Official UK procurement notice
Mental Health Supported Accommodation Pathway
Authority: Essex County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionEssex County Council ("the Council") is inviting prospective providers to participate in a market engagement exercise to inform the Council's commissioning considerations regarding the provision the Mental Health Supported Accommodation Pathway. Please find below a summary of the provision below.
This accommodation is provided when it is necessary to meet people's assessed needs under the Mental Health Act and is provided as a way of helping people return to independence in the community.
The Pathway is designed to support flow and capacity for step down from hospital, avoid preventable admissions, improve health and social care outcomes for individuals, provide holistic support and reduce and/or eliminate out of area placements.
The model is underpinned by a move-on concept linked to community provision, including commissioned services ensuring people can continue to recover and thrive independently in mainstream housing.
Please note that the Council reserves the right to refine the scope of this proposed procurement following the market engagement process. In addition, please note that this procurement remains subject to governance approval. Therefore, the Council will confirm the final scope of the procurement, including but not limited to, the contract duration and confirmed procurement timetable in the corresponding Tender Notice following the conclusion of the requisite governance process.
CPV: Social work and related services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Essex County Council buys Social work and related services (CPV 8530), and who usually turns up
Essex County Council’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 and related services (CPV 8530) →
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 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 55 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 bid3% / 5%
2–328% / 38%
4–622% / 38%
7+47% / 19%
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 estimate44% / 29%
Within ±2%56% / 71%
Above estimate0% / 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 #1CPV 8530Estimate 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 21 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid5%
2–338%
4–638%
7+19%
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
- 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
- 9 Jul 2026, 16:28 BST
- Last source update
- 9 Jul 2026, 16:28 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-064886- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06c7edFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
9 Jul 2026 → 1 Jan 2028 · 3 dates- Planning notice published104 days ago9 Jul 2026, 16:28 BST
- Market engagement95 days ago17 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
Essex County Council have created a questionnaire which can be accessed using the following link:
consultations.essex.gov.uk/procurement/mental-h… ↗
Further information about the Mental Health Supported Accommodation Pathway is included in the questionnaire.
Essex County Council are in the early stages of preliminary market engagement to help shape how future tenders for Mental Health Supported Accommodation are structured. The project group would like to reach out to the market to share examples of possible lot structure and gather providers insights into what could work and what could deter potential bidders from bidding.
The deadline for responses is noon on 17th July 2026
- Today21 Oct 2026
- Contract starts1 Jan 2028
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published9 Jul 2026, 16:28 BSTUK2
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 (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender