Health & social care
Win health & social care contracts (incl. NHS PSR)
Care providers and clinical suppliers face the NHS Provider Selection Regime and a steady flow of local-authority care commissioning.
The opportunity
Health and social care is one of the largest areas of UK public spending, and a great deal of it is delivered by SMEs: care homes, domiciliary care agencies, supported living providers, and specialist clinical services. Councils commission most adult social care locally, while the NHS buys clinical services through the Provider Selection Regime and non-clinical goods and services through the Procurement Act 2023. Opportunities are spread across Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, the devolved portals and council quote systems, which makes them hard to track. Knowing which regime applies, and where each buyer publishes, is the difference between bidding early and missing the window.
For a smaller provider the challenge is rarely capability, it is visibility and eligibility. Block contracts, frameworks, dynamic purchasing systems, and spot or call-off arrangements all behave differently, and many of the most winnable opportunities are low-value council care packages or community contracts published quietly. BidSquirrel scans every major UK source daily, scores each opportunity to your business, and runs a pass/fail eligibility check against the regime, turnover, certifications and frameworks a buyer requires, so you spend your time on the work you can realistically win.
Who buys in this sector
Contracts we surface for you
Residential and nursing care placements
Council and NHS-funded placements in care and nursing homes, often awarded through framework or rate-card arrangements with spot purchasing on top.
Domiciliary and home care
Care-at-home contracts let by councils as zoned block contracts, frameworks or call-offs, frequently with guaranteed hours in defined geographic lots.
Supported living and extra care
Accommodation-based support for adults with learning disabilities, mental health needs or physical disabilities, increasingly commissioned via dynamic purchasing systems.
NHS clinical and community health services
Community nursing, therapies and primary-care support, selected under the NHS Provider Selection Regime rather than the Procurement Act.
Non-clinical goods and services for the NHS
Equipment, facilities, transport and back-office services bought by NHS bodies under the Procurement Act 2023 and via national frameworks.
Public health and prevention services
Council-commissioned services such as substance misuse, sexual health and health visiting, often let as outcomes-based contracts.
How to win health & social care contracts
Confirm the regime before you write a word
An NHS clinical contract under the Provider Selection Regime is evaluated and challenged differently from a council care framework under the Procurement Act. BidSquirrel's regime classifier labels each opportunity as PSR, PA23 above or below threshold, light-touch, Scotland, Wales or NI, so you read the notice through the correct lens from the start.
Pass the eligibility test before you invest time
Care commissioners commonly require CQC registration, specific insurances, minimum turnover, and a place on a named framework or dynamic purchasing system. BidSquirrel runs a pass/fail eligibility check against these requirements per tender, so you stop spending evenings on bids you could not submit.
Evidence outcomes and quality, not just price
Care and clinical evaluations lean heavily on quality, safeguarding, workforce and demonstrable outcomes, with price often a smaller share than bidders expect. Use BidSquirrel's how-to-win guidance to target the heaviest-weighted criteria, then run your draft through the Bid Checker.
Chase the low-value work the big tools miss
A large amount of winnable council care work sits below threshold on quote portals such as ProContract, where national aggregators rarely look. BidSquirrel surfaces sub-£30k council quotes alongside the major portals, giving smaller providers a realistic route in.
Procurement regime
NHS clinical and healthcare services in England are procured under the NHS Provider Selection Regime (PSR, SI 2023/1348), while goods and non-clinical services go through the Procurement Act 2023. Local-authority adult social care is commissioned by councils, often as light-touch services, which is why the same provider can face several different processes at once.
Questions, answered
How do I find care home and domiciliary care contracts from my council?
Councils publish adult social care opportunities on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender for higher-value contracts, but a large share of placements and home-care packages are let through frameworks, dynamic purchasing systems and quote portals such as ProContract. BidSquirrel scans all of these daily and scores each opportunity to your business.
Are NHS contracts covered by the Procurement Act 2023?
Not all of them. Clinical healthcare services in England are selected under the NHS Provider Selection Regime (PSR), a separate set of rules, while NHS goods and non-clinical services are procured under the Procurement Act 2023. BidSquirrel's regime classifier tells you which rules apply to each opportunity.
Can a small care provider win public sector contracts?
Yes. Much social care is delivered by small and medium providers, and a great deal of winnable work is lower-value and local rather than large national contracts. The practical barriers are visibility and eligibility, which is why BidSquirrel surfaces sub-threshold council work and checks eligibility before you commit time.
Other sectors
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