Official UK procurement notice
Fostering Recruitment Digital Solutions
Authority: Department for Education (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionAs announced in Renewing Fostering: homes for 10,000 more children, the Department for Education (DfE) is exploring how digital solutions can support the successful onboarding of prospective foster carers, to minimise drop-off points caused by delays in communication about progress and outcomes, and enable richer data on fostering recruitment through to approvals to support decision-making at a local and national level.
To deliver on the ambitious plan, we have engaged with the market to seek the development of an end-to-end digital solution that can:
- Provide clear expectations of a standardised recruitment process across data and operating expectations.
- Enable the gathering of rich and consistent data on the Hub fostering recruitment process and pipeline, supporting effective data sharing between DfE, Hubs, local authorities and other relevant agencies, and helping to better target interventions and efforts where they are most needed.
- Create platforms and infrastructure to allow prospective foster carers to make an application and manage it throughout the fostering application process, from initial enquiry to approval (this may include making contact with their fostering service, booking appointments and monitoring the progress of their application online).
- Provide a solution to help Fostering Hubs and local authorities to manage prospective foster carers through the application process through real-time insights and by engaging relevant agencies to support the onboarding process.
- Provide a simple and secure customer journey that allows for interoperability where necessary, enabling improved data sharing and portability of applications across fostering services, while also strengthening the overall digital and data capability across the system.
Following the preliminary market engagement, DfE will be taking forward development of the end-to-end recruitment service in-house. This will enable us to define key requirements and expectations, while working closely with Regional Care Co-operatives, Fostering Hubs and Local Authorities to develop the necessary infrastructure.
We do, however, intend to continue engaging with the sector as we develop key components of the service. At this stage, the precise scope, scale and timing of any future procurement activity remain under consideration.
CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Welfare services for children and young people
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Department for Education buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up
Department for Education’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Social work services (CPV 8531) →
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.
Here, local means registered in Greater London (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Greater London.
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 49 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 bid9% / 27%
2–334% / 40%
4–625% / 23%
7+32% / 10%
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 estimate40% / 25%
Within ±2%49% / 65%
Above estimate11% / 10%
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 8531Estimate 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 81 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid27%
2–340%
4–623%
7+10%
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
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 12 Feb 2026, 15:35 GMT
- Last source update
- 21 May 2026, 16:40 BST
- Authority reference
Project_10370- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-047368- Latest notice
- Pipeline notice (UK1)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06530cFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
12 Feb 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 5 dates- Planning notice published250 days ago12 Feb 2026, 15:35 GMT
- Market engagement220 days ago13 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT
The purpose of this preliminary market engagement notice is to inform the market that DfE is considering procuring a digital solution that supports fostering recruitment and to consult on current thinking to help inform our approach. It is not being used as a call for competition.
The preliminary market engagement is intended to:
- help DfE gauge the market’s interest, capability and capacity for delivering a digital solution that supports recruitment of more foster carers by enabling a simpler and supportive journey
- share further information about DfE’s ambition and invite the market to share early thoughts to inform the shaping of our requirements, timelines, commercial approach and any other aspects relating to this opportunity
Market engagement will consist of a virtual event via MS Teams. This session will give an opportunity to discuss, clarify and highlight what aspects of the competition may be most attractive as well as anything that might be a barrier to bidding.
The virtual MS Teams event will be held on 24 February at 13:00 – 14:00pm. We will outline key questions and areas of interest during the session, and interested suppliers will be invited to complete a survey and schedule a 1:1 meeting to discuss their thoughts and the suitability of existing platforms in further detail.
To arrange an invite to the team session, please contact [email protected]. Details about how to sign-up for a 1:1 session will be shared during the event on 24th February.
- Latest notice published152 days ago21 May 2026, 16:40 BST
- Today20 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 14 days2 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 163 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
3 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 12 Feb 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published12 Feb 2026, 15:35 GMTUK2
- Pipeline notice published21 May 2026, 16:40 BSTUK1
- Status changed to planned21 May 2026, 16:40 BST
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
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender