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Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 20 Nov 2025, 16:54 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Market Engagement - National Lead Employer Model

Official notice Competition analysis

Authority: NHS England (Central government)

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Sectors: Administration, defence and social security services (75)Business Services & Consultancy (79)Education & Training (80) Delivery: UK
Planned pipeline value£643,000,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Aug 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 6 yrsends 31 Jul 2033 · up to 31 Jul 2037 with extensions · starts 1 Aug 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This Market Engagement seeks to identify potential suppliers capable of supporting the expansion of the Lead Employer model for resident doctors and dentists in training across England.

This RFI is part of a collaborative procurement process aimed at identifying suppliers who can support NHS organisations in delivering Lead Employer services at scale.

Responses will inform the development of detailed procurement specifications and help shape the future delivery model for postgraduate medical and dental training employment services across England.

To express interest and respond to the request for information, please register and apply via the Atamis e-sourcing portal health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗

CPV: Administrative educational services · Education and training services · Management-related services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 6 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Aug 2027 – 31 Jul 2033 (6 yrs) · up to 31 Jul 2037 with extensions
Delivery: UKEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
Extensions: Extension options published
75121000 Administrative educational services79420000 Management-related services80000000 Education and training services

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How NHS England buys Administrative services of agencies (CPV 7512), and who usually turns up

NHS England’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: Administrative services of agencies (CPV 7512) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerNHS England · division 75
The marketAdministrative services of agencies (CPV 7512) · UK-wide
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: 2 of 6 known-size awards · market: CPV 7512 · UK-wide, n=65
33%49%

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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 5 of 8 known-location awards · market: CPV 7512 · UK-wide, n=75
63%49%

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: CPV 7512 · UK-wide, n=17
—41 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 41 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 4 of 6 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7512 · UK-wide, n=101
67%56%

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 buyer7 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 75
29% had one bid
The market40 lots with bid counts · CPV 7512 · UK-wide
38% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid29% / 38%
Buyer: 2 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 15 of 40 lots with published bid counts.
2–371% / 28%
Buyer: 5 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 11 of 40 lots with published bid counts.
4–60% / 28%
Buyer: 0 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 11 of 40 lots with published bid counts.
7+0% / 8%
Buyer: 0 of 7 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 40 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 buyer6 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 75
33% below estimate
The market28 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7512 · UK-wide
39% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate33% / 39%
Buyer: 2 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 11 of 28 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%67% / 57%
Buyer: 4 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 16 of 28 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0% / 4%
Buyer: 0 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 1 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 751272 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£643m
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 40 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet38% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 40 similar lots
1 bid38%
15 of 40 similar past lots received 1 bid (38%).
2–328%
11 of 40 similar past lots received 2–3 (28%).
4–628%
11 of 40 similar past lots received 4–6 (28%).
7+8%
3 of 40 similar past lots received 7+ (8%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 2 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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £643m, 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.

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
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
20 Nov 2025, 16:54 GMT
Last source update
10 Dec 2025, 10:56 GMT
Authority reference
C402489
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-081369
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Administrative educational servicesEducation and training servicesManagement-related services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05e5e1 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

20 Nov 2025 → 1 Aug 2027 · 5 dates
  1. Planning notice published339 days ago
    20 Nov 2025, 16:54 GMT
  2. Latest notice published319 days ago
    10 Dec 2025, 10:56 GMT
  3. Market engagement310 days ago
    19 Dec 2025, 23:59 GMT

    Closing deadline for submission of interest 17:00 19th December 2025.

    NHS England reserves the right to amend the timeline without prior notice.

    To express interest and respond to the request for information, please register and apply via Atamis e-sourcing portal health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗

  4. Tender notice expected85 days ago
    1 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
  5. Today
    25 Oct 2026
  6. Contract startsin 279 days
    1 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 20 Nov 2025
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    20 Nov 2025, 16:54 GMT
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    10 Dec 2025, 10:56 GMT
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

Extending the closing date for responses.

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

NHS England

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PDPT-3135-BWWY Wellington House, 133-135 Waterloo Rd, London, London, SE1 8UGContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure