at its delivery region where the lot names one; where it names several, or none that can be resolved, the chart falls back to the UK-wide record for the same category and says so under the bar. An empty cell means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
  • When we call out a difference. A buyer figure is only flagged against the market when the sample is large enough that the gap is unlikely to be chance; at most two callouts appear, always phrased as a comparison with both numbers and the sample size.
  • Coverage (re-measured 5 Oct on the live record, 94,497 awarded procedures of the last three years). 51 % publish a bid count and 72 % a delivery region, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice names none, labelled. Of the 17,687 award-vs-estimate pairs, 34 % sit exactly on the estimate — the buyer published the award at the figure it advertised. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden, and a distribution is not drawn as percentages below ten observations.
  • “Match”, text similarity, the expected-bid figure and the distribution drawn beneath it are model outputs, not published facts or win probabilities. Find a Tender does not publish who is bidding. Never shown: contact details, payment behaviour, or a recommended price.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Below threshold - open competition
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Open for tender
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
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
9 Oct 2026, 10:16 BST
Last source update
9 Oct 2026, 10:16 BST
Authority reference
OPEN20262020
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095507
Latest notice
Tender notice (UK4)
Classification (CPV)
Evaluation consultancy servicesSocial research services
Delivery area
North East (UKC14)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078461 Find a Tender

How to participate & submission route

Official notice Submit via OPEN-UK
Submission portal named on this notice: OPEN-UK
Supplier login requiredElectronic submission allowed
Access & registration note: Free
Requests to participate (first stage)
—
Tender submission deadline
6 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
Clarification deadline
30 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
Submission channel
Official e-sourcing portal
Electronic submission
Allowed
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release
Tenders must be submitted electronically via the Open e-Tendering Portal at www.open-uk.org ↗ Tenderers should log into the portal, locate the opportunity reference OPEN20262020 - Evaluation Services: Events & Participation Programme (2026-2029) and upload all required tender documents through the portal's submission facility. The opportunity will be published and available on the portal from 12:00 noon on 9 October 2026. Late submissions will not be accepted. Tenderers are advised to allow sufficient time to upload and submit their tender before the submission deadline.
Published estimate £90,000 excludes VAT (£90,000 including VAT).

Timeline

4 published dates · Europe/London
  1. Tender notice published1 day ago
    9 Oct 2026, 10:16 BST
  2. Clarification questions byin 20 days
    30 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
  3. Submission deadlinein 27 days
    6 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
  4. Contract startsin 100 days
    18 Jan 2027

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Nothing awarded yet
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Notice history

2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 9 Oct 2026
  1. Tender notice published
    9 Oct 2026, 10:16 BSTUK4
  2. First tender notice published
    9 Oct 2026, 10:16 BST

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

North East Combined Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PJMR-6594-BRGH The Lumen, St James' Boulevard, Newcastle Upon Tyne, North East, NE4 5BZ [email protected]

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Tender notice tenderTender noticeUK4Tender notice on Find a Tender