Official UK procurement notice
Future Employment Support · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Department for Work & Pensions (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is intending to procure new employment support provision for out of work Universal Credit claimants. It will provide personalised and tailored support that is responsive to the needs of individuals and the local area. This will include skills, training and work experience; matching participants with employers through job trials, jobs fairs and job brokering; support with self-employment; intensive and repeated support with applications and interviewing; support in managing health conditions in the workplace; support with travel and childcare; and specialist support (e.g. ESOL, addiction).
Support will be available across England and Wales and will be integrated within local labour markets. DWP is co-designing the provision with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to ensure it is tailored to the needs of local labour markets. This notice refers to the procurement of the service in England only.
This notice seeks to invite interested suppliers to attend an upcoming virtual Market Engagement event on the 2nd June. To register interest in the event, please follow the steps set out in the Engagement Description section of this notice.
Please note, that all key decisions including final programme title, budgets, contract length and dates are yet to be approved through internal governance and therefore may change.
The total contract value given is excluding VAT and is estimated at this stage.
**** Update 12/6/26 ****
A further virtual market engagement event will be held on Thursday 9th July 2026 at 2pm. Suppliers who wish to participate in the event should ensure that they have registered their interest in the ‘Future Employment Support’ opportunity via Atamis. Further updates and event details will be issued through the system.
CPV: Administration services · Administration, defence and social security services · Adult and other education services · Benefit services · Compulsory social security services · Computer courses · Computer training services · E-learning services · Education and training services · General public services · Government services · Health and social work services · +14 more
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Department for Work & Pensions buys Adult and other education services (CPV 8040), and who usually turns up
Department for Work & Pensions’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: Adult and other education services (CPV 8040) →
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.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in the delivery region.
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 94 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.
The buyer’s share is a minimum: 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 bid14%
2–343%
4–621%
7+21%
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 estimate63%
Within ±2%38%
Above estimate0%
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 8040Published estimate£1.2bn
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 93 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid13%
2–326%
4–630%
7+31%
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- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Light touch regime
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 2 Apr 2026, 13:11 BST
- Last source update
- 12 Jun 2026, 12:42 BST
- Authority reference
C9880- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-055672- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-067bc6Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
2 Apr 2026 → 1 Feb 2028 · 5 dates- Planning notice published201 days ago2 Apr 2026, 13:11 BST
- Market engagement144 days ago29 May 2026, 23:59 BST
The Department for Work and Pensions is procuring a new employment support provision offering personalised and tailored support to out‑of‑work Universal Credit claimants and is seeking to engage with the market to support this.
As part of this process, the DWP will host a virtual market engagement event via Microsoft Teams, scheduled to take place Tuesday 02 June 2026 at 2pm. To register an interest in attending the event and access details of the market engagement, organisations should follow the steps below:
- Suppliers should ensure that they are registered on the DWP Atamis portal. Suppliers who do not already have an account on the Atamis system can register for a new account here:
New User Registration
dwp2.my.site.com/ProSpend__eSourcing_… ↗
- Express Interest on the Portal: Suppliers should navigate to the ‘Find Opportunities’ page and click on the title of the opportunity (‘Future Employment Support’) and click Register Interest.
- Suppliers should navigate to the Documents section of the procurement, and access the document entitled “Market Engagement - 02 June 2026” and follow the instructions in the document including completion of the enclosed short survey.
- DWP will issue an invite to the Market Engagement event to any suppliers who complete the above steps. Organisations should ensure that this is done by 29 May 2026.
- Market Engagement documentation including Question & Answer logs from the session will be hosted on Atamis.
- Information on future market engagement events will be shared via the Atamis portal.
For Atamis Portal help and support, please visit:
Supplier Portal Help page
suppliersupport.atamis.co.uk/hc/en-gb/sections/46… ↗
Please note that the purpose of this Notice is for market engagement only. It does not signify the commencement of any procurement process and does not constitute any commitment by the Department. Participation in this engagement is voluntary and does not form part of any formal procurement process. A separate notice(s) will be published at the relevant time should the Department decide to commence any procurement(s).
- Latest notice published130 days ago12 Jun 2026, 12:42 BST
- Today20 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 37 days26 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts1 Feb 2028
Notice history
4 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 2 Apr 2026- Pipeline notice published2 Apr 2026, 13:11 BSTUK1
- Preliminary market engagement notice published28 Apr 2026, 13:30 BSTUK2
- Published value published: £1,200,000,00028 Apr 2026, 13:30 BST
- Preliminary market engagement notice published12 Jun 2026, 12:42 BSTUK2
Published amendments (1)
Amendment to content - Secondary Preliminary Market Engagement Session
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 (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender