Official UK procurement notice
Experts at Hand: Occupational Therapy, Inclusion and Participation Service
Authority: Norfolk County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement description'Experts at Hand' is designed to transform how support for children and young people with SEND is delivered, by bringing specialist expertise directly into mainstream early years, primary, secondary and post-16 settings. By embedding 'expert roles', such as occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, and specialist teachers, alongside setting staff. The offer supports earlier identification of need, strengthens workforce confidence and capability, and provides timely, evidence-based support within everyday learning environments.
The Experts at Hand offer will support mainstream settings across early years, primary, secondary and post-16, to better identify and meet the needs of children and young people with emerging or identified SEND. It will provide dedicated professional expertise tailored to the needs of individual children and young people, through observation, assessment, and identifying appropriated targeted support to help more children and young people flourish within their settings.
Norfolk County Council (NCC) is undertaking a procurement exercise and is inviting suitably qualified and experienced applicants to submit offers to deliver the Occupational Therapy, Inclusion and Participation Service.
The procurement is being conducted under regulation 11 of the Provider Selection Regime (PSR) in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 (the Regulations).
As the Council's funding is currently confirmed until 31 March 2029, any initial contract term will end on 31 March 2029. The Authority may, at its sole discretion, extend the Contract for up to three (3) years should additional funding become available. Any decision to extend the contract will be subject to the availability of future national funding and internal governance approval.
Accordingly, there is no guarantee that any extension will be offered. Any extension will be subject to a further Key Decision in accordance with the Authority's governance arrangements.
The value of the initial term is £3,829,100 split as follows:
• Financial Year 2026/27 - £835,260
• Financial Year 2027/28 - £1,474,800
• Financial Year 2028/29 - £1,519,040
It is anticipated that the Contract will be awarded on 20 January 2027, with service delivery commencing on 22 February 2027.
CPV: Community health services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1The procurement route adopted is a competitive process with dialogue in accordance…Renewal
- Extensions
- The Authority may, at its sole discretion, extend the Contract for up to three (3) years should additional funding become available. Any decision to extend the contract will be subject to the availability of future national funding and internal governance approval. Accordingly, there is no guarantee that any extension will be offered. Any extension will be subject to a further Key Decision in accordance with the Authority's governance arrangements.
- Variant bids
- not allowed
What it takes to wini
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 morei
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).
Published sub-criteria (4)
- Quality & Innovation — 40%
- Improving Access and Reducing Inequalities — 25%
- Social Value — 10%
- Integration, Collaboration and Sustainability — 25%
Published award criteria (5)
- Quality & Innovation — 40%
- Integration, Collaboration and Sustainability — 25%
- Improving Access and Reducing Inequalities — 25%
- Social Value — 10%
- Price — Value - Pass/Fail
- SuitabilityAll details are contained in the procurement documents available on the e-procurement platform - In-tend.
- Economic & financial standingAll details are contained in the procurement documents available on the e-procurement platform - In-tend.Minimum: All details are contained in the procurement documents available on the e-procurement platform - In-tend.
Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid
How Norfolk County Council buys Social services (CPV 8532) — and who usually turns up
Norfolk County Council’s own published record, next to the East of England market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Social services (CPV 8532) →
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
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.
Here, local means registered in East of England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in East of England.
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.
Half of these awards were announced within 71 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.
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.
1 bid11% / 16%
2–327% / 28%
4–644% / 36%
7+18% / 20%
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 estimate29% / 26%
Within ±2%60% / 74%
Above estimate11% / 0%
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 #1The procurement route adopted is a competitive process with dialogue in accordance…CPV 8532Estimate not published
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 69 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid16%
2–328%
4–636%
7+20%
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.
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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | ||||
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.
| Supplier | Won in this category | Live contracts | Award 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 · publisher note attached- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Open for tender
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 9 Oct 2026, 15:04 BST
- Last source update
- 9 Oct 2026, 15:04 BST
- Award evaluation window
- 13 Nov 2026 — …
- Authority reference
NCCT43502- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095752- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0784f0Find a Tender
- Performance terms
- All details are contained in the procurement documents available on the e-procurement platform - In-tend.
Publisher note: The procurement will be conducted using the Competitive Process under the Provider Selection Regime (PSR) 2023. This is not a procurement under the Public Contracts Regulations 2024. The full specification and procurement documents will be available upon In-tend. Applicants must register for free to access the documents. The estimated total value of the contract including any potential extension(s) is £8,400,000.00. This figure has been calculated using the 2026 prices and excludes inflation.
How to participate & submission route
Official notice Submit via In-tend- Requests to participate (first stage)
- —
- Tender submission deadline
- 13 Nov 2026, 10:00 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- —
- Submission channel
- {"electronicSubmission"}
- Accepted languages
- en
- Bid validity
- 180 days from the deadline
- Bids opened
- 13 Nov 2026, 11:00 GMT
Timeline
3 published dates · Europe/London- Notice publishedearlier today9 Oct 2026, 15:04 BST
- Submission deadlinein 34 days13 Nov 2026, 10:00 GMT
- Bids openedin 34 days13 Nov 2026, 11:00 GMT
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Nothing awarded yet- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- Independent patient choice and procurement panel LondonReview body
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Technical selection criteria