Official UK procurement notice
003843 - Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) for Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets
Authority: Durham County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Council is inviting suppliers to participate in preliminary engagement to gain insight from the market with the purpose of making any potential future exercise, well framed, feasible, focused and of likely interest to the market.
Durham County Council (DCC) is looking to explore the market options for Virtual Reality (VR) headsets suitable for use in a range of care settings.
Scope
- Provision of standalone virtual reality headsets suitable for use in a range of care settings, including all required accessories and chargers
- The solution must provide immersive 360-degree experiences that can be delivered safely in seated, supervised one-to-one or small group sessions.
- Content should support reminiscence, relaxation, wellbeing, social interaction and meaningful activity primarily for older people, including people living with dementia and other adult service user groups as appropriate.
- The supplier should provide local content relevant to County Durham and the North East where available, with the option to develop or commission new experiences linked to local places, history, culture and service-user interests.
- Content should be refreshed regularly so the service has access to new experiences over time and can maintain interest for repeat users.
- The specification should support both individual personalised use and planned group activity sessions within a range of care settings.
- The solution must be suitable for social staff to operate following training, with clear guidance on when VR may or may not be appropriate for an individual.
Written response questionnaires ca
CPV: Computer equipment and supplies · Multimedia equipment · Software package and information systems
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Durham County Council buys Television and audio-visual equipment (CPV 3232), and who usually turns up
Durham 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: Television and audio-visual equipment (CPV 3232) →
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 North East England.
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 27 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 bid18% / 18%
2–320% / 33%
4–631% / 30%
7+31% / 18%
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 estimate29% / 57%
Within ±2%55% / 24%
Above estimate16% / 19%
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 3232Published estimate£15k
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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 15 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid13%
2–333%
4–633%
7+20%
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
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- 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 Sept 2026, 11:58 BST
- Last source update
- 17 Sept 2026, 11:58 BST
- Authority reference
OPEN20262071- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-088139- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-07743aFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
17 Sept 2026 → 1 Feb 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published42 days ago17 Sept 2026, 11:58 BST
- Market engagement19 days ago10 Oct 2026, 00:59 BST
Written response questionnaires can be accessed free of charge by registering on the Open Tendering Portal at www.open-uk.org ↗
The deadline for written submissions, via the Open Portal is Friday 9th October at 12 noon.
- Today29 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 94 days1 Feb 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Sept 2026, 11:58 BSTUK2
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