Substance Misuse Tender Writing for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Providers
Substance misuse tenders are commissioned by local authority public health teams through the ring-fenced Public Health Grant, not the NHS directly, so they fall under the Procurement Act 2023 Light Touch Regime rather than the NHS Provider Selection Regime. We write the technical responses, costing, social value and mobilisation evidence that score against NDTMS outcomes and DATRIG funding conditions, and we are honest about the lot you can credibly win. Your first tender is £795.
Free eligibility check on any UK care tender. We tell you straight whether you'd qualify before you pay a penny.
What makes substance misuse tenders different
Substance misuse tenders are public health contracts, not NHS or adult social care ones, and that single fact changes how you bid. Adult drug and alcohol treatment in England is commissioned by local authorities through the ring-fenced Public Health Grant, with a statutory duty to provide specialist services as a condition of that grant. Because the buyer is the council's public health team and not an NHS body, the procurement runs under the Procurement Act 2023 Light Touch Regime rather than the NHS Provider Selection Regime. Where a treatment service is jointly NHS-commissioned it can straddle the PSR, so read the contract notice and the commissioner's chosen route carefully rather than assuming a single regime applies. Get this wrong in your bid and you signal to the evaluator that you do not understand the buyer, which is fatal before you have answered a single quality question.
The funding architecture is unusual and commissioners test you on it directly. The 2025-26 settlement is delivered partly through the new consolidated Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant, or DATRIG, which merged several earlier grants into one stream and is conditional on the council maintaining its existing Public Health Grant spend on treatment. That is the no-substitution rule, and bids are expected to show how your model protects, rather than displaces, baseline investment. Do not confuse DATRIG with the older SSMTRG naming, because using the wrong grant label dates your knowledge instantly. Demand is rising too. According to OHID, 329,646 adults were in contact with drug and alcohol treatment in England between April 2024 and March 2025, a 6 percent rise and the highest number on record, up from 310,863 the year before.
Finally, the scope is broad and the lotting is decisive. Specifications routinely split Adults from Children and Young People, with the latter often a separate Find a Tender notice category, and many councils now favour an integrated all-age single-provider model. You have to decide early whether to bid the whole system, a single lot, or join a consortium, and that decision shapes your staffing, pricing and partnership evidence from the first page. Recovery, lived-experience and peer-mentor provision and mutual aid links such as SMART Recovery and AA or NA pathways are scored requirements in most modern specifications, not optional extras. A bid that treats recovery as a closing paragraph rather than a designed system loses easy marks to providers who have built it in.
What commissioners score in substance misuse tenders
NDTMS outcomes and effective treatment numbers
Commissioners score your bid against National Drug Treatment Monitoring System outcomes, so every quality answer must commit to NDTMS-aligned KPIs in concrete terms. Specifications are evaluated on successful completions, numbers in effective treatment, and continuity of care from prison, all reported to OHID, so vague promises to improve outcomes lose marks. Evaluators want to see that you understand the local treatment population, that you will hit and report these metrics, and that your case-management and data systems feed NDTMS cleanly and on time. According to OHID, 329,646 adults were in treatment in England in 2024 to 2025, the highest number on record, so your capacity, waiting-time and re-presentation commitments are read against genuine and rising demand. Name the metric, state your baseline assumption, set out the mechanism that moves it, and show the reporting line back to OHID. The strongest answers tie each KPI to a named intervention and a monitoring rhythm the commissioner can audit at contract review.
Recovery, lived experience and mutual aid
Recovery-oriented systems of care are now a scored requirement, not a nice-to-have, so dedicate real evidence to peer mentoring and mutual aid rather than a statement of values. Modern specifications expect visible lived-experience provision, paid or volunteer peer-mentor roles with safeguarding and supervision around them, and active links to SMART Recovery and AA or NA pathways. Show the recovery community you will build, how service users move from structured treatment into sustained recovery, and how you measure that journey. The strongest answers describe a concrete local model with named partners and a clear progression route, not a generic aspiration, and they connect recovery activity back to NDTMS continuity and successful-completion outcomes so the evaluator can trace the line from your method to their target. Where you already run lived-experience roles elsewhere, evidence the supervision, training and outcomes from those, because commissioners trust a working model over a proposed one.
Social value, mobilisation and the no-substitution rule
Public health commissioners weight social value heavily and they test whether your funding model respects the DATRIG no-substitution condition. Expect scored questions on local employment of people with lived experience, reducing drug-related deaths and harm, and tackling health inequalities, all tied to measurable commitments rather than intentions. You will also be marked on a credible mobilisation plan that protects service continuity through transition, because these are large multi-year contracts where TUPE and uninterrupted prescribing matter from day one. Show that additional grant money strengthens the offer without displacing baseline Public Health Grant spend. According to DHSC, 310 million pounds in additional targeted grants is being provided to councils in 2025-26, in line with Dame Carol Black's independent review, so commissioners are explicit that this is extra money for additional impact. Frame your additionality clearly: what the baseline buys, and what the extra grant buys on top of it.
How we write a winning substance misuse tender writing bid
We write to the NDTMS outcome the evaluator marks
We start from the specification's scoring grid and the published outcome measures, then write each answer to land the points on offer. That means committing to NDTMS-aligned KPIs in concrete terms, successful completions, numbers in effective treatment, and continuity of care from prison, and explaining the operational mechanism behind each one. We map your case-management and data flow to OHID reporting so the commissioner can see clean, auditable NDTMS submissions from day one. Where the council has set local priorities such as reducing drug-related deaths or improving young people's access, we surface them and answer them directly rather than burying them in generic prose. The result is a quality response the evaluator can score quickly, because every claim is tied to a metric, a method and a monitoring point.
We get the regime and the funding rules right
Because we know substance misuse sits under the Procurement Act 2023 Light Touch Regime and not the NHS Provider Selection Regime, we structure responses for the route the commissioner has actually chosen and flag any jointly NHS-commissioned elements that could straddle the PSR. We build your financial narrative around the DATRIG no-substitution rule, showing additional grant funding as genuine additionality on top of protected baseline spend. We use the real numbers, including the 310 million pounds of additional 2025-26 grant funding and the roughly 40 percent rise in local authority treatment funding between 2020-21 and 2024-25 that funded over 50,000 new treatment places, to demonstrate the sector fluency that reassures evaluators you will manage their money correctly.
We make the lotting and recovery decision with you
Before a word is written we work out whether you bid Adults, Children and Young People, the integrated all-age model, or a consortium, and we are honest if a lot is not winnable for you. We then build the scored recovery and lived-experience content properly, with named mutual aid links and a credible peer-mentor structure, because that is where many bids quietly lose marks. We pressure-test your mobilisation and TUPE plan so prescribing and service continuity survive the handover across a long 5 plus 2 contract. We only take on bids we believe you can win, and our site-wide win rate is 96 percent.
Why substance misuse tender writing bids lose
Most substance misuse tender writing bids are lost on a handful of avoidable mistakes. These are the ones we see most.
- Treating the bid as an NHS or social care tender and citing the Provider Selection Regime when the contract actually runs under the Procurement Act 2023 Light Touch Regime.
- Committing to vague better outcomes instead of specific NDTMS metrics such as successful completions, numbers in effective treatment and continuity of care from prison.
- Ignoring the DATRIG no-substitution rule and presenting additional grant money in a way that looks like it replaces baseline Public Health Grant spend.
- Treating recovery, lived experience, peer mentoring and mutual aid links as optional extras when they are scored requirements in most modern specifications.
- Bidding the wrong lot, for example an all-age single-provider model when you can only credibly deliver Adults or Children and Young People, and having no consortium plan.
- A weak mobilisation and TUPE plan that fails to evidence uninterrupted prescribing and service continuity across a 5 plus 2 year contract transition.
- Missing or mishandled CQC registration for the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury where clinical treatment or prescribing is in scope.
Substance misuse tender requirements at a glance
The core elements public health commissioners assess when they recommission drug and alcohol treatment. Use it to sense-check whether you are ready to bid before you commit.
| Element | What commissioners expect | Why it matters to the score |
|---|---|---|
| Commissioner | Local authority public health team via the ring-fenced Public Health Grant | Sets the Procurement Act 2023 Light Touch Regime route, not the NHS PSR |
| Funding rule | DATRIG additional grant on top of protected baseline spend | The no-substitution rule is tested in the financial and delivery answers |
| Outcomes system | NDTMS metrics reported to OHID | Successful completions, effective treatment and prison continuity are scored |
| Contract length | Typically 5 years plus a 2-year extension (5+2) | Mobilisation, TUPE and continuity carry real weight over a long term |
| Lotting | Adults, Children and Young People, or integrated all-age | Choosing the wrong lot or model wastes the bid |
| Recovery | Lived experience, peer mentors, SMART Recovery and AA or NA links | Scored requirement in most modern specifications, not optional |
| Registration | CQC for treatment of disease, disorder or injury plus prescribing | A pass or fail gate where clinical and prescribing services are in scope |
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Substance Misuse Tender Writing tenders: common questions
Who commissions drug and alcohol treatment services in England?
Local authority public health teams commission adult drug and alcohol treatment in England, funded through the ring-fenced Public Health Grant, with a statutory duty to provide specialist substance misuse services as a condition of that grant. The NHS does not commission these contracts directly, although treatment can be jointly commissioned where clinical and prescribing elements are involved. Because the buyer is the council, the procurement runs under the Procurement Act 2023 Light Touch Regime rather than the NHS Provider Selection Regime, and your bid should reflect that route from the outset.
How do I bid for a substance misuse treatment contract?
Find the opportunity on Find a Tender or Contracts Finder, or the council's e-tendering portal, register interest, and read the specification and scoring grid before you write anything. Decide your lot, Adults, Children and Young People, or the integrated all-age model, and whether you bid alone or in a consortium. Then write technical answers that commit to NDTMS-aligned outcomes, evidence recovery and lived-experience provision, and present a costed, no-substitution-compliant delivery model with a credible mobilisation and TUPE plan that protects prescribing continuity.
What is the DATRIG grant for drug and alcohol services?
DATRIG is the Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Improvement Grant, a consolidated grant for 2025-26 that merged several previous separate grants into one stream for local authorities. It is conditional on councils maintaining their existing Public Health Grant spend on treatment, the no-substitution rule that commissioners enforce in bids. According to DHSC, 310 million pounds in additional targeted grants is being provided to councils in 2025-26, in line with Dame Carol Black's independent review. Do not confuse DATRIG with the older SSMTRG grant naming.
What qualifications and CQC registration do substance misuse providers need to win a tender?
Where a service delivers clinical treatment or prescribing, you will typically need CQC registration for the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury, with appropriately qualified clinical and prescribing staff and a registered manager. Psychosocial and recovery-only elements may sit outside CQC registration, but commissioners still expect qualified keyworkers, robust safeguarding, and clinical governance. Bids must also evidence insurance, information governance, and the staffing structure needed to deliver the specification across the full contract term.
How long are local authority drug and alcohol treatment contracts?
These contracts are usually long-term, with a common structure of 5 years plus a 2-year extension, often written as 5+2. Recent examples such as the Kent Adult Drug and Alcohol Service and the York alcohol and drug recommissioning both used a 5-year-plus-2 structure within a planned recommissioning cycle. The length is why commissioners place real weight on mobilisation, TUPE, financial sustainability and continuity of care, because they are buying a stable system for the better part of a decade.
How much does substance misuse tender writing cost with Selective Care Match?
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. Standard tenders after the first are £3,000, with £50 per extra lot, and we always start with a free eligibility check so you only invest where you have a genuine chance.
Related specialisms
Helpful guides on substance misuse tender writing tenders
Social value in care tenders
Procurement Act 2023 for care providers
CQC rating requirements
Why care bids lose
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