Find a TenderPast planning noticePreliminary market engagement notice
Published 2 Jun 2025, 10:23 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Preliminary Engagement Notice - Closing the Gap - VCSE Infrastructure Support

Official notice

Authority: Reading Borough Council (Local council)

ServicesSME suitableVCSE suitable
Sectors: Health & Social Care (85) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Nov 2025from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 1 Apr 2029 · up to 1 Apr 2031 with extensions · starts 1 Apr 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Closing the Gap (CTG) is a contract opportunity for providers to deliver preventative community-based services. As part of this we currently commission an Infrastructure Support Service to support to the local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises.

We plan to re-procure this service towards the end of 2025 with the intention of starting the new contract on the 1st April 2025.

The contract value for this service is expected to be £130,000 per annum for up to 5 years for a total value of £650,000.

Engaging with providers is a key part of developing what this service will look like. As such, we are holding an engagement session to share our procurement timetable and draft service specification. This will be an opportunity for us to gather feedback which will shape the final service.

The draft service specification being shared has been based on learning from the current Closing the Gap service, a Needs Analysis, feedback from stakeholders, a working group of cross-council colleagues and external stakeholders and consultations with funding stakeholders regarding alignment to funding outcome requirements.

This engagement session will be held via Teams on June 12th at 12:00 am.

Please reply via a correspondence message via the Reading Borough Council In-Tend system to this notice with any email addresses you wish to be sent an invitation to this meeting.

CPV: Social services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Apr 2026 – 1 Apr 2029 (3 yrs) · up to 1 Apr 2031 with extensions
Eligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Past planning notice
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
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
2 Jun 2025, 10:23 BST
Last source update
2 Jun 2025, 10:23 BST
Authority reference
RBC 00002278
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-029027
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Social services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-052a51 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

2 Jun 2025 → 1 Apr 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published
    2 Jun 2025, 10:23 BST
  2. Market engagement
    13 Jun 2025, 00:59 BST

    This engagement session will be held via Teams on June 12th at 12:00 am.

    Please reply via a correspondence message via the Reading Borough Council In-Tend system to this notice with any email addresses you wish to be sent an invitation to this meeting.

  3. Tender notice expected360 days ago
    1 Nov 2025, 23:59 GMT
  4. Contract starts210 days ago
    1 Apr 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    2 Jun 2025, 10:23 BST
    UK2

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

Reading Borough Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PWBJ-9435-VXQQ Bridge Street, Reading, South East, RG1 2LUContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure