How to bid for care leavers support tenders (16-25)
Care leaver support for 16 to 25 year olds is commissioned by councils under their corporate-parenting and leaving-care duties, not as a CQC-regulated activity in its own right. You bid through council accommodation-and-support frameworks or a dynamic purchasing system, and you are scored against corporate-parenting principles and the council's published Local Offer, not against a CQC rating. Registration only bites where you also deliver something regulated: Ofsted registration for supported accommodation serving 16 and 17 year olds, or CQC registration where you provide personal care. We check you qualify for free before you write a word.
Who commissions care leaver services, and under what duty
Councils commission these services as corporate parents, using their leaving-care duties under the Children Act 1989 and the Children and Social Work Act 2017. The buying team is usually children's services commissioning, not adult social care, and the demand driver is statutory: Personal Adviser support must be offered to every care leaver up to age 25 under the 2017 Act, extended from the old cut-off of 21. That duty is why councils keep tendering for accommodation, floating support, mentoring and PA delivery. The scale is real. There were 83,630 children in care in England on 31 March 2024 according to the Department for Education, and each cohort moves into the leaving-care system the council has to provision for. Read the commissioning strategy and the Local Offer before you bid, because the evaluators will mark your answers against the promises they have already published to young people. Knowing which directorate runs the tender also tells you the language to write in: children's services commissioners think in pathway plans, corporate-parenting principles and outcomes for care-experienced young people, not in care-home occupancy or domiciliary hours.
Which regulator actually applies (and which does not)
For the support element there is generally no care regulator to register with, which is the single biggest misunderstanding on these bids. Leaving-care and Personal Adviser support is a council duty, so do not assume you need CQC registration to deliver it. The regulator only matters for what you physically provide alongside the support. Two triggers apply. First, from 9 April 2024, supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year old looked-after children and care leavers must be Ofsted-registered, so a 16-25 contract often splits into an Ofsted-registered 16-17 lot and a non-regulated 18-25 lot. Second, if you deliver personal care to anyone, that is a CQC-regulated activity. Map your delivery model lot by lot, state plainly which registration each lot needs, and evidence it. Claiming the wrong regulator, or saying you need a CQC rating for the 18-25 support, signals to the evaluator that you have not done this before.
How the tender is usually structured
Most councils run these as accommodation-and-support frameworks or a DPS for vulnerable young people aged 16 to 25, often with multiple lots split by age band, locality or level of need. City of Bradford MDC's 16-25 Leaving Care and Vulnerable Young Persons Accommodation and Support Framework is a typical example of the format. Expect a selection stage on the basics (insurance, turnover, exclusion grounds, safeguarding, and Ofsted registration where the 16-17 lot demands it), then a scored quality stage of written method statements. Decide your lots early. If you can deliver Ofsted-registered 16-17 provision you can bid the regulated lot; if not, target the 18-25 lot honestly rather than overreaching on a lot you cannot lawfully deliver. A framework or DPS place is what lets the council place young people with you, so understand the call-off mechanism before you commit: a DPS stays open for new providers to join and ranks on direct award or mini-competition, while a closed framework locks the provider list for its full term. See our guide on frameworks versus a DPS versus a single contract to choose where your effort goes.
What the scored questions test
Quality is judged against corporate-parenting principles and the council's Local Offer, so your method statements need to show outcomes for care-experienced young people, not generic support process. Bidders are commonly asked to evidence pathway planning, NEET-reduction work, and accommodation-suitability assessments aligned to the DfE SSDA903 suitable-accommodation measure. Use the outcome data to frame your answers. The Department for Education reported that 39 percent of care leavers aged 19 to 21 were NEET in 2024, against roughly 13 percent of all 19 to 21 year olds, so an evaluator scoring an education-and-employment question wants your concrete NEET-reduction model, not a mission statement. Likewise, 89 percent of care leavers were in suitable accommodation in 2024, meaning about one in nine were not; show how your suitability assessments and move-on planning close that gap. Write to the rubric on every answer: name the outcome, describe the method that delivers it, then give the measure or evidence that proves it works.
Staying Put and accommodation as differentiators
Staying Put, where a young person remains with their former foster carers after 18, is commissioned alongside leaving-care services and is integrated with Independent Fostering Agencies, so it can be a genuine bid differentiator if you can deliver or partner on it. It is a recognised, well-used pathway: the DfE reported that 62 percent of 18 year olds in foster care were still living with their former foster carers three months after their eighteenth birthday in 2024, up from 58 percent in 2020. If you run or partner with an IFA, say so and evidence it, because councils value continuity of placement and it scores against corporate-parenting principles. Where you cannot deliver Staying Put directly, a named subcontracting or consortium arrangement can still let you answer the question credibly, provided you set out who does what and how you manage the handover. The point is to show the commissioner a coherent pathway from semi-independent accommodation, through floating support, to Staying Put or independent move-on, rather than a single isolated service that leaves the young person to navigate the gaps.
Care leaver (16-25) tender readiness checklist
What councils typically check before a quality answer is read, and which registration applies to which part of the service.
| Element | What it usually means | Regulator / regime |
|---|---|---|
| 18-25 support and PA delivery | Floating support, mentoring, Personal Adviser delivery; a council corporate-parenting duty under the Children and Social Work Act 2017 | Council commissioned, no care-regulator registration in itself |
| 16-17 supported accommodation | Mandatory Ofsted registration since 9 April 2024 for accommodation serving 16 and 17 year old looked-after children and care leavers | Ofsted (not CQC) |
| Personal care delivery | Only where you provide regulated personal care to any service user | CQC |
| Pathway planning and outcomes | Evidence of pathway plans, NEET-reduction work and accommodation-suitability assessments aligned to SSDA903 | Scored against the Local Offer |
| Staying Put | Supporting 18-plus young people to remain with former foster carers, often via an IFA partner | Commissioned alongside leaving-care services |
| Selection basics | Insurance, turnover, exclusion grounds and a robust safeguarding policy | Pass or fail |
Not sure if you qualify for a tender? We check it for free, before you pay anything, and we only take bids we believe you can win. Text TENDER to get started.
Common questions
Are care leaver support services regulated by CQC or Ofsted?
Neither, for the support element itself. Leaving-care and Personal Adviser support is a council corporate-parenting duty, not a CQC-regulated activity. A care regulator only applies to what you deliver alongside the support: supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds has needed Ofsted registration since 9 April 2024, and any delivery of personal care is a CQC-regulated activity. Map your model lot by lot and state plainly which registration each lot needs.
Who commissions care leaver and leaving-care services?
Local authorities commission them, usually through their children's services teams acting as corporate parents. The duty sits in the Children Act 1989 and the Children and Social Work Act 2017. Buying is done through accommodation-and-support frameworks or a dynamic purchasing system for vulnerable young people aged 16 to 25, and you are scored against the council's published Local Offer for care leavers.
What is a Personal Adviser for care leavers?
A Personal Adviser, or PA, is the named worker who supports a care leaver with their pathway plan, education, employment, housing and wellbeing. Under the Children and Social Work Act 2017 this support must be offered to every care leaver up to age 25, extended from the previous limit of 21. That statutory duty is the demand driver behind these tenders, and many contracts include PA delivery as a commissioned service.
Does supported accommodation for 16-17 year old care leavers need to be Ofsted registered?
Yes. Since 9 April 2024, supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year old looked-after children and care leavers must be Ofsted-registered. This is why a 16-25 contract often splits into an Ofsted-registered 16-17 lot and a non-regulated 18-25 lot. If you cannot register with Ofsted for the younger band, bid the 18-25 lot rather than overreaching on a lot you cannot lawfully deliver.
What is a Staying Put arrangement?
Staying Put is where a young person remains living with their former foster carers after they turn 18. It is commissioned alongside leaving-care services and is integrated with Independent Fostering Agencies, so it can be a strong differentiator in a bid. It is widely used: the DfE reported that 62 percent of 18 year olds in foster care were still with their former foster carers three months after their eighteenth birthday in 2024.
How do you bid for a leaving care accommodation framework?
Read the council's commissioning strategy and Local Offer, work out which lots you can lawfully deliver, then write method statements that evidence pathway planning, NEET-reduction outcomes and accommodation-suitability assessments against the SSDA903 measure. Pass the selection stage on insurance, turnover and safeguarding, register with Ofsted for any 16-17 lot, and score the quality stage against corporate-parenting principles. Your first tender is £795. We only take bids we believe you can win, and if a loss is clearly down to our writing error we rewrite the next one free. Our win rate is 96 percent.
Keep reading
Browse all care tender guides, or see care tender writing by service.
Got a tender to check?
Text TENDER to +44 7822 030677and we'll tell you free whether you'd qualify, before you spend a penny.