Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 9 Jan 2026, 15:14 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

0-5 Health Visiting Service Market Engagement

Authority: Norfolk County Council (Local council)

ServicesAbove threshold
Planned pipeline value£118,750,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 4 yrs 6 moends 31 Mar 2031 · up to 31 Mar 2036 with extensions · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This is a voluntary preliminary market engagement notice for a health service that falls under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. This market engagement notice relates to the provision of a Health Visiting Service for children aged 0-5 years. This is a community public health service which forms part of the wider Healthy Child Programme within Norfolk County Council (The Council). The service will provide a universal public health nursing offer for all families from pregnancy until a child's fifth birthday, with additional targeted and specialist support where higher levels of need, vulnerability or risk are identified.

CPV: Community health services · Health services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 4 yrs 6 mo
Contract period: 1 Oct 2026 – 31 Mar 2031 (4 yrs 6 mo) · up to 31 Mar 2036 with extensions
Delivery: East of England
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 Norfolk County Council buys Health services (CPV 8510), and who usually turns up

Norfolk County 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: Health services (CPV 8510) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerNorfolk County Council · division 85
The marketHealth services (CPV 8510) · 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: 20 of 73 known-size awards · market: CPV 8510 · East of England, n=435
27%46%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in East of England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 35 of 56 known-location awards · market: CPV 8510 · East of England, n=611
63%48%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 15 decided notices · market: CPV 8510 · East of England, n=14
42 days41 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 42 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 22 of 83 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 8510 · East of England, n=373
27%70%

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 buyer38 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 85
11% had one bid
The market82 lots with bid counts · CPV 8510 · East of England
15% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid11% / 15%
Buyer: 4 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 12 of 82 lots with published bid counts.
2–311% / 35%
Buyer: 4 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 29 of 82 lots with published bid counts.
4–658% / 38%
Buyer: 22 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 31 of 82 lots with published bid counts.
7+21% / 12%
Buyer: 8 of 38 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 82 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 buyer22 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 85
36% below estimate
The market58 lots with estimate and award · CPV 8510 · East of England
41% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate36% / 41%
Buyer: 8 of 22 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 24 of 58 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%59% / 53%
Buyer: 13 of 22 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 31 of 58 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate5% / 5%
Buyer: 1 of 22 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 3 of 58 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 #1CPV 8554 monthsPublished estimate£119m

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 85. The comparison uses that group.

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 268 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet19% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 268 similar lots
1 bid19%
51 of 268 similar past lots received 1 bid (19%).
2–329%
79 of 268 similar past lots received 2–3 (29%).
4–629%
79 of 268 similar past lots received 4–6 (29%).
7+22%
59 of 268 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 £119m, 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
9 Jan 2026, 15:14 GMT
Last source update
12 Jan 2026, 12:36 GMT
Authority reference
NCCT43330
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-002248
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Community health servicesHealth services
Delivery area
East of England (UKH15)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060310 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

9 Jan 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published292 days ago
    9 Jan 2026, 15:14 GMT
  2. Latest notice published289 days ago
    12 Jan 2026, 12:36 GMT
  3. Market engagement270 days ago
    30 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Norfolk County Council is seeking to engage with providers who have experience of delivering a 0-5 Health Visiting Service through a soft market testing questionnaire in preparation for a potential procurement under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

    The purpose of this soft market testing exercise is to understand the provider landscape and potential providers who are capable of delivering this service within the context of Norfolk. The questionnaire is open to any provider.

    The outcome of the soft market testing will assist the Council to develop and maintain sufficiently detailed knowledge of the provider landscape. This will help NCC to put in place services that best meet the needs of the population and to select the appropriate award process.

    Please note that this exercise is solely for information-gathering purposes; none of the details provided will be used in the evaluation of any future procurement submissions.

    Participation or non-participation in this soft market testing shall not prevent any supplier participating in any potential future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied as part of this process shall place any supplier at an advantage in any potential procurement process. Participation in the soft market testing process will be at each supplier's own cost. No expense in responding to this process will be reimbursed by the Council.

    The Council wishes to provide fixed points of contact for this soft market testing exercise and interested parties are requested not to contact any other individual or team at the Council or any of its other advisors. Any enquiries and responses should be sent via the messaging function within In-Tend.

    Providers that are interested in participating in this exercise are asked to register on In-Tend at:

    in-tendhost.co.uk/norfolkcc/aspx/Home ↗

    This is free to do, just log in and express an interest. The Questionnaire will be available for you to download and complete within the 'clarification' tab.

    Once completed, please return via the In-Tend 'correspondence' tab. The deadline for responses is no later than 2:00pm on 30th January 2026.

  4. Contract starts27 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 9 Jan 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    9 Jan 2026, 15:14 GMT
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    12 Jan 2026, 12:36 GMT
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

The link to in-tend has been updated as it was not working.

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

Norfolk County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PDYH-3246-XWTR County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich, East of England, NR1 2DHContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure