Health & social care
NHS, care home & social care tenders in one scored feed
Care providers and clinical suppliers face the NHS Provider Selection Regime and a steady flow of local-authority care commissioning.
642
live health & social care tenders now
£9bn+
stated value tracked
69
smaller / council-portal
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.
Last reviewed 5 July 2026 by the BidSquirrel procurement team.
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.
Frameworks & buying organisations to know
A lot of recurring health & social care work is called off through national and regional frameworks and dynamic markets. Getting onto the right ones - alongside bidding for open tenders - is often how an SME builds a steady public-sector pipeline. The bodies worth knowing here:
We watch CPV 85 (health & social-work services) so health & social care notices reach you across every source - not just one portal.
Health & social care tenders open right now
We are tracking 642 open health & social care tenders across every major GB source as of today. A sample of the most recently published matched to this sector:
- Provision of Taxi, Courier, parcel and Transport of Human Tissues & Blood Tests
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · £500,000 · closes 10 Aug · Find a Tender
Strong fit · 8/10Example score - once we know your business, work like this is scored to your service line, with a written reason and a bid / no-bid call. Then we help you price it to win - a costed breakdown and value-for-money case, an axis few rivals cover. The free gov portals just list it.
- Framework for Small and Cluster Supported Living Schemes
Stockton on Tees Borough Council · £12,000,000 · closes 7 Sept · Find a Tender
- Care at Home and Night Service
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council · closes 2 Sept · Find a Tender
- The Healthy Child Programme
Norfolk County Council · £164,350,000 · closes 30 Sept · Find a Tender
- Winter Night Shelter
Medway Council · £360,000 · closes 26 Aug · Find a Tender
- Integrated Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Service
Newcastle City Council · Find a Tender
Example score shown for illustration. Your own matches are scored to your business once you add it - free, no card.
See all 642 live health & social care tenders near you
What a real health or care notice actually asks for - and how the panel scores it
The first thing an experienced health and care bid lead does is establish which regime governs the award, because it changes everything downstream. A clinical service in England is selected under the NHS Provider Selection Regime (SI 2023/1348) - a Most Suitable Provider process with its own challenge mechanics - while a council care package runs under the Procurement Act 2023 or as a light-touch or spot arrangement. The same provider often faces several at once. BidSquirrel labels each notice so you read it through the right lens before the evaluation logic, then checks the selection gates: CQC registration for the regulated activity, Enhanced DBS with the correct barred-list check, insurances, and - where NHS patient data is involved - a current, published Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT v8) submission rather than one in progress.
Past the gate, care and clinical evaluations lean hard on quality, safeguarding, workforce and demonstrable outcomes, with price often a smaller share than bidders expect. Safeguarding is not a warm assurance: it means Enhanced DBS with the barred-list check that matches the regulated activity (children, adults or both), and training at the level the buyer specifies - the Intercollegiate Document sets the competency levels for children's services. Infection control maps to a real CQC Regulation 12 risk assessment, not a generic hygiene statement. A health-IT go-live into a live clinical setting is a clinical-safety event needing evidence against DCB0129 (the supplier's safety case and named Clinical Safety Officer) and DCB0160 (the deploying organisation's hazard log), with a rollback plan - not just a project plan.
The commonest way a capable provider loses is a section of warm intentions where the panel wanted a specific, deliverable commitment: workforce stability and retention tied to continuity of care, a named local apprenticeship, a stated infection-control or safeguarding measure. BidSquirrel drafts each answer from your own banked evidence to the exact criterion, scores its own draft the way this panel would, flags where a thin answer is leaving marks on the table, and hands it back with the facts for you to confirm and own.
How to win health & social care contracts
Confirm the regime before you write a word
An NHS clinical contract under the Provider Selection Regime (SI 2023/1348) is evaluated and challenged differently from a council care framework under the Procurement Act 2023. BidSquirrel's regime classifier labels each opportunity as PSR, PA23 above or below threshold, light-touch, Scotland or Wales, 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 for the relevant regulated activity, Enhanced DBS with the correct barred-list check, specific insurances, minimum turnover, and often a place on a named framework or dynamic purchasing system. Anything touching NHS patient data needs a current, published Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) submission, not one still in progress. BidSquirrel reads these against your business per tender, so you stop spending evenings on bids you could not submit.
Evidence safety and outcomes, 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. Safeguarding means Enhanced DBS and training at the level a buyer specifies (the Intercollegiate Document sets the competency levels for children's services); infection control maps to CQC Regulation 12; and a health-IT go-live engages the clinical-safety standards DCB0129 and DCB0160. BidSquirrel reads each notice through that sector-experienced lens, builds every answer from your own evidence against the heaviest-weighted criteria, scores its own draft like the panel and strips the generic prose - then hands it back with the exact facts for you to confirm.
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 includes these low-value local-authority council quotes alongside the major portals, giving smaller providers a realistic route in.
Thinking of paying a bid writer for health & social care tenders? BidSquirrel drafts each answer with you from your own evidence, scores it like the panel, and then helps you price to win - a costed breakdown and the value-for-money case, an axis few rivals cover - so the marks come from your facts and your number, not outsourced prose.
Compare us to a bid writerProcurement regime
NHS clinical and healthcare services in England are selected under the NHS Provider Selection Regime (PSR - the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, SI 2023/1348, in force 1 January 2024), which removed those services from the Procurement Act 2023: its Most Suitable Provider route and its challenge mechanics differ from a PA23 competition. NHS goods and non-clinical services still run under the Procurement Act 2023. Local-authority adult social care is commissioned by councils, often as light-touch services or through spot, framework and dynamic-purchasing arrangements, which is why the same provider can face several different processes at once. BidSquirrel classifies each notice so you read it through the right regime before you touch the evaluation logic.
Questions, answered
How do I find care home and domiciliary care contracts from my council?
Councils publish advertised adult social care opportunities on Find a Tender, with older notices still on Contracts Finder, 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.
Guides for health & social care bidders
NHS PSR explained
Read the guideHow tenders are scored
Read the guideSocial value: what counts
Read the guidePrefer to browse by area? See live health & social care and other tenders by UK region, or read all our bidding guides.
Health & social care tenders by region
Other sectors
Stop scrolling portals. Start winning health & social care work.
Browse every major GB source and see your top matches scored - free, no card. Pro (£49.99/mo) scores every match and builds the bid with you; the 30-day trial needs no card.
Get started free