Official UK procurement notice
St Helens Healthy Child Programme, 0 to 19 years - Soft Market Testing
Authority: St Helens Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionPlease note that this is not a call for competition. This is a soft market testing exercise undertaken on behalf of St Helen's Council under the provisions of the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 .
Purpose: The service delivers the Healthy Child Programme, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) national delivery model for public health nursing. It is led by specialist community public health nurses and structured around two age-based phases, health visiting for ages 0 to 5 and school nursing for ages 5 to 19.
The aims of the programme are to:
? ensure a healthy start to life.
? identify and address health needs early.
? prevent health problems.
? support school readiness and learning.
? protect children and families.
? promote health equity.
St Helens Council are undertaking a soft market testing exercise to fully understand what the market can offer and the challenges in procuring and setting up this service. It is hoped that this will be an opportunity for us to obtain an insight of how participants might approach delivery of the service, and how they might address circumstances that may impact on the service. It will also help us to further understand the market.
We anticipate that should a tender exercise be undertaken, the maximum annual value for the contract might be in the region of £4,192,701, and the duration to be 5 years, with the option to extend by up to a further 2 years.
We are therefore seeking expressions of interest from participants with the relevant expertise and experience to assist us in determining the feasibility of this project by answering the questions in the attached documentation.
Please refer to the attached documentation for full details.
Please also note that at this stage, the scope and the budget are indicative only and are subject to confirmation.
Note that any contract awarded following any future tender process will be subject solely to St Helen Council's Terms and Condition.
Deadline for submission: 12 noon on 1st Sept 2026.
CPV: Health and social work services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How St Helens Council buys Health and social work services (CPV 85), and who usually turns up
St Helens 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: Health and social work services (CPV 85) →
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 in the region where that award was delivered.
i
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.
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 bid0% / 24%
2–367% / 34%
4–633% / 24%
7+0% / 18%
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 estimate46% / 27%
Within ±2%21% / 63%
Above estimate33% / 10%
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 85Published estimate£29m
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 85. The comparison uses that group.
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 2,291 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid24%
2–334%
4–624%
7+18%
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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation TrustEarlier contract | St Helens Borough Council - Contract for an Integrated 0-19 Healthy Child Programme September 2021notice published Apr 2021 | — | £19m | 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.
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
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 24 Aug 2026, 13:09 BST
- Last source update
- 24 Aug 2026, 13:09 BST
- Authority reference
UID13613 for SMT- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-080337- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ea80Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
24 Aug 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published65 days ago24 Aug 2026, 13:09 BST
- Market engagement56 days ago1 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
Soft market testing documentation and information can be obtained from The Chest portal at www.the-chest.org.uk ↗
The Chest project reference is: DN827186
St Helens Healthy Child Programme, 0 to 19 years - Soft Market Testing
- Today28 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 154 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published24 Aug 2026, 13:09 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