Official UK procurement notice
Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) Retainer Block Pilot
Authority: Reading Borough Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionReading Borough Council is undertaking a soft market testing and engagement exercise to explore a new commissioning approach for securing local foster care capacity through a retainer based block model.
The Council is seeking early engagement with Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs) to test whether this approach is viable in the current market, particularly in relation to the availability of carers within a 20 mile radius of Reading Civic Centre, and to understand whether the model is operationally practical and commercially attractive to providers.
This exercise will also support a co design process with the market, enabling providers to help shape and refine the proposed model, service expectations, and delivery approach ahead of any potential procurement. The Council is particularly keen to work collaboratively to ensure that any future model is realistic, deliverable, and aligned with market capacity and provider insight.
This PIN forms part of a structured pre procurement engagement process and is intended to inform decision making on whether to proceed to a pilot and how the model should be designed.
Who Should Engage
We welcome interest from:
- IFAs with existing or potential carers in the Reading area
- Providers able to support local placement development
- Organisations interested in collaborative model design
CPV: Social services · Social work services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Reading Borough Council buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up
Reading Borough 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 services (CPV 8531) →
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 South 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 55 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 bid72% / 22%
2–36% / 30%
4–617% / 28%
7+6% / 20%
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% / 26%
Within ±2%71% / 70%
Above estimate0% / 4%
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 85Published estimate£50k
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 85. The comparison uses that group.
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 302 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid20%
2–333%
4–628%
7+18%
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
- 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
- 5 Jun 2026, 13:39 BST
- Last source update
- 5 Jun 2026, 13:39 BST
- Authority reference
26-S-008- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-053342- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06aebcFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
5 Jun 2026 → 1 Nov 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published145 days ago5 Jun 2026, 13:39 BST
- Market engagement67 days ago21 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
The Council will undertake structured engagement as follows:
- PIN publication: June 2026
- Provider registration deadline: Early July 2026
- Market engagement event (virtual): Mid July 2026 (based on registration numbers, will expand to multiple sessions)
- RFI issue and responses: End of July 2026
- 1:1 provider discussions: August 2026 (these would be booked directly)
- Market engagement summary published: August 2026
Who Should Engage
We welcome interest from IFAs with existing or potential carers in the Reading area.
We wish to hear from providers who are able to support local foster care placements and organisations interested in collaborative model design
How to Participate
To express interest, please contact:
byron.taylor@reading.gov.uk chris.martin@reading.gov.uk
Reference: IFA Retainer Pilot - Market Engagement
- Tender notice expected36 days ago21 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today28 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 3 days1 Nov 2026
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published5 Jun 2026, 13:39 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