Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 16 Jun 2026, 10:55 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Pre Employability Projects · UK public procurement notice

Authority: Carmarthenshire County Council (Local council)

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£170,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 22 Jul 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 7 moends 31 Mar 2027 · starts 1 Sept 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Council is considering the procurement of services to support delivery of the Economic Inactivity Trailblazer through targeted, community-based interventions designed to help individuals address the underlying barriers preventing them from entering or returning to employment. The requirement is expected to complement existing employability provision, including Communities for Work Plus, by focusing on people who are economically inactive and furthest from the labour market, particularly those affected by disability, long-term health conditions, caring responsibilities, low confidence, poor wellbeing or other complex and interrelated barriers. Potential provision may include tailored one-to-one and group-based support, mentoring, confidence building, wellbeing-related interventions, skills development, and other locally responsive activities that help individuals move closer to work. The Council is particularly interested in innovative and flexible delivery models that can respond to local need, work collaboratively with existing services and community partners, and demonstrate how support can be designed around the needs of participants rather than a standardised approach. Through this preliminary market engagement, the Council wishes to better understand the range of services available in the market, delivery capacity, potential models for partnership working, and approaches to achieving positive employability and wellbeing outcomes for this client group.

CPV: Career guidance services · Guidance and counselling services · Training services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 7 moSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Sept 2026 – 31 Mar 2027 (7 mo)
Delivery: WalesEligibility: 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 Carmarthenshire County Council buys Personnel services except placement and supply services (CPV 7963), and who usually turns up

Carmarthenshire 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: Personnel services except placement and supply services (CPV 7963) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCarmarthenshire County Council · all categories
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: 21 of 35 known-size awards · market: CPV 7963 · Wales (Cymru), n=9
60%22%

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 registered in Wales (Cymru).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 37 of 70 known-location awards · market: CPV 7963 · Wales (Cymru), n=8
53%50%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Wales (Cymru).

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: CPV 7963 · UK-wide, n=19
38 days42 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 32 of 66 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7963 · Wales (Cymru), n=10
48%50%

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 buyer19 lots with bid counts · all categories
11% had one bid
The market35 lots with bid counts · CPV 7963 · UK-wide
14% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid11% / 14%
Buyer: 2 of 19 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 35 lots with published bid counts.
2–347% / 23%
Buyer: 9 of 19 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 35 lots with published bid counts.
4–65% / 51%
Buyer: 1 of 19 lots with published bid counts. Market: 18 of 35 lots with published bid counts.
7+37% / 11%
Buyer: 7 of 19 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 35 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 buyer20 lots with estimate and award · all categories
30% below estimate
The market23 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7963 · UK-wide
48% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate30% / 48%
Buyer: 6 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 11 of 23 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%50% / 30%
Buyer: 10 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 7 of 23 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate20% / 22%
Buyer: 4 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 23 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 79637 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£170k
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 142 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet11% single-bid risk
Past bids on 142 similar lots
1 bid11%
16 of 142 similar past lots received 1 bid (11%).
2–332%
45 of 142 similar past lots received 2–3 (32%).
4–625%
35 of 142 similar past lots received 4–6 (25%).
7+32%
46 of 142 similar past lots received 7+ (32%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 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 £170k, 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
Below threshold
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
16 Jun 2026, 10:55 BST
Last source update
16 Jun 2026, 10:55 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-056506
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Career guidance servicesGuidance and counselling servicesTraining services
Delivery area
Wales (UKL14)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06b5a6 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

16 Jun 2026 → 1 Sept 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published127 days ago
    16 Jun 2026, 10:55 BST
  2. Market engagement96 days ago
    16 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST

    The Council seeks market feedback on:

    • The availability of providers with relevant experience in delivering community-based employability, wellbeing, mentoring, or early intervention support for individuals facing complex barriers to employment.
    • Views on the most effective delivery models, including one-to-one, group-based, outreach, and partnership approaches, and how these could be tailored to meet local need.
    • Feedback on the scope of services that the market could offer to address the root causes of economic inactivity and support individuals to move closer to the labour market.
    • Information on market capacity, geographic coverage, and any factors that may affect the ability of organisations to deliver services within Carmarthenshire.
    • Feedback on opportunities for innovation, partnership working, and social value that could strengthen delivery and improve outcomes for participants.

    Interested parties to contact Gaynor Price via email [email protected].

    Responses will be treated as commercially confidential. Aggregated feedback may inform procurement strategy.

    This notice does not constitute an invitation to tender. The Council is not obliged to proceed with procurement or award a contract.

  3. Tender notice expected90 days ago
    22 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts50 days ago
    1 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    16 Jun 2026, 10:55 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

Carmarthenshire County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central governmentWelsh devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PTVL-7854-TMRZ Llanelli Town Hall, Llanelli , Wales, SA15 3AH Contact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure