TenderSignal is the UK's most complete source of live social care tenders.
We aggregate adult and children's social care opportunities from 145+ portals — every UK council, NHS continuing healthcare commissioners, integrated care boards, the devolved care commissioners (Care Inspectorate Scotland, Care Inspectorate Wales, RQIA Northern Ireland), and specialist commissioners like NHS England's specialised commissioning. Coverage spans domiciliary care, residential care, supported living, mental health, learning disability, and children's services.
Whether you're a small CIC providing day services, an SME domiciliary care agency chasing a council framework, or a large national provider tracking complex care packages, TenderSignal surfaces relevant work daily. Sub-sectors include older people's care, learning disability, mental health, autism, fostering, residential children's care, and specialist outcomes-based commissioning.
Social care frameworks typically run 4–7 years with rolling call-offs. Pro users see forecast notices and PIN alerts — useful for engaging with commissioners during co-production phases before formal tenders open.
What's covered
UK social care spend exceeds £30bn annually across adult social care (mainly council-commissioned under the Care Act 2014) and children's social care (council-commissioned under the Children Act 1989). Adult social-care services are now mostly commissioned under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023; children's care follows the Procurement Act 2023.
Most commissioning uses dynamic purchasing systems (DPS) or framework agreements that allow rolling placements as need arises. Key arrangements include regional adult social care DPS (e.g. North East Care Services, West Yorkshire Adults' Frameworks), the national Children's Residential Care framework, and ICB-led continuing healthcare and complex-care packages.
Notable drivers include the People at the Heart of Care white paper, the Health and Care Act 2022 (creating ICBs), workforce pressures driving rate reviews, the Sufficiency Strategy for children's care, and the autism strategy commissioning shifts.
Social care procurement under the PSR offers three routes: direct award (suitable provider already identified), most-suitable-provider (basic competition), and competitive process (full ITT). Most large frameworks use competitive process with PQQ-style provider-quality questionnaires and ITTs scoring quality 60–80% on safeguarding, person-centred planning, workforce, outcomes, and CQC rating.
CQC registration (or Ofsted for children's; Care Inspectorate equivalents in devolved nations) is pre-qualifying. Strong bids show evidence of outcomes (not just outputs), Skills for Care endorsement, real-living-wage commitments, robust safeguarding, named registered managers, and clear approach to co-production with people who use services.
Common pitfalls: generic answers not reflecting the council's local population, under-evidenced safeguarding, weak workforce planning that doesn't address recruitment pressures, missing co-production examples, and price submissions that don't include realistic Real Living Wage rates plus on-costs. Strong bids cite measurable outcomes (e.g. independence gained, hospital admissions avoided) and credible workforce stability.
TenderSignal lets you filter by council, ICB or region. Social care is highly geography-dependent — most domiciliary, residential and supported-living tenders are placed by specific councils or sub-regional partnerships. Set your delivery footprint during onboarding.
Domiciliary care framework places typically £18–£25 per hour with call-offs of £100k–£2m per provider per year. Residential placements are individual at £700–£3,000 per week. Complex packages run £5k–£15k per week. Large framework awards regularly exceed £100m total value.
For most council-commissioned care, yes — frameworks and DPS are the dominant route. Spot-purchase placements outside frameworks still happen for complex cases, but framework membership is essential for steady volume in domiciliary, supported living and residential care.
TenderSignal ingests around 100–200 social care opportunities per week, including individual complex-package placements, framework refreshes and PSR-compliant notices. Major framework refreshes typically every 4–7 years per council.
CQC registration is mandatory for regulated adult social care in England (Care Inspectorate equivalents in Scotland/Wales/NI). Ofsted registration for children's residential and fostering. Registered Manager in post, named Designated Safeguarding Lead, Skills for Care endorsement preferred.
Yes — councils actively encourage local and micro-providers, particularly in domiciliary care, day services and specialist autism support. Some councils lot frameworks by ward or town to widen SME access; the Provider Selection Regime explicitly allows direct awards for unique local providers.
Adult social care services are commissioned under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, with its own thresholds and routes. Children's social care follows the Procurement Act 2023 — services above £213,477 must be advertised on Find a Tender.
The PSR (in force January 2024) governs commissioning of healthcare and adult social care services. It offers direct award, most-suitable-provider and competitive routes, with transparency requirements and notice publication, but more flexibility than the Procurement Act for clinical/care services.