Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 29 Sept 2026, 10:14 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Racial Trauma Support Service

Authority: Liverpool City Council (Local council)

ServicesSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 31 Dec 2028 · starts 1 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Liverpool City Council is committed to becoming an actively anti-racist organisation and to creating a workplace where all employees feel safe, valued, respected and able to thrive.

Feedback from employees and the Council’s wider anti-racism engagement has identified a need for specialist support for colleagues affected by racism, racial discrimination, microaggressions and cumulative racial trauma. The Council is therefore undertaking soft market testing to explore independent, confidential, culturally competent and trauma-informed support that employees can access whether or not they pursue a formal complaint.

The exercise will help the Council understand market capability, potential delivery models and indicative costs. It is being conducted for information-gathering purposes only and does not constitute a tender or commitment to procure.

CPV: Counselling services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 2 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Jan 2027 – 31 Dec 2028 (2 yrs)
Delivery: North WestEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How Liverpool City Council buys Social work services (CPV 8531), and who usually turns up

Liverpool City 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) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerLiverpool City Council · division 85
The marketSocial work services (CPV 8531) · North West England
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 4 of 17 known-size awards · market: CPV 8531 · North West England, n=80
24%45%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
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 West England.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 32 of 35 known-location awards · market: CPV 8531 · North West England, n=142
91%51%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 7 decided notices · market: CPV 8531 · North West England, n=35
58 days40 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 58 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 7 of 24 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 8531 · North West England, n=122
29%57%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer22 lots with bid counts · broad CPV 85
9% had one bid
The market53 lots with bid counts · CPV 8531 · North West England
21% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid9% / 21%
Buyer: 2 of 22 lots with published bid counts. Market: 11 of 53 lots with published bid counts.
2–350% / 40%
Buyer: 11 of 22 lots with published bid counts. Market: 21 of 53 lots with published bid counts.
4–636% / 21%
Buyer: 8 of 22 lots with published bid counts. Market: 11 of 53 lots with published bid counts.
7+5% / 19%
Buyer: 1 of 22 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 53 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer14 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 85
36% below estimate
The market41 lots with estimate and award · CPV 8531 · North West England
22% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate36% / 22%
Buyer: 5 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 9 of 41 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%50% / 78%
Buyer: 7 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 32 of 41 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate14% / 0%
Buyer: 2 of 14 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 0 of 41 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 853124 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
Expected competition
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 53 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet21% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 53 similar lots
1 bid21%
11 of 53 similar past lots received 1 bid (21%).
2–340%
21 of 53 similar past lots received 2–3 (40%).
4–621%
11 of 53 similar past lots received 4–6 (21%).
7+19%
10 of 53 similar past lots received 7+ (19%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

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.

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.

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
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
29 Sept 2026, 10:14 BST
Last source update
29 Sept 2026, 10:14 BST
Authority reference
DN830720
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-091687
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Counselling services
Delivery area
North West (UKD72)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077c13 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

29 Sept 2026 → 1 Jan 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published28 days ago
    29 Sept 2026, 10:14 BST
  2. Market engagement4 days ago
    23 Oct 2026, 00:59 BST

    Liverpool City Council is undertaking preliminary market engagement to understand the market’s capability to provide a specialist racial trauma support service for employees. The engagement will explore potential delivery models, supplier capacity, practitioner expertise, indicative costs and options for a future procurement.

    The engagement will be conducted electronically through ProContract. No supplier events are currently planned. Interested organisations should register on ProContract, locate opportunity DN830720, download the soft market testing document and submit their completed response by the deadline shown on the opportunity. Clarification questions must be submitted through the ProContract messaging facility.

    Participation is voluntary and responses will be used for information-gathering purposes only. Participation will not be formally evaluated and will not confer any advantage or disadvantage in any future procurement. This engagement does not constitute a tender and does not commit the Council to undertake a subsequent procurement exercise.

  3. Today
    26 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 66 days
    1 Jan 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    29 Sept 2026, 10:14 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

Liverpool City Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PRVY-7813-WLPG Cunard Building, Liverpool, North West, L3 1DSContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure