Official UK procurement notice
Suffolk Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service
Authority: Suffolk County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionSuffolk County Council (SCC) have awarded a contract for an Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service for an initial two-year period.
Whilst the contract was signed on 29 September 2026, the contract commenced on 01 September 2026.
The service involves delivering targeted early support within mainstream schools, supporting children across all Key Stages 1 - 4, to address emerging needs promptly. The goal is to provide assistance before challenges escalate for children, reducing the likelihood of exclusion, maximising engagement and participation in learning and promoting inclusion with the mainstream educational environment.
Timely outreach support and robust intervention with Children and Young People (CYP) to ensure they can succeed and remain in mainstream education will raise education attainment and skill levels.
This is important as these CYP are often our most vulnerable in our communities and failure to secure a good quality educational offer can often lead to a reliance upon other services such as social care or mental health providers.
The CYP who will be referred, and who will access the Tier 1 Outreach support, will have complex needs that will require the provider to tailor their approach to the individual needs of the young person. This will involve working in partnership with other agencies, schools and stakeholders as well as parents/carers and the young people themselves to ensure best outcomes.
The primary objective of Tier 1 AP is to provide specific support around barriers to learning and enable pupils to remain in their referring school.
The Special Educational Needs/Alternative Provision Service Development Team has a core focus on commissioning high quality educational provision for vulnerable and disadvantaged learners as well as ensuring that this cohort of pupils can make progress based on age, ability and prior achievement through easy access to a robust 'Local Offer' as set out in the SEND reforms (Special Education Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years).
Historically there has been a significant increase in the number of young people permanently excluded across all Key Stages. Suffolk County Council has a continued commitment to provide the right intervention at the right time. As such, this Tier 1 AP Outreach programme can have a key impact to avoid exclusion.
The contract value in this notice includes the optional 24-month extension period.
- The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 1 Apr 2028, 23:59 BST.
- No preliminary market engagement: Preliminary market engagement was carried out prior to the previous iteration of this tender (ocds-h6vhtk-05e9aa). The previous tender was cancelled which means we are unable to link this notice to the original OCID. The overall nature of the service is the same but with updated tender documentation.
CPV: Education and training services · Health and social work services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1AwardedRenewalPublished value£1,600,000
- Economic & financial standing
Financial capacity
- Confirmation that the Tenderer has, or can commit to obtain, prior to the award of the contract, the levels of insurance cover indicated in the Procurement Specific Questionnaire, and that the cost of insurances has been included in the costs/prices submitted within the Tender submission.
- Technical & professional ability
UK General Data Protection Regulations
- Tenderer does not pose a Data Protection risk to the Council (that cannot be mitigated).
Experience of sub-contractor management
- Tenderer provides evidence demonstrating how they have previously maintained healthy supply chains with their sub-contractor(s) (if applicable).
Health and safety
- Tenderer provides their H&S Policy Statement together with an explanation of their H&S arrangements (which should follow a recognised H&S Management system).
Ofsted Registration and Rating
- Tenderer confirms they are registered with Ofsted for education provision and are currently graded at least 'Good', or under the new Ofsted framework (November 2025) be meeting at least 'Expected' standard across all areas.
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).
Published sub-criteria (6)
- Safeguarding: 15%
- Delivery and Methodology: 15%
- Approach, Strategic Oversight and Outcomes: 15%
- Staffing: 15%
- Price: 30%
- Social Value: 10%
Published award criteria (6)
- Price: As described in the tender documentation.
- Safeguarding: As described in the tender documentation.
- Delivery and Methodology: As described in the tender documentation.
- Approach, Strategic Oversight and Outcomes: As described in the tender documentation.
- Staffing: As described in the tender documentation.
- Social Value: As described in the tender documentation.
- Economic & financial standing
Financial capacity
- Confirmation that the Tenderer has, or can commit to obtain, prior to the award of the contract, the levels of insurance cover indicated in the Procurement Specific Questionnaire, and that the cost of insurances has been included in the costs/prices submitted within the Tender submission.
- Technical & professional ability
UK General Data Protection Regulations
- Tenderer does not pose a Data Protection risk to the Council (that cannot be mitigated).
Experience of sub-contractor management
- Tenderer provides evidence demonstrating how they have previously maintained healthy supply chains with their sub-contractor(s) (if applicable).
Health and safety
- Tenderer provides their H&S Policy Statement together with an explanation of their H&S arrangements (which should follow a recognised H&S Management system).
Ofsted Registration and Rating
- Tenderer confirms they are registered with Ofsted for education provision and are currently graded at least 'Good', or under the new Ofsted framework (November 2025) be meeting at least 'Expected' standard across all areas.
- Price carries 30 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 3 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded
- 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
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Yes · next expected 1 Apr 2028
- First published
- 1 May 2026, 14:39 BST
- Last source update
- 7 Oct 2026, 10:26 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 31 Jul 2026
- Authority reference
PA0035-1 / ITS097- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-040596- Latest notice
- Contract details notice (UK7)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069079Find a Tender
- Risks
Suffolk County Council has joined the government's Devolution Priority Programme (DPP), a fast-track programme towards devolution and local government reorganisation.
Under the DPP it is proposed that:
a) a Mayoral Combined County Authority (MCCA) for Norfolk and Suffolk is established, with strategic powers and headed by an elected mayor ("Devolution").
b) the existing two-tier council structure in Suffolk is abolished and replaced with three unitary councils covering the current geographical boundary of Suffolk ("LGR").
These changes are declared as known risks as we do not yet know the implications of Devolution and/or LGR.
As a result of LGR and Devolution, contract modifications may be necessary to novate, transfer or disaggregate the contract from the one you entered into to one or more successor authorities or the MCAA. Impacts could include changes to geographical boundaries, significant increases and/or decreases in the goods and/or services required due to the change in size/scope of any successor authority or the MCAA. This may also change the scope of the contract.
Interested Parties should refer to the Invitation to Tender and Contract Terms for the Known Risks:
Contract novation, transfer or disaggregation to one or more Successor Authorities or the MCAA within the current geographical boundary of Suffolk.
Contract novation, transfer or disaggregation to one or more Successor Authorities or the MCAA outside the current geographical boundary of Suffolk.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 27 May 2026, 11:00 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 15 May 2026, 23:59 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
1 May 2026 → 7 Oct 2026 · 8 dates- Tender notice published174 days ago1 May 2026, 14:39 BST
- Clarification questions by159 days ago15 May 2026, 23:59 BST
- Submission deadline148 days ago27 May 2026, 11:00 BST
- Assessment summaries sent94 days ago20 Jul 2026, 00:00 BST
- Standstill ends83 days ago30 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
- Award decision expected by82 days ago31 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts51 days ago1 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST
- Latest notice published15 days ago7 Oct 2026, 10:26 BST
Notice history
5 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 1 May 2026- Tender notice published1 May 2026, 14:39 BSTUK4
- Contract award notice published20 Jul 2026, 15:00 BSTUK6
- Status changed to complete20 Jul 2026, 15:00 BST
- Contract signature expected14 Aug 2026, 23:59 BSTscheduled
- Contract details notice published7 Oct 2026, 10:26 BSTUK7
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| RAEDWALD TRUST1 Sept 2026 – 31 Aug 2028 · up to 31 Aug 2030Extensions: Contract can be extended by up to 24 months. | £1,600,000 | 20 Jul 2026 | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 1 · RAEDWALD TRUST
- Signed
- 29 Sept 2026
- Value
- £1,600,000
- Period
- 29 Sept 2026 – 31 Aug 2028 · up to 31 Aug 2030 with extensions
- Status
- active
- Extensions
- Contract can be extended by up to 24 months.
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5final-stage tenders | 4 | 0 | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- RAEDWALD TRUSTAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender