Official UK procurement notice
Cross Regional Project · UK public procurement notice
Authority: Oxfordshire County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionCross Regional contract on behalf of Councils Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Milton Keynes, Reading, Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire to offer residential and educational provision for Children We Care For (CWCF) with complex social, behavioural and educational needs.
Cross Regional Project (CRP) delivers therapeutic residential care and educational services for children aged 11–17 with complex needs, operating across 11 homes in partner counties offering 36 placements.
A registered special school, commissioned under a block contract, provides education for pupils aged 11–17—including those without EHCPs—across Key Stages 3 to 5.
The new service will launch on August 1, 2027, starting with 36 placements and potentially expanding by 24 more. After six months, partners can buy extra placements at any time during the contract.
CPV: Social work and related 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 Oxfordshire County Council buys Social work and related services (CPV 8530), and who usually turns up
Oxfordshire 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: Social work and related services (CPV 8530) →
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.
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 63 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 bid27% / 22%
2–318% / 35%
4–636% / 26%
7+18% / 17%
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 estimate50% / 22%
Within ±2%29% / 70%
Above estimate21% / 7%
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 8530Published estimate£172m
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 337 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid22%
2–335%
4–626%
7+17%
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
- 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
- 28 Nov 2025, 12:16 GMT
- Last source update
- 28 Nov 2025, 12:16 GMT
- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-078049- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05eafbFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
28 Nov 2025 → 1 Aug 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published333 days ago28 Nov 2025, 12:16 GMT
- Market engagement311 days ago19 Dec 2025, 23:59 GMT
This is a preliminary market to seek views from potential providers on how best to deliver Cross Regional Project that offers residential, educational and therapeutic services for children aged 11 to 17 inclusive with complex needs.
To partake in this preliminary market engagement, potential providers can register on and access the Council's e-tendering system - Proactis on: procontract.due-north.com/ProjectManagement/Pr… ↗ then clicking on the "Opportunities" tile to search for the pre-market engagement project (reference:DN798997).
A preliminary market engagement questionnaire will be available on this project for providers to download and respond to by the end of Friday 19th December 2025.
Please note that any commercially sensitive information supplied by providers will be stored confidentially and will not be disclosed to any third party.
Also note that this is neither a call for competition nor a procurement exercise.
- Tender notice expected263 days ago5 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Today27 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 277 days1 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published28 Nov 2025, 12:16 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