Official UK procurement notice
Tuition Flexible Contracting Agreement
Authority: Birmingham City Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionBirmingham City Council (BCC) is inviting expressions of interest to support commissioners in developing a clearer understanding of the provider landscape.
We are undertaking a soft market testing exercise to explore options for the potential procurement, redesign, and expansion of a Flexible Contracting Agreement (FCA) to deliver tuition services for children and young people. This exercise is purely exploratory and is intended to support Birmingham City Council in assessing the feasibility, scope, and approach for any future procurement. Participation is voluntary and will not influence your eligibility to participate in any subsequent procurement process.
Tuition services are needed for children and young people who are in care, known to social workers, medically unfit to attend school, children without alternative provision and children with an Education Health Care Plan supported by the Home Bridging Team without a formal education placement.
The cohort of children and young people are:
- Children in care temporarily between a school/college place
- Children in care who need to re-sit GCSE exams in November of Year 12 to secure their course entry at KS5
- Children in care newly arrived in the country and Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers while seeking a school or college place
- Children and young people who are too unwell to attend school due to medical needs
In addition to the cohorts outlined above, a new Birmingham Tuition FCA will also seek to include the following groups
- Children unable to access suitable alternative provision or 6th day provision
- Children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) supported by the Home Bridging Team without a formal education placement
Closing date for completion of the MS Form Questionnaire is 5pm, 28 June 2026
CPV: Education and training services · Special education services · Tutorial services · Welfare services for children and young people
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Birmingham City Council buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up
Birmingham City 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 work services (CPV 8531) →
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. The market figure counts awards delivered in West Midlands.
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 120 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?
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 bid28% / 22%
2–328% / 25%
4–617% / 18%
7+28% / 35%
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 estimate31% / 33%
Within ±2%63% / 67%
Above estimate6% / 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.
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 8531Published estimate£48m
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 65 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid22%
2–325%
4–618%
7+35%
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- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 8 Jun 2026, 14:45 BST
- Last source update
- 8 Jun 2026, 15:25 BST
- Authority reference
P3490- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-053894- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06afeeFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
8 Jun 2026 → 2 Jan 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published139 days ago8 Jun 2026, 14:45 BST
- Market engagement119 days ago28 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
The Soft Market Test (SMT) exercise is being issued via the Council’s e-tendering system, In-tend, with a link to an MS Forms questionnaire. Interested organisations are requested to complete and submit the questionnaire using the link:
Soft Market Testing - Birmingham Tuition Framework
forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx ↗
Closing date for completion of questionnaire is 5pm, 28 June 2026.
Responses from the questionnaire will only be made available to the Strategic Commissioning Team for Children and Families. All information shared during this SMT will be treated confidentially and used solely to inform future commissioning decisions.
The ‘In-tend’ system is secure and free to use for organisations. If you have any questions on how to use this website, please contact [email protected]
- Tender notice expected69 days ago17 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 69 days2 Jan 2027
Notice history
3 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 8 Jun 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published8 Jun 2026, 14:45 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published8 Jun 2026, 15:25 BSTUK2
- Published value updated to £48,000,0008 Jun 2026, 15:25 BSTwas £0
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 (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender