Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 17 Jul 2026, 16:58 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Veterans service Helpline · UK public procurement notice

Authority: Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (Central government)·On behalf of: United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£192,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Oct 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 31 Mar 2029 · starts 1 Apr 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Delivery of a listening ear telephone service specific to veterans across the Midlands region. Via Atamis e-procurement Portal - atamis-1928.lightning.force.com ↗

CPV: Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 2 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Apr 2027 – 31 Mar 2029 (2 yrs)
Delivery: East MidlandsEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust buys Business services: law, marketing, consulting (CPV 79), and who usually turns up

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’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: Business services: law, marketing, consulting (CPV 79) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bidWhat 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: 5 of 9 known-size awards · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=667
56%50%

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 Midlands.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 4 known-location awards · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=974
0 of 411%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside East Midlands.

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: no decision dates published · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=104
—52 days

Half of these awards were announced within 52 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 8 of 15 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 79 · East Midlands, n=957
53%51%

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 buyer3 lots with bid counts · all categories · too few to chart
The market125 lots with bid counts · division 79 · East Midlands
8% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid8%
Market: 10 of 125 lots with published bid counts.
2–326%
Market: 33 of 125 lots with published bid counts.
4–623%
Market: 29 of 125 lots with published bid counts.
7+42%
Market: 53 of 125 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 buyerNo estimate-and-award pairs published
The market116 lots with estimate and award · division 79 · East Midlands
41% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate41%
Market: 48 of 116 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%49%
Market: 57 of 116 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate9%
Market: 11 of 116 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£192k
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 125 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet8% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 125 similar lots
1 bid8%
10 of 125 similar past lots received 1 bid (8%).
2–326%
33 of 125 similar past lots received 2–3 (26%).
4–623%
29 of 125 similar past lots received 4–6 (23%).
7+42%
53 of 125 similar past lots received 7+ (42%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 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 £192k, 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
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
17 Jul 2026, 16:58 BST
Last source update
21 Jul 2026, 12:04 BST
Authority reference
C458720
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-068656
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security
Delivery area
East Midlands (UKF30)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ce48 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

17 Jul 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 5 dates
  1. Planning notice published97 days ago
    17 Jul 2026, 16:58 BST
  2. Latest notice published93 days ago
    21 Jul 2026, 12:04 BST
  3. Market engagement82 days ago
    31 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST

    Invitation for suppliers to submit a pre-market engagement questionnaire response.

  4. Tender notice expected20 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST
  5. Today
    22 Oct 2026
  6. Contract startsin 161 days
    1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 17 Jul 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    17 Jul 2026, 16:58 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    21 Jul 2026, 12:04 BST
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

Update Description with Link

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

2 public bodies on the notice

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central government GB-PPON: PYGP-2439-CCHG Trust Headquarters, St George's, Long Leys Road , Lincoln, East Midlands, LN1 1FSContact name, email, phone

Other public bodies

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure