Official UK procurement notice
Norfolk Community Mental Health Outreach and Support Service
Authority: Norfolk County Council (Local council)·On behalf of: NHS NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK INTEGRATED CARE BOARD
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionNorfolk County Council is issuing this Preliminary Market Engagement Notice to inform the market of its intention to procure a new Norfolk-wide Community Mental Health Outreach and Support Service for adults with mental health needs.
The Council is seeking to commission a county-wide service ( which may be divided into lots) that provides flexible, person-centred support to enable people to maintain their independence, improve wellbeing, build resilience, and strengthen connections within their local communities. The service will support individuals with mental health needs through a recovery-focused and strengths-based approach, helping to prevent escalation of need, reduce social isolation, and promote sustainable independence.
The service is expected to operate across the whole of Norfolk and we will be seeking markets feedback on the approach to division of lots. The service will work in the unregulated space and deliver accessible and responsive support across urban, rural and coastal communities. The provider will be expected to work collaboratively with Adult Social Care, health partners, housing providers, voluntary and community sector organisations, and other key stakeholders to support positive outcomes for Norfolk residents.
Commissioning the Community outreach services separately from mental health supported living is a change to the current model which is combined.
The Council intends to publish the procurement documents in Spring 2027. The supported living requirement will be a Call-Off from an existing framework.
Please note that the contract length has been included in the notice as 4 years plus a further 2 plus 2 years. Contract length has not yet been fully agreed and providers will be asked for their feedback on this.
The value in this notice is for the total 8 year contract length and does not include any uplifts set by the Council.
CPV: Social work and related services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Norfolk County Council buys Social work and related services (CPV 8530), and who usually turns up
Norfolk County Council’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: 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.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in East of England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 74 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 bid9% / 10%
2–329% / 41%
4–643% / 34%
7+19% / 14%
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 estimate36% / 30%
Within ±2%53% / 70%
Above estimate11% / 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 8530Published estimate£19m
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 29 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid10%
2–341%
4–634%
7+14%
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
- 29 Oct 2026, 09:10 GMT
- Last source update
- 29 Oct 2026, 09:10 GMT
- Authority reference
NCCT43175- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-102378- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0792ffFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
29 Oct 2026 → 1 Apr 2028 · 4 dates- Planning notice published12h ago29 Oct 2026, 09:10 GMT
- Today29 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 153 days1 Apr 2027, 00:59 BST
The Council will be holding a market engagement session on 26 November 2026 from 3pm to 4.30pm on Teams. Although the session is for a maximum of 1.5 hours, it may end earlier depending on the number of questions asked during the session,
The purpose of the session is for the Council to inform potential bidders about the intended new model for delivery, timelines and for providers to give feedback and ask questions.
This market engagement event will be managed electronically via the Councils e-procurement system. To participate in this market engagement, applicants must first be registered on the system at in-tendhost.co.uk/norfolkcc ↗. Full instructions for registration and use of the system can be found at in-tendhost.co.uk/norfolkcc/aspx/Buyer… ↗. Once registered you will be able to see the procurement project under the tenders section and express an interest. If you encounter any difficulties whilst using the system you can contact the In-tend support team by phoning +44 8442728810 or e-mailing [email protected].
Once registered and having expressed an interest, please confirm the email addresses and names of those attending and who need a link to the Teams meeting.
Any questions and answers raised at the market engagement session will be published on in-tend.
No market engagement has been carried out prior to this notice. Meetings have been held with the encumbent provider around how the system is working and what could be improved.
- Tender notice expectedin 154 days2 Apr 2027, 00:59 BST
- Contract starts1 Apr 2028
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published29 Oct 2026, 09:10 GMTUK2
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
3 public bodies on the noticeOther public bodies
- NHS NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK INTEGRATED CARE BOARDProcuring entityOrganisation maybe invoved in the evaluation of this tender
- NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK NHS FOUNDATION TRUSTProcuring entityOrganisation maybe involved in the evaluation for this procurement
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