Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 25 Aug 2026, 11:54 BST

Official UK procurement notice

MHST enhancements: workforce development and training CPD RFI

Authority: NHS England (Central government)

ServicesAbove thresholdLight touch regimeSME suitableVCSE suitable
Sectors: Education & Training (80) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£4,600,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 2 Nov 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yr 3 moends 31 Mar 2028 · starts 4 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

NHS England (NHSE) intends to procure CPD training for Mental Health Support Teams (MHST).

This is a Pre-Market Engagement exercise containing questions for the provider market which is designed to help inform the procurement and ensure it is feasible and meets the needs of NHSE, Learners and Providers. Your responses will be treated as confidential and will not influence any subsequent bid you may make in the future.

This process does not constitute the commencement of a procurement process.

The closing date for this request for information is 17.00 Friday 11th September.

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: Education and training services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 1 yr 3 moSMEVCSE
Contract period: 4 Jan 2027 – 31 Mar 2028 (1 yr 3 mo)
Eligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible

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 Education and training services (CPV 80), and who usually turns up

NHS England’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: Education and training services (CPV 80) →

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 80
The marketEducation and training services (CPV 80) · Greater London (authority’s region)
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: 33 of 714 known-size awards · market: division 80 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=260
5%40%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning. Small firms win less of this buyer’s work than the market’s: 5% against 40%, n=714.

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.

Here, local means registered in Greater London (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 12 of 22 known-location awards · market: division 80 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=418
55%42%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Greater London.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 23 decided notices · market: division 80 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=39
38 days45 days

Half of these awards were announced within 38 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 700 of 772 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 80 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=421
91%61%

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 buyer58 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 80
21% had one bid
The market71 lots with bid counts · division 80 · Greater London (authority’s region)
14% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid21% / 14%
Buyer: 12 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 71 lots with published bid counts.
2–324% / 37%
Buyer: 14 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 26 of 71 lots with published bid counts.
4–631% / 28%
Buyer: 18 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 20 of 71 lots with published bid counts.
7+24% / 21%
Buyer: 14 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 15 of 71 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 buyer41 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 80
46% below estimate
The market65 lots with estimate and award · division 80 · Greater London (authority’s region)
40% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate46% / 40%
Buyer: 19 of 41 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 26 of 65 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%51% / 37%
Buyer: 21 of 41 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 24 of 65 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate2% / 23%
Buyer: 1 of 41 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 15 of 65 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 #115 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£4.6m
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 71 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet14% single-bid risk
Past bids on 71 similar lots
1 bid14%
10 of 71 similar past lots received 1 bid (14%).
2–337%
26 of 71 similar past lots received 2–3 (37%).
4–628%
20 of 71 similar past lots received 4–6 (28%).
7+21%
15 of 71 similar past lots received 7+ (21%).
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £4.6m, 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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueWhy listed
Propharmace LtdEarlier contractTraining to Support Supervisor Development for the Pharmacy Workforcenotice published Mar 2024—£392kMatched as the earlier contract

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
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
25 Aug 2026, 11:54 BST
Last source update
25 Aug 2026, 11:54 BST
Authority reference
C464815
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-080781
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Education and training services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06eb6a Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

25 Aug 2026 → 4 Jan 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published56 days ago
    25 Aug 2026, 11:54 BST
  2. Market engagement38 days ago
    11 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST

    The closing date for the RFI is 17.00 on Friday 11th September.

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

  3. Today
    20 Oct 2026
  4. Tender notice expectedin 14 days
    2 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 76 days
    4 Jan 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    25 Aug 2026, 11:54 BST
    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

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 (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure