Official UK procurement notice
Specialist Support Service for People Bereaved by Suicide
Authority: Kent County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionKent County Council, on behalf of the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme and in partnership with the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, is seeking market engagement to inform the future procurement of a Specialist Bereavement Support Service for people affected by suicide across Kent and Medway. The service will provide timely, accessible and trauma-informed emotional and practical support to individuals impacted by suicide, including family members, friends, colleagues, witnesses and professionals. The future provider will be expected to deliver a flexible countywide service through a combination of face-to-face, telephone and virtual support, working closely with health, community and voluntary sector partners. The contract is anticipated to commence on 1 April 2027 for an initial period of three years, with the option to extend for up to two further years. Kent County Council welcomes engagement from organisations interested in helping to shape the future service and deliver innovative, high-quality support for residents affected by suicide bereavement.
CPV: Community health services · Health services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Kent County Council, on behalf of the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme and…Planned
Kent County Council, on behalf of the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme and in partnership with the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, intends to procure a single provider to deliver a countywide Specialist Bereavement Support Service for people affected by suicide. The service will provide timely, trauma-informed emotional and practical support to individuals bereaved or impacted by suicide, including family members, friends, colleagues, witnesses and professionals. The provider will be required to deliver a flexible and accessible service through a combination of face-to-face, telephone and virtual support, maintain effective referral pathways with key partners across health, education, policing, coronial services and the voluntary sector, and support a minimum of 250 individuals per year. The new service will build on the strengths of the current model while strengthening accessibility, partnership working, outcomes measurement and performance reporting to ensure high-quality support is available across Kent and Medway from 1st April 2027.
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Kent County Council buys Social services (CPV 8532), and who usually turns up
Kent County 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: Social services (CPV 8532) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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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.
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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. The market figure counts awards delivered in South East England.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in 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 bid21% / 19%
2–357% / 33%
4–67% / 33%
7+14% / 15%
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 estimate57% / 39%
Within ±2%43% / 61%
Above estimate0% / 0%
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.
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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 #1Kent County Council, on behalf of the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme and…CPV 8532Published estimate£650k
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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 27 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid19%
2–333%
4–633%
7+15%
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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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MI Optics LtdLive contract | Specialist Support Service For People Bereaved By Suicideruns to Mar 2032 | — | £1 | Matched as the earlier contract |
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.
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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.
What this replaces i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
100% title match.
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.
100% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (100% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid
Specialist Support Service For People Bereaved By Suicide — held by MI Optics Ltd; the published contract ends 31 Mar 2032.
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
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 4 Aug 2026, 12:18 BST
- Last source update
- 4 Aug 2026, 12:18 BST
- Authority reference
CN260672- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-073653- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06db1cFind a Tender
Publisher note: This is a 3 year contract with an optional extension of 2 years. GO Reference: GO-202684-PRO-37781920
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
4 Aug 2026 → 31 Aug 2026 · 2 dates- Notice published82 days ago4 Aug 2026, 12:18 BST
- Tender notice expected55 days ago31 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.