Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 25 Feb 2026, 16:09 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Suffolk Appropriate Adults Service

Authority: Suffolk County Council (Local council)

ServicesBelow thresholdLight touch regimeSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£480,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Jun 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 30 Sept 2028 · up to 30 Sept 2030 with extensions · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The Council seeks to retender its commissioned appropriate adults offer. The Council intends to commission a core service recruiting, co-ordinating, and training volunteers to provide Appropriate Adults as required for young people and vulnerable adults where entitled under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

CPV: Education and training services · Health and social work services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Oct 2026 – 30 Sept 2028 (2 yrs) · up to 30 Sept 2030 with extensions
Delivery: East of EnglandEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Suffolk County Council buys Health and social work services (CPV 85), and who usually turns up

Suffolk County Council’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: Health and social work services (CPV 85) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerSuffolk County Council · division 85
The marketHealth and social work services (CPV 85) · East of England
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 9 of 16 known-size awards · market: division 85 · East of England, n=890
56%48%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
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 East of England.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 18 of 29 known-location awards · market: division 85 · East of England, n=1,202
62%45%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in East of England.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 6 decided notices · market: division 85 · East of England, n=142
56 days49 days

Half of these awards were announced within 56 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 13 of 27 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 85 · East of England, n=1,071
48%69%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer16 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 85
6% had one bid
The market266 lots with bid counts · division 85 · East of England
19% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid6% / 19%
Buyer: 1 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 51 of 266 lots with published bid counts.
2–331% / 29%
Buyer: 5 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 78 of 266 lots with published bid counts.
4–638% / 30%
Buyer: 6 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 79 of 266 lots with published bid counts.
7+25% / 22%
Buyer: 4 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 58 of 266 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer12 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 85
0% below estimate
The market172 lots with estimate and award · division 85 · East of England
38% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate0% / 38%
Buyer: 0 of 12 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 65 of 172 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%92% / 56%
Buyer: 11 of 12 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 97 of 172 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate8% / 6%
Buyer: 1 of 12 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 10 of 172 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #124 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£480k
Expected competition
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 266 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet19% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 266 similar lots
1 bid19%
51 of 266 similar past lots received 1 bid (19%).
2–329%
78 of 266 similar past lots received 2–3 (29%).
4–630%
79 of 266 similar past lots received 4–6 (30%).
7+22%
58 of 266 similar past lots received 7+ (22%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £480k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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.

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.

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
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
25 Feb 2026, 16:09 GMT
Last source update
25 Feb 2026, 16:09 GMT
Authority reference
PA0037
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-017061
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Education and training servicesHealth and social work services
Delivery area
East of England (UKH14)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-065c7c Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

25 Feb 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published239 days ago
    25 Feb 2026, 16:09 GMT
  2. Market engagement203 days ago
    2 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST

    Suffolk County Council is exploring provider capabilities in relation to delivering an Appropriate Adults service young people and adults as specified in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. The Council intends for this service to be a primarily volunteer delivered offer where the provider delivers a core co-ordination, training, and recruitment offer. The Council expects to contract with such a provider who can demonstrate close partnership working, control of costs, and adaptable in relation to emerging lived-experience accounts and best practice.

    A questionnaire is provided for prospective providers to provide feedback on the commissioning priorities identified by the Council and identify the volume of interest in bidders for this contract.

    The Council may need to discuss responses in more detail with interested providers and therefore contract details are requested. It is expected any follow-up discussions will take place no later than Thursday 2nd April.

    Questionnaire link: forms.office.com/e/LDQSUVtXhZ ↗

    -Questionnaire closes 5pm Monday 16th March 2026-

  3. Tender notice expected143 days ago
    1 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts22 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    25 Feb 2026, 16:09 GMT
    UK2

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

Suffolk County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PHVH-1657-HHMV Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich, East of England, IP1 2BXContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure