Official UK procurement notice
SEND Mediation and Disagreement Resolution Service (MDRS)
Authority: Cheshire East Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe MDRS contract is specifically linked to decisions about education, health, and care needs assessments and education, health, and care plans (EHCP), while disagreement resolution services can be used to try to resolve other issues in relation to your child's special educational needs (SEN). The Children and Families Act 2014 and the related Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0-25 years (SEND code of practice) (DfE, 2015) place an emphasis on the avoidance of disagreements through a person-centred approach to decision-making and open communication between professionals and parents and young people. It is an alternative to a Tribunal hearing and is much quicker and less formal. Mediation enables people to communicate better with each other, and it can help re-build relationships that have broken down. Parents and young people need to consider mediation before they can register an appeal with the first-tier tribunal (special educational needs and disability). Parents and young people will also be able to go to mediation about the health and social care elements of an education, health, and care (EHC) plan.
CPV: Special education services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1RenewalPublished value£440,000
What 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).
Lot awarding rule: The evaluation will be based upon two stages within a single RFQ Response Document and will have two key areas consisting of: • A Mandatory 'Procurement Specific Questionnaire' (PSQ); and • An RFQ 'Award' section, made up of: o Financial Evaluation o Qualitative Evaluation Questions Only those Quotes that meet the qualifying criteria (as set out in the 'PSQ') will then progress to the RFQ 'Award' criteria assessment stage. The Council does not undertake to accept the lowest priced or any quotation and reserves the right to accept the whole or any part of any quotation submitted.
No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.
- Turnover usually expected at this size: about £293,066 (twice the annual value).
Turnover is an indicative market norm (≈2× annual value), not a published condition.
Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid
How Cheshire East Council buys Special education services (CPV 8034), and who usually turns up
Cheshire East 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: Special education services (CPV 8034) →
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.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
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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 37 days of the bid deadline.
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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.
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?
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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 bid20% / 14%
2–329% / 29%
4–614% / 57%
7+37% / 0%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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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 estimate43% / 8%
Within ±2%52% / 69%
Above estimate5% / 23%
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 8034Published estimate£440k
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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 101 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid15%
2–327%
4–636%
7+23%
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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.
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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- Procedure method
- Below threshold - open competition
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Open for tender
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- 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
- 26 Oct 2026, 09:33 GMT
- Last source update
- 26 Oct 2026, 09:33 GMT
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-100831- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078fc8Find a Tender
How to participate & submission route
Official notice Submit via ProContract (Due North)- Requests to participate (first stage)
- —
- Tender submission deadline
- 20 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- —
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
Tenders must be submitted at www.the-chest.org.uk ↗ Project ID DN830939. Unrestricted access to this opportunity is available via the Chest North West Portal, register for free at www.the-chest.org.uk ↗ and express an interest in project ID DN830939
Timeline
26 Oct 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates- Tender notice publishedearlier today26 Oct 2026, 09:33 GMT
- Today26 Oct 2026
- Submission deadlinein 25 days20 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
- Contract startsin 156 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Tender notice published26 Oct 2026, 09:33 GMTUK4
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Nothing awarded yet- 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 (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Bidding documents and specifications
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender