NHS and local authority care tenders: the difference and how to bid for each
Specialist care bid writers such as Selective Care Match write NHS and local authority tenders for UK care companies, and the first step is naming the buyer. Councils buy adult social care under the Procurement Act 2023, live since 24 February 2025, shaped by their Care Act 2014 duties. NHS integrated care boards buy health care services, such as continuing healthcare, under the Provider Selection Regime, in force since 1 January 2024. Different rules mean different notices, routes and scoring.
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Two kinds of public buyer, two sets of rules
A care provider in England sells to two kinds of public buyer, and each one buys under its own rulebook. Local authorities buy adult social care, such as home care, supported living and residential placements, because the Care Act 2014 makes them responsible for meeting eligible care and support needs. Section 5 of that Act also gives every council a market shaping duty: it must promote an efficient and effective market so people in its area have a variety of high quality providers to choose from. Health care is bought by NHS bodies. Under NHS England's guidance, the relevant authorities under the Provider Selection Regime are NHS England, integrated care boards, NHS trusts and foundation trusts, and local authorities and combined authorities when they arrange health care, which for councils means public health services such as substance misuse and sexual health. The two worlds meet in the middle. Continuing healthcare is funded by the NHS but delivered by the same home care and nursing providers councils use, and some buyers commission together. NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB, Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council, for example, jointly ran continuing healthcare homecare frameworks. So the question is never only what you deliver. It is who is paying, and under which law.
Read next: how to find care tenders in the UK, continuing healthcare homecare tenders.
How councils buy care
Councils buy care under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025 and replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for new procurements. Anything a council started before that date runs to the end under the old rules, so a framework you joined in 2024 may still be governed by the 2015 Regulations. Most care contracts are light touch contracts. Section 9 of the Act defines a light touch contract as one wholly or mainly for services specified in regulations, and Schedule 1 of the Procurement Regulations 2024 lists health services, social work services, social services and home-help services among them. Light touch status gives the council more freedom in how it designs the process, but it still has to publish notices and award fairly. Under section 19 a contract can go to the supplier that submits the most advantageous tender, which is a balance of quality and price, not the cheapest bid. In practice the council designs its own stages. Essex County Council's Live at Home 2025 framework, published on Find a Tender in March 2025, used the competitive flexible procedure under the light touch regime, ran four stages in a single tender round and weighted price and quality at 50 percent each.
Related: the Procurement Act 2023 for care providers, using Find a Tender, frameworks, DPS and contracts compared.
What the Care Act means for a council tender
The Care Act shapes what a council asks you and what it is allowed to pay, so read a council specification through that lens. The statutory guidance tells councils, at paragraph 4.31, to have evidence that contract terms, conditions and fee levels are enough to deliver the agreed care, pay staff at least the national minimum wage and fund effective training. Paragraph 4.35 goes further: a council must not threaten the sustainability of its local market, for example by setting fee levels below what providers can sustain in the long term. The guidance also steers the service model. Paragraph 4.101 says home care visits of 15 minutes or less are not appropriate for people who need help with intimate care, and paragraph 4.102 asks councils to make sure, through their contracts, that providers can prevent and respond to abuse or neglect. That is why safeguarding questions sit at the heart of most council tenders. In the Essex framework, providers bidding for the higher tier had to answer two safeguarding questions and score at least 2 out of 5 on each to progress. For a bid writer this matters in two ways. Your quality answers should show outcomes, safe staffing and safeguarding in named detail, and your price should be one you can defend against the council's own duty to pay a sustainable rate.
See also: how to win a care tender, safeguarding policy for care tenders, domiciliary care framework applications.
How NHS bodies buy care under the Provider Selection Regime
Health care services bought by NHS bodies fall under the Provider Selection Regime, set by the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 and in force since 1 January 2024. It covers health care services only. NHS England's statutory guidance is explicit that social care services and health-adjacent services are not in scope and must be arranged under the rules for wider public procurement. The biggest difference from a council tender is that competition is only one of five routes. The regime offers direct award processes A, B and C, the most suitable provider process, and the competitive process. Notices go on Find a Tender or the central digital platform, and many decisions are followed by a standstill of 8 working days from the day after the notice is published. You can see the regime at work in real notices. In Leeds, NHS West Yorkshire ICB published its intention to award places on a continuing healthcare home care dynamic purchasing system under direct award process B, stating on Find a Tender that it was publishing in accordance with the regime. No scored essay competition was involved. Our separate guide explains the five key criteria and how to become the most suitable provider, so we do not repeat them here.
Read next: the Provider Selection Regime explained, CHC homecare framework applications.
Where the NHS frameworks and portals fit
Work from the NHS reaches care providers through a layer of frameworks and portals that councils do not use in the same way, and each one has its own guide on this site. Some NHS buyers run their own tenders on e-sourcing portals such as Atamis. Others buy through national or regional frameworks, for example the healthcare frameworks let by NHS Shared Business Services, the Crown Commercial Service healthcare staffing framework known as RM6397, and frameworks set up by the NHS procurement hubs. The practical point for a provider is where to get registered and when. A council opportunity usually appears on that council's own portal, such as ProContract or In-Tend, with a notice on Find a Tender. An NHS opportunity may sit on an ICB portal, or it may never be tendered openly at all because the buyer calls off from a framework you are not on, or uses a direct award under the Provider Selection Regime. So map your targets before you write. List the councils and ICBs you want to work with, find out which portal and which frameworks each one uses, and register on those first. Our guides below cover the NHS frameworks one by one.
Related: NHS SBS frameworks for care providers, CCS healthcare staffing frameworks, NHS procurement hubs explained.
Mixed contracts: when a notice covers health and social care
When one contract covers both health care and social care, the rules follow the main subject matter, so check the value split before you assume which regime applies. Under NHS England's guidance a relevant authority may use the Provider Selection Regime for a mixed procurement only when the main subject matter is in-scope health care, judged by comparing the estimated lifetime value of the health care element with the value of everything else, and only when the out-of-scope part could not reasonably be supplied under a separate contract. The guidance gives health care and social care arranged under a single contract as an example of a mixed procurement. The notice usually tells you which rules apply, so read it before the specification. A council notice under the Procurement Act shows the procedure type and, for care, the special regime as light touch. A Provider Selection Regime notice says so in terms. The Derby and Derbyshire continuing healthcare notice, for instance, stated that the procurement began before 1 January 2024 under the light touch regime of the 2015 Regulations and that the Provider Selection Regime did not apply. Getting this wrong costs time. You prepare for the wrong deadlines, the wrong challenge window and the wrong kind of evaluation.
See also: reading an invitation to tender, care tender timescales.
How to bid for each, in practice
Bid for a council by passing its selection gates and then out-scoring rivals on written quality and price, and bid for the NHS by building an evidence record that justifies choosing you, sometimes without any competition. For a council, expect conditions of participation on CQC registration, insurance, finances and exclusion grounds, then scored method statements, then a price schedule. Essex, for example, required a CQC registered location in Essex or within 5 miles of its border, and asked bidders to pick one price point per service type in each district lot. For an NHS buyer, a scored tender is only one route. Under direct award process C an ICB can keep a provider whose service is not changing considerably and who is satisfying the existing contract, so strong contract performance is itself a bid. Under the most suitable provider process the ICB judges you against its published criteria without an open tender. Keep your outcomes data, CQC standing and integration evidence organised all year, and diarise the 8 working day standstill whenever an intention notice appears. We write both kinds of bid, and we start with a free eligibility check that confirms which rules your opportunity falls under before you commit any time.
Read next: how to respond to a care tender, free eligibility check.
Primary sources: Care Act 2014 (legislation.gov.uk); Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 (legislation.gov.uk).
Local authority and NHS care tenders compared
How the two kinds of public buyer differ for a care provider in England, based on the legislation and NHS England guidance cited above.
| Question | Local authority | NHS body |
|---|---|---|
| What it buys | Adult social care under the Care Act 2014 | Health care services, such as continuing healthcare and community health |
| Main rules | Procurement Act 2023, live since 24 February 2025 | Provider Selection Regime, in force since 1 January 2024 |
| How care is treated | Usually a light touch contract with a flexible process | Five routes, three of them direct awards |
| How winners are chosen | Most advantageous tender, a quality and price balance | Key criteria or a competitive process, depending on the route |
| Where notices go | Find a Tender plus the council's own portal | Find a Tender or the central digital platform, plus NHS portals |
| Challenge window | Set by the Procurement Act process | Standstill of 8 working days after many notices |
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. See our continuing healthcare tender writing or text TENDER to get started.
Common questions
Who writes NHS and local authority tenders for care companies in the UK?
Specialist care bid writers such as Selective Care Match write both, working with the provider's registered manager so the answers reflect the real service. The first job is confirming whether the buyer is a council under the Procurement Act 2023 or an NHS body under the Provider Selection Regime, because the rules, notices and scoring differ. We check that for free before any writing starts.
What is the difference between an NHS tender and a local authority tender?
A local authority tender buys social care under the Procurement Act 2023 and the council's Care Act duties, usually as a light touch contract awarded to the most advantageous tender. An NHS tender buys health care under the Provider Selection Regime, where an open competition is only one of five award routes and many contracts are awarded directly.
Does the Provider Selection Regime apply to social care?
No. NHS England's statutory guidance says social care services and health-adjacent services are not in scope of the Provider Selection Regime and must be arranged under the wider public procurement rules. The exception is a mixed contract whose main subject matter, by estimated lifetime value, is in-scope health care and where the social care part could not reasonably be contracted separately.
When did the new procurement rules start for council care tenders?
The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 and replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 for new procurements. Procurements a council started before that date continue under the old rules, so some frameworks running today are still governed by the 2015 Regulations. The notice for each opportunity tells you which applies.
Where are NHS and council care tenders advertised?
Both appear on Find a Tender, the government's central notice service. Councils also publish on their own portals, such as ProContract or In-Tend, and NHS buyers use portals such as Atamis or buy through frameworks run by NHS Shared Business Services, the Crown Commercial Service and the NHS procurement hubs. Some NHS work is awarded directly and never tendered openly.
How much does it cost to have Selective Care Match write an NHS or council tender?
Your first tender is £795, with standard bids at £3,000. We only take bids we believe you can win. Our win rate is 96 percent, substantiated by our internal tracker. We start with a free eligibility check that confirms which rules your opportunity falls under before you commit.
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.