Official UK procurement notice
UK2 Market Engagement Notice - Best Start Digital Parenting Offer
Authority: Department for Education (Central government)
The Department for Education (DfE) is seeking to procure a structured, evidence-based digital parenting programme to support parents and carers of children aged 0-5 through the Best Start Digital Parenting Offer pilot. This forms part of the Government's commitment in Giving every child the best start in life to introduce digital parenting support. The programme must focus on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and/or speech, language and communication.
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Department for Education (DfE) is seeking to procure a structured, evidence-based digital parenting programme to support parents and carers of children aged 0-5 through the Best Start Digital Parenting Offer pilot.
This forms part of the Government's commitment in Giving every child the best start in life to introduce digital parenting support.
DfE intends to pilot and evaluate a digital programme supporting parents at scale through regional partnerships before deciding on any future wider rollout. It will complement, not replace, existing local parenting provision, including face-to-face support through Best Start Family Hubs.
The pilot aims to widen access to high-quality parenting support, strengthening parenting skills and confidence, and achieve measurable improvements in outcomes for parents and children. The programme must focus on supporting children's personal, social and emotional development (PSED) and/or speech, language and communication.
Health-focused programmes are outside the scope of this proposed procurement.
The provision should be entirely online. It should be accessible and inclusive, including for disadvantaged families and those facing barriers to accessing support.
This pilot will help DfE understand:
- Whether parents take up, use, value and benefit from digital parenting programmes
- What is required to reach families, sustain participation and implement digital support for parenting successfully at regional scale.
- How this digital programme complements existing family and parenting services.
- Whether digital programmes designed to support parenting can be delivered equitably and at scale in England.
- Whether digital support for parenting represents good value for public money and provide a case for future investment.
Through the Best Start Family Hubs programme, the Department already funds local authorities to procure evidence-based parenting interventions delivered in person and digitally.
The pilot will build an understanding of how a centrally procured digital programme can complement this local offer.
CPV: E-learning 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 Department for Education buys E-learning services (CPV 8042), and who usually turns up
Department for Education’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: E-learning services (CPV 8042) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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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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Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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Half of these awards have an award date within 50 days of the bid deadline.
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Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
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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1 bid10% / 8%
2–341% / 29%
4–628% / 25%
7+21% / 38%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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Below estimate44% / 60%
Within ±2%28% / 20%
Above estimate28% / 20%
Assess each lot i
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Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 8042Published estimate£8.3m
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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 24 past lots.
1 bid8%
2–329%
4–625%
7+38%
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No comparable awards for this lot yet.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
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No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
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Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Estimates, labelled. The price range, possible competitors and earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards, not published facts, win chances or price advice. The buyer’s own record and the wider market are shown apart, never mixed.
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender and Contracts Finder), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0, updated through the day and rebuilt nightly. Not every figure uses both feeds, and each one shows how many records it rests on: see the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Coming up in this sector
Contracts ending within 12 months · Retender Radar, sector filter set
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
- 6 Nov 2026, 16:27 GMT
- Last source update
- 6 Nov 2026, 16:27 GMT
- Authority reference
project_10706- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-105902- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07b6efFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
6 Nov 2026 → 26 Jul 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published8 days ago6 Nov 2026, 16:27 GMT
- Today15 Nov 2026
- Market engagementin 61 days15 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
DfE is undertaking preliminary market engagement to inform the development of the requirement and future procurement approach.
Through this engagement, DfE wants to understand how existing programmes could meet the pilot's aims, drawing on evidence of their effectiveness and experience of delivery.
The engagement will also explore what would be needed to reach more families and deliver at scale, including the costs and practical challenges involved, and how a nationally procured programme could integrate with or maintain links to existing government and local advice, guidance and services for families.
This engagement will help DfE refine the specification and shape how the pilot is procured and delivered. Participation in market engagement will not form part of any subsequent evaluation of tenders and does not represent a commitment by DfE to proceed with a procurement.
A market engagement event will be held over MS Teams and is scheduled to take place on 25th November 2026 at 10am.
If you would like to attend the event, please register your interest on Jaggaer
education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html ↗ - see 'view opportunities' and look for ssq_854 or Best Start Digital Parenting Offer
When signing up to attend the event, please confirm the name of your organisation, the names of individuals who will be attending and their job roles on the Jaggaer messaging system.
Joining instructions will then provided upon registration.
Nothing in this document, subsequent material or in any verbal communication by the DfE shall commit either to a procurement or award of a contract.
To ensure a fair and transparent market engagement process, unless deemed commercially sensitive, clarifications raised during engagement will be published for all registered parties to view.
Potential suppliers should therefore flag to us where they feel a commercially sensitive question is being asked.
- Tender notice expectedin 68 days22 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 252 days26 Jul 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published6 Nov 2026, 16:27 GMTUK2
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