Care Homes contracts

Find live UK public sector care homes contracts

Find live UK public sector care home contracts and tenders, updated daily, covering residential and nursing placements, block contracts, and supported living.

Care Homes is part of the wider social care tenders sector.

Care Homes tender activity

How care homes contracts are trending

Share of all UK public sector opportunity notices each month (awards excluded). Share is coverage-robust: it is not skewed by the number of sources we monitor, so it reflects genuine market composition.

Where to find UK public sector care home contracts

Care home and residential care contracting is a substantial and continuous area of local authority and NHS spend. Councils commission residential and nursing care placements for older adults, adults with learning disabilities, adults with mental health needs, and people with physical disabilities. NHS integrated care boards commission continuing healthcare placements and discharge-to-assess bed capacity. Some commissioning bodies run block contracts that guarantee a number of beds in a named home; others operate spot purchasing arrangements or approved provider lists that registered providers must be admitted to before any placements are made.

TenderSignal aggregates care home contracts and tenders from Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales, NHS and council procurement portals, and many more into a single searchable feed. You set your profile once and see live opportunities updated overnight, rather than monitoring each authority separately.

What counts as a care home tender

Public sector care procurement takes several distinct forms. Block contracts for residential and nursing care beds are tendered by individual councils and NHS bodies, typically for a fixed term with extension options. Approved provider lists and dynamic purchasing systems (dynamic markets under the Procurement Act 2023) allow commissioners to admit CQC-registered providers on a rolling basis, then call off placements without a further tender. Supported living and extra care housing contracts are also routinely tendered by councils and combined authorities. Commissioners describe this work in many ways: "residential care services", "nursing home placements", "care and support services", "bed-based care", or "supported living provision", which means keyword searching on a single portal misses a significant share of the market.

Placement values range from individual spot purchases through to multi-year block contracts that can provide a care home operator with a guaranteed and predictable occupancy base. Framework agreements are common in care commissioning (the Provider Selection Regime, in force since January 2024, covers NHS-arranged healthcare placements, while council-commissioned care falls under the light touch rules), and being admitted early is often the prerequisite for winning any placement work from a given commissioner.

How TenderSignal helps care home providers win more work

Set your care types and regions on your TenderSignal profile and we match you to relevant care home commissioning opportunities automatically. Region filters keep the feed focused on the local authorities and NHS bodies in your operating area. Save searches that bring each new matching contract or approved provider list into your scheduled digest, so you stay aware of relevant opportunities as they open. Pipeline intelligence flags commissioning frameworks and block contracts approaching renewal, giving your business development team time to engage the commissioner before the formal process begins.

Because TenderSignal aggregates the whole market rather than a single source, you get broad visibility of residential and nursing care commissioning across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Create a free account to browse live care home contracts today, and upgrade for daily alerts and AI relevance scoring to triage opportunities faster.

The problem

  • Care commissioning is fragmented across hundreds of local authorities and NHS bodies, with no single place to find all live opportunities.
  • Commissioners use different contracting models, from spot purchasing to block contracts to approved provider lists and Provider Selection Regime awards, making it easy to miss the right route in.
  • Approved provider lists and DPS admissions open briefly and close without warning, leaving providers who are not monitoring at a disadvantage.

With TenderSignal

  • UK care home contract, placement tender, and approved provider list in one daily-updated feed.
  • Region filters focused on the commissioning bodies in your operating area.
  • Alerts and renewal signals so your team can engage commissioners before a contract re-advertises.

Frameworks and buying routes for Care Homes contracts

  • NHS Supply Chain
  • NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS)
  • The Government Commercial Agency health & social care frameworks
  • Provider Selection Regime (PSR) award routes

CPV codes for Care Homes contracts

  • 85000000 - Health & social work services
  • 85100000 - Health services
  • 85300000 - Social work & related services

Qualifications buyers ask for

  • CQC registration
  • Cyber Essentials
  • ISO 9001

Care Homes tenders: frequently asked questions

What is a care homes tender?

A care homes tender is a formal invitation from a UK public sector buyer, such as a council, NHS trust, housing association or government department, to bid for a care homes contract. Buyers publish care homes contracts when the work goes out to competitive procurement, usually with a specification, deadline and evaluation criteria.

Where are care homes contracts published in the UK?

Public sector care homes contracts are published across Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI, plus 600+ individual council and buyer portals. TenderSignal aggregates these into one feed so you do not have to check them separately.

What contract value triggers a published care homes tender?

Under the Procurement Act 2023, a buyer that invites competitive tenders must advertise the contract on Find a Tender once it is worth £12,000 or more for central government, or £30,000 or more for other public bodies (including VAT). Contracts above the procurement thresholds, from £135,018 for central government goods and services, follow the full regulated process. Many lower-value care homes contracts also appear on buyer portals or are awarded through framework call-offs.

Which frameworks cover care homes contracts?

Commonly used routes to care homes work include NHS Supply Chain, NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS), The Government Commercial Agency health & social care frameworks. Getting onto the right framework or dynamic market early gives you access to call-off contracts without bidding from scratch each time.

How do I find care homes contracts before they are tendered?

Watch for planned procurement notices and pipeline notices (prior information notices, or PINs, under the old rules) and track contracts approaching their renewal date. TenderSignal's pipeline intelligence flags care homes contracts coming up for re-tender months in advance, so you can engage the buyer during the early-engagement phase before the formal process opens.

What qualifications do I need to win care homes tenders?

Under the Procurement Act 2023 buyers assess suitability through conditions of participation, using the core supplier information you hold on the Central Digital Platform, to check financial standing, insurance and relevant experience (procurements under the old rules used the standard Selection Questionnaire under PPN 03/23). For care homes work, buyers frequently ask for CQC registration, Cyber Essentials, ISO 9001.

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