Official UK procurement notice
SEND Home to School/College Transport.
Authority: London Borough of Croydon (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionSEND Home to School/College Transport.
The procurement covers the provision of SEN home-to-school/college and adult passenger transport services, including:
Taxi, MPV and wheelchair-accessible vehicles
Minibus and coach services
Passenger Assistants
Ad hoc and contingency provision
Pre Engagement Marketing Questionnaire for SEND Home to School/College Transport.
The Council is currently exploring options for the procurement of a new Open Framework for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) transport services, with a planned commencement date of September 2027.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to understand the capacity, capability, innovation, and views of the market to help shape the future procurement approach. We are keen to engage with a broad range of providers, including taxi operators, minibus providers, community transport organisations, and specialist transport suppliers, to ensure the framework supports the delivery of safe, reliable, high-quality, and value-for-money transport services for children and young people with SEND.
Your feedback will help the Council assess market readiness, identify opportunities to improve outcomes for service users, understand potential barriers to participation, and inform the design of the framework and future contract arrangements. Participation in this exercise is voluntary and does not commit either the Council or any provider to a future procurement process. Any information provided will be used solely to inform our planning and procurement strategy.
We welcome open and constructive feedback and appreciate your contribution in helping us develop a sustainable and effective SEND transport model that meets the needs of children, young people, families, schools, and providers.
This pre-market engagement is being carried out in accordance with the Procurement Act rules on Pre-Market Engagement (including Regulation 16).
Disclaimer
The information in this document is solely for the purposes of a soft market testing exercise, and no representation, warranty, or undertaking is given by the Council as to its accuracy or completeness, and the Council accepts no liability in relation to it.
The Council reserves the right to, at its discretion:
(a) to change this document and/or the process for the soft market testing exercise,
(b) to proceed or not with a subsequent procurement.
Any subsequent procurement will be separate. Neither participation (or otherwise) in this exercise nor any information supplied will advantage or disadvantage any person in such procurement.
No expense in responding to soft market testing will be reimbursed by the Council.
The Council will not treat as confidential any information submitted in response to the Exercise, and respondents should note that the Council is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and may be obliged to disclose responses under that Act.
Please submit your completed questionnaire by 05th November at 5pm via the Council’s procurement portal -
The Council is using the Croydon e-Procurement Portal (in-tendhost.co.uk/croydontenders/ ↗) Providers should express an interest in this opportunity – and will then be able to upload their soft market testing response on the Croydon e-Procurement Portal
CPV: Public road transport services · Road transport services
How this framework works
From the published notice- Framework period
- 8 yrs from 1 Sept 2027
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedWhat it takes to wini
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 morei
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).
- “SEND Home to School/College Transport.” 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 London Borough of Croydon buys Public road transport services (CPV 6011), and who usually turns up
London Borough of Croydon’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. Whole-market view: Public road transport services (CPV 6011) →
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.
No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.
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.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Greater London.
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 87 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.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
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.
1 bid10%
2–360%
4–620%
7+10%
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.
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.
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 6011Published estimate£213m
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 16 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid6%
2–30%
4–625%
7+69%
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
- 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
- 16 Oct 2026, 09:40 BST
- Last source update
- 16 Oct 2026, 09:40 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-097735- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078915Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Appointment period ends
- —
Timeline
16 Oct 2026 → 1 Sept 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published5 days ago16 Oct 2026, 09:40 BST
- Today21 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 16 days5 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
Please register on the Croydon Tenders Portal and submit the questionnaire
- Tender notice expectedin 104 days1 Feb 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 315 days1 Sept 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published16 Oct 2026, 09:40 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