Local councils commission billions of pounds’ worth of services from external providers each year. For organisations bidding to deliver social care, supported housing and related services, understanding what exactly the council wants is fundamental to writing a successful tender.
To get this understanding, read the service specification thoroughly – and then read it again. It contains all of the elements against which your bid will be judged: outcomes and KPIs, staffing, safeguarding, etc. A common mistake I’ve seen is to concentrate on answering the questions without making an explicit link to the specification. A convincing response demonstrates that you can provide this specific service, in this place, for this particular population.
For social care and supported housing, commissioners are likely to want evidence of your capability to, for example, manage risk and safeguard vulnerable service users. How you have shown your workforce resilience, developed effective partnerships, and involved service users. Ask yourself: what examples do we have that demonstrate we can do what is required because we’ve already done it successfully elsewhere?
Price matters but cheapest does not necessarily win. Under the Procurement Act 2023 (in law since February 2025), the focus switched from the ‘most economically advantageous tender’ to the ‘most advantageous tender’. This was designed to move away from a ‘lowest cost wins’ mentality. Government guidance also makes clear that value for money can encompass wider factors than price alone, including benefits to service users and other stakeholders where relevant to the contract.
Award criteria must explain how tenders will be assessed and the relative importance of different criteria. For relevant ‘light touch’ services, which include certain health and social care services, authorities have the flexibility to take account of service recipients’ different needs and views. As a bidder, you must demonstrate and evidence what you can do (and, ideally, have already done) against these criteria.\
The main lesson from this legal context is: don’t make the evaluator work to find reasons to award you marks.
Make the evidence explicit – and link it to the specific requirements of the service specification. Explain what you will do, how you will do it, who will be responsible, and how you will know it is working. Wherever possible, support promises with relevant evidence such as data and case studies from services you already deliver.