Official UK procurement notice
Special Allocations Service in Buckinghamshire
Authority: NHS Thames Valley ICB (NHS & healthcare)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThames Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB) is planning to recommission the following service, with a proposed contract commencement date of 1 April 2027:
- Special Allocations Service (SAS) provision for Buckinghamshire (sub-ICB area) - currently supporting approximately 30-35 patients.
The proposed contract term is 3 years, with the option to extend for up to two additional periods of 12 months.
The ICB is seeking market feedback to help inform future commissioning decisions relating to this service. Interested providers are invited to complete the market engagement questionnaire by 5:00pm on 17 July 2026.
The anticipated service commencement date is 1 April 2027, with an indicative mobilisation period from 1 March 2027 to 31 March 2027.
Previous market engagement activity was undertaken when the ICB was considering commissioning APMS and SAS services within High Wycombe as a single procurement exercise. However, due to ongoing work relating to the APMS service requirements, the ICB has decided to focus solely on procurement options for the SAS service at this stage.
This procurement is being managed by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner. SCW is currently undergoing organisational restructuring and, as a result, responsibility for managing this procurement may transfer to a successor organisation during the procurement process. Bidders will be notified of any such change and of any associated administrative updates.
CPV: General-practitioner services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Thames Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB) intends to recommission a Special…Planned
Thames Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB) intends to recommission a Special Allocations Service (SAS) for the Buckinghamshire sub-ICB area, with a proposed contract commencement date of 1 April 2027.
The Special Allocations Service supports patients who meet the nationally defined criteria for inclusion within SAS arrangements and require primary medical services to be delivered. The current service supports approximately 30-35 patients across Buckinghamshire.
The proposed contract term will be 3 years, with the option to extend for up to two further periods of 12 months.
The ICB is undertaking this market engagement exercise to inform future commissioning intentions and to better understand provider interest, capacity, capability, and potential delivery models for the service. Interested providers are invited to complete the market engagement questionnaire by 5:00pm on 17 July 2026.
The anticipated mobilisation period is expected to run from 1 March 2027 to 31 March 2027, ahead of the proposed service commencement date of 1 April 2027.
Previous market engagement activity was undertaken when the ICB was considering commissioning APMS and SAS services within High Wycombe as a single procurement exercise. However, due to ongoing work relating to the APMS service requirements, the ICB has decided to focus solely on procurement options for the SAS service at this stage.
Interested providers will be able to view this opportunity via the live opportunities list on the 'Health Family' e-procurement system, Atamis. Click on 'View our Live Opportunities' from the home page, available on the following link: health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗.
This procurement is being managed by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner. SCW is currently undergoing organisational restructuring and, as a result, responsibility for managing this procurement may transfer to a successor organisation during the procurement process. Bidders will be notified of any such change and of any associated administrative updates.
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How NHS Thames Valley ICB buys Medical practice and related services (CPV 8512), and who usually turns up
NHS Thames Valley ICB’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: Medical practice and related services (CPV 8512) →
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 registered in South East England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in South East England.
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 51 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.
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 bid24%
2–322%
4–631%
7+23%
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 estimate25%
Within ±2%68%
Above estimate7%
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 #1Thames Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB) intends to recommission a Special…CPV 8512Published estimate£186k
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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 303 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid20%
2–334%
4–629%
7+17%
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 · publisher note attached- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 2 Jul 2026, 08:10 BST
- Last source update
- 2 Jul 2026, 08:10 BST
- Authority reference
C455944- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-062005- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06c1dfFind a Tender
Publisher note: This notice is an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right, and therefore publication or response does not commit the Authority or respondents to a future procurement, nor provide any process exemptions or preferential treatment to any parties expressing an interest. The Authority will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this exercise. Interested providers will be able to view this opportunity via the live opportunities list on the 'Health Family' e-procurement system, Atamis. Click on 'View our Live Opportunities' from the home page, available on the following link: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome. Once you have found the opportunity (via the search function, using the title or reference number), to gain full access to the relevant information and market engagement questionnaire, you will need to click on 'Register interest' - this will take you to the log-in page. If you are not already registered on the system, you will need to do so before gaining full access to the documentation and to be able to submit your expression of interest / market engagement questionnaire using the correspondence function within Atamis. You are advised to include details of the award decision-makers. The intention is to award a contract using the competitive process. This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) prior information notice. The contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and The Procurement Act 2023 do not apply.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
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Timeline
2 Jul 2026 → 25 Aug 2026 · 2 dates- Notice published112 days ago2 Jul 2026, 08:10 BST
- Tender notice expected59 days ago25 Aug 2026, 00:00 BST
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
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.