Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 20 Mar 2026, 11:24 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

GMCA1894: Building Futures - Mentoring Delivery Organisations

Authority: Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Local council)

Services
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yr 8 moends 30 Apr 2028 · starts 1 Sept 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is undertaking preliminary market engagement to inform the potential future commissioning of a mentoring offer as part of the Building Futures programme.

The proposed mentoring offer is intended to support 1125 young people in Years 8-10 (mainstream secondary schools) who are at risk of disengagement from education or becoming Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET).

The programme is expected to operate GM wide, with delivery potentially structured on a locality basis depending on need, provider capacity and delivery model.

Delivery is planned for term-time from September 2026 to April 2028, pending funding, governance and approvals. Paid mentors will offer weekly mentoring sessions on school premises, support is expected to be delivered over an indicative period of approximately 26 weeks per participant, subject to final programme design.

CPV: Education and training services · Other community, social and personal services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Greater Manchester Combined Authority buys Other community, social and personal services (CPV 98), and who usually turns up

Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Other community, social and personal services (CPV 98) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerGreater Manchester Combined Authority · division 98
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: 4 of 7 known-size awards · market: division 98 · North West England, n=128
57%48%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 of 6 known-location awards · market: division 98 · North West England, n=157
50%48%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: division 98 · North West England, n=27
—37 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 37 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 5 of 10 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 98 · North West England, n=184
50%63%

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 buyer5 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 98
40% had one bid
The market54 lots with bid counts · division 98 · North West England
26% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid40% / 26%
Buyer: 2 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 14 of 54 lots with published bid counts.
2–320% / 37%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 20 of 54 lots with published bid counts.
4–620% / 17%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 9 of 54 lots with published bid counts.
7+20% / 20%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 11 of 54 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 buyer5 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 98
20% below estimate
The market28 lots with estimate and award · division 98 · North West England
21% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate20% / 21%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 6 of 28 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%80% / 68%
Buyer: 4 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 19 of 28 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0% / 11%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 3 of 28 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 9820 monthsEstimate not published

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 98. The comparison uses that group.

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 54 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet26% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 54 similar lots
1 bid26%
14 of 54 similar past lots received 1 bid (26%).
2–337%
20 of 54 similar past lots received 2–3 (37%).
4–617%
9 of 54 similar past lots received 4–6 (17%).
7+20%
11 of 54 similar past lots received 7+ (20%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

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.

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.

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
Unspecified in notice
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
20 Mar 2026, 11:24 GMT
Last source update
20 Mar 2026, 11:24 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-025656
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Education and training servicesOther community, social and personal services
Delivery area
North West (UKD3)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06701b Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

20 Mar 2026 → 1 Sept 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published219 days ago
    20 Mar 2026, 11:24 GMT
  2. Market engagement194 days ago
    13 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST

    The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is seeking feedback from prospective suppliers on a school-based mentoring service for approximately 1,125 students in Years 8-10 who are at risk of disengaging from education or becoming NEET. Delivery is expected to take place across around 50 mainstream secondary schools in Greater Manchester, with mentoring sessions held on school premises during the school day or at agreed times.

    To take part in this market engagement, please complete the questionnaire attached to the advert on the chest, which can be found through the following link:

    procontract.due-north.com/Advert ↗

    Responses must be returned to [email protected] by no later than Monday the 13th of April.

  3. Contract starts54 days ago
    1 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    20 Mar 2026, 11:24 GMT
    UK2

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

Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PXBN-3793-LCTQ 56 Oxford Street, Manchester, North West, M1 6EUContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure