Official UK procurement notice
Managed Payroll Services for Multi Academy Trust
Authority: Broad Horizons Education Trust (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionBroad Horizons Education Trust is currently exploring options for the future provision of its payroll services commencing in September 2027. The Trust currently has an estimated headcount of 1408 employees across 18 sites/academies, processed on a monthly pay cycle.
The purpose of this Request for Information is to engage with potential suppliers prior to any formal procurement to:
Inform our procurement strategy, scope, and specification.
Gauge market interest, capacity, and capabilities.
Understand standard market pricing models, implementation timelines, and risk mitigation strategies.
The primary objectives of this engagement are to:
Gauge current market interest, capacity, and capabilities across service delivery models
Seek supplier feedback to refine and finalize the procurement strategy, technical specification, and performance KPIs.
Understand commercial and pricing models.
Inform system integration requirements to ensure a successful go-live for September 2027.
Key operational requirements include:
Full and seamless transition
Full management processing of monthly payrolls.
Comprehensive public sector pension scheme administration, returns, and compliance-specifically Teachers' Pensions Scheme (TPS) and Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
Pay scales - To be able to cope with Teaching pay scales, support staff pay scale, apprenticeships plus off-scale pay grades where needed
Pay awards and increments To be able to apply pay awards to current staff automatically
For back pay to be automatically calculated
To be able to chose to backdated pay awards to some leavers
To be able to apply increments at different dates for some staff
To be able to apply 'No Increment' for specific contracts
Integration capability with existing HR and Finance systems and simple data input
Integration with MIS - currently Arbor - to provide a 'single source of truth' from which reports and data flows
Access for Employees - To efficiently be able to download payslips, P60s etc.
To efficiently be able to update personal details, including bank account details
Knowledge and experience working with MATs in the education sector.
Please email procurement@bhetrust.co.uk for further details and a questionnaire.
CPV: Payroll management services · Personnel and payroll services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Broad Horizons Education Trust buys Accounting and auditing services (CPV 7921), and who usually turns up
Broad Horizons Education Trust has little published record in this market. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Accounting and auditing services (CPV 7921) →
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.
No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.
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 77 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.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
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 bid0%
2–333%
4–633%
7+33%
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 estimate55%
Within ±2%9%
Above estimate36%
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 79Published estimate£250k
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 79. 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 196 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid9%
2–327%
4–628%
7+37%
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
- 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
- 11 Sept 2026, 14:48 BST
- Last source update
- 11 Sept 2026, 14:48 BST
- Authority reference
BHET01- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-086505- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f846Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
11 Sept 2026 → 1 Sept 2027 · 3 dates- Planning notice published45 days ago11 Sept 2026, 14:48 BST
- Today27 Oct 2026
- Market engagementin 19 days15 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
The Trust may hold a supplier briefing and optional one-to-one discussions and/or demonstrations.
This is not a call for competition and no contract will be awarded through the PME.
Phase 1 Publication of Preliminary Market Engagement Notice (Sept 2026)
Phase 2 Preliminary Market Engagement (Sept - Oct 2026)
Phase 3 Finalisation of Specification & Tender Documentation (Nov - Dec 2026)
Phase 4 Tender and award (Jan - Feb 2027)
Please email procurement@bhetrust.co.uk for further details and a questionnaire.
- Contract startsin 308 days1 Sept 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published11 Sept 2026, 14:48 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