Find a TenderPlanned procurementPipeline notice
Published 19 Nov 2025, 14:05 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Payments, Appointeeships and Disbursement Services (PADS)

Authority: The Association of North East Councils Limited (Local council)·Consortium: 3 public authorities

Framework agreementServices
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 24 Jan 2026from the planned procurement notice
Framework period 4 yrsends 20 Sept 2030 · up to 20 Sept 2032 with extensions · starts 21 Sept 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

NEPO in collaboration with ESPO and YPO are seeking to establish a new solution in relation to the supply of Prepaid, Corporate and Appointee payments.

It is envisaged that the solution will comprise four lots:

Lot 1 - Prepaid Payments, providing prepaid card accounts that operate like standard debit cards but without an overdraft facility, enabling secure, controlled fund disbursement;

Lot 2 - Corporate Payments, offering commercial procurement cards (P-Cards) to streamline purchasing, enhance spend visibility and deliver process efficiencies;

Lot 3 - Appointeeship & Deputyship Payments, designed to manage direct payments, appointee and deputyship programmes, with strong safeguarding, spend controls, and real-time monitoring;

Lot 4 - Digital Pay Out Services, enabling authorities to make high-volume, secure, and instant digital payments for purposes such as grants, payroll, hardship funds, and emergency support.

•NEPO is a Centralised Procurement Authority as defined in the Procurement Act 2023 (PA23), providing central purchasing activity on behalf of Contracting Authorities.

•The agreement will be available to NEPO Member Authorities and all current and future Associate Members. Current Associate Members are listed in the Associate Member section of the NEPO website at: www.nepo.org/associate-members ↗

•NEPO intends to make the agreement available for use by all Contracting Authorities throughout all administrative regions of the UK (as defined by the Procurement Act 2023).

•A list of permissible users available at: www.nepo.org/associate-membership… ↗

•Organisations wishing to access the NEPO agreement will be required to register as a NEPO Associate Member in the first instance. Further information can be found at: www.nepo.org ↗

CPV: Financial and insurance services · Financial information systems · Magnetic cards

How this framework works

From the published notice
Framework period
4 yrs · up to 6 yrs from 21 Sept 2026

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 4 yrs
Contract period: 21 Sept 2026 – 20 Sept 2030 (4 yrs) · up to 20 Sept 2032 with extensions
Delivery listed: Guernsey (GG), Isle of Man (IM), Jersey (JE), UK
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
What this means for your bid
  • “Payments, Appointeeships and Disbursement Services (PADS)” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.

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

How The Association of North East Councils Limited buys Information systems (CPV 4881), and who usually turns up

The Association of North East Councils Limited’s UK market comparison describes the UK delivery area in the notice. The notice also lists non-UK areas, so the comparison may not describe the whole procedure. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Information systems (CPV 4881) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bidWhat 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: 5 of 38 known-size awards · market: division 48 · North East England, n=10
13%80%

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.

Here, local means the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 41 known-location awards · market: CPV 4881 · UK-wide, n=6
2%17%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside North East England.

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: 9 decided notices · market: division 48 · UK-wide, n=20
118 days82 days

Half of these awards were announced within 118 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.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 2 of 9 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 48 · North East England, n=9
22%78%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer58 lots with bid counts · all categories
16% had one bid
The market8 lots with bid counts · division 48 · North East England
38% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid16% / 38%
Buyer: 9 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 8 lots with published bid counts.
2–343% / 63%
Buyer: 25 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 8 lots with published bid counts.
4–619% / 0%
Buyer: 11 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 8 lots with published bid counts.
7+22% / 0%
Buyer: 13 of 58 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 8 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.

On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

Not comparable on a framework or DPS. The notice sets up a supplier panel and a ceiling value; what the work actually costs is agreed later, on each call-off or mini-competition, and those publish as contract notices of their own. The award-vs-estimate record of this market therefore sits on the call-offs; this page shows it on the contracts, not on the panel that frames them.

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 488148 monthsEstimate not published

The notice lists UK and non-UK delivery areas for this lot. The figures below use UK market history and may not describe competition across every area.

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. Published delivery includes UK and non-UK areas, so the UK model may not describe every area. The bar shows 79 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet20% single-bid risk
Past bids on 79 similar lots
1 bid20%
16 of 79 similar past lots received 1 bid (20%).
2–341%
32 of 79 similar past lots received 2–3 (41%).
4–613%
10 of 79 similar past lots received 4–6 (13%).
7+27%
21 of 79 similar past lots received 7+ (27%).
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.

—Priced at call-off
On a framework or DPS the price is agreed on each call-off, so there is no award price to forecast here: the published figure is a ceiling.

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
Framework agreement
Who may use this agreement
Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
19 Nov 2025, 14:05 GMT
Last source update
19 Nov 2025, 14:05 GMT
Authority reference
NEPO537
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-075256
Latest notice
Pipeline notice (UK1)
Classification (CPV)
Financial and insurance servicesFinancial information systemsMagnetic cards
Delivery area in notice
Guernsey (GG)Isle of Man (IM)Jersey (JE)UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05e477 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Appointment period ends
—

Timeline

19 Nov 2025 → 21 Sept 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published336 days ago
    19 Nov 2025, 14:05 GMT
  2. Tender notice expected269 days ago
    24 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
  3. Contract starts30 days ago
    21 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Pipeline notice published
    19 Nov 2025, 14:05 GMT
    UK1

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 notice

The Association of North East Councils Limited

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-COH: 05014821 · GB-PPON: PYVX-2132-JNMM THE ASSOCIATION OF NORTH EAST COUNCILS LIMITE, Northern Design Centre, Abbots Hill, Baltic Business Quarter, Gateshead, North East, NE8 3DFContact name, email

Consortium members and other public bodies

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Pipeline notice planningPipeline noticeUK1Pipeline notice on Find a Tender