Winning a health and social care contract feels like crossing the finish line. The months of tender preparation, proposal writing and evaluation periods are finally over but here’s what nobody tells you during the tendering process.

Drawing on years of witnessing these mobilisation challenges firsthand, we’ve developed comprehensive post-award delivery support services that address the gap between tender promises and operational reality, helping providers navigate the critical transition from contract award to successful service delivery

Your First 90 Days Will Make or Break You

Most health and social care contracts include a 3 month mobilisation period between contract award and service commencement. Based on our experience supporting providers through this phase, it’s rarely enough time.

During mobilisation, you need to recruit and train staff, transfer service users, establish stakeholder relationships, and implement quality frameworks. The challenge? Most providers underestimate recruitment timescales. With staff turnover in health and social care between 20-40%, finding qualified workers takes much longer than anticipated.

The handover information from councils is often incomplete. Previous providers take key knowledge with them, leaving gaps in understanding service users’ needs and local procedures. IT integration proves more complex than expected, while data protection requirements slow information sharing just when you need it most.

Hidden Costs

Mobilisation always costs more than budgeted. Recruitment fees, temporary staffing, training costs and system setup expenses quickly erode projected margins. Many providers spend money before receiving any contract payments, creating cash flow pressures.

The Staff Reality – Good People Are Harder to Find Than You Think

The biggest shock for new contract holders is recruitment difficulty. Health and social care faces unprecedented staffing challenges, with Brexit reducing available workers while other sectors offer better conditions. The pandemic accelerated departures, and many haven’t returned.

You may need to pay significantly more than planned, recruit internationally (adding visa costs), or provide extensive training to less experienced workers. This creates pressure between starting services on time and maintaining quality standards.

The Quality and Speed Dilemma

Rushing recruitment often leads to poor hiring decisions that create long-term problems like service quality issues, complaints, regulatory concerns, and higher turnover that worsens recruitment difficulties.

Successful providers maintain talent pipelines even when not actively recruiting, partner with training providers for steady worker streams, and build realistic recruitment timescales into planning.

The Financial Reality Check – Your Margins Will Be Squeezed

Most providers win contracts through competitive pricing with tight margins. Contract delivery reveals unexpected costs: higher recruitment expenses, additional management time, underestimated travel costs, and regulatory compliance expenses.

Council payment systems are often slow and bureaucratic. You may fund service delivery for months before receiving payment. Payment disputes over contract interpretation are common and resource-intensive to resolve.

Most contracts fix prices for their duration, but costs keep rising. Staff wages, fuel, utilities, and supplies increase while income remains static, creating annual margin squeeze.

For immediate support with mobilisation planning and cost management strategies that protect your margins whilst ensuring quality service delivery, arrange an urgent delivery planning consultation with our team who understand these financial pressures and can provide practical solutions.

Regulatory Complexity – Compliance Is More Demanding Than Expected

Different councils have varying procedures for the same services. Adult safeguarding, incident reporting, and quality monitoring all differ between areas. You may need multiple NHS, PAMMS or CQC registrations, taking time and costing money not budgeted for.

CQC inspections become more likely when taking on new services, with particular focus on service transfer management and quality maintenance. Poor results affect all services, not just the inspected one, potentially damaging relationships with other commissioners.

Every incident needs documenting to regulatory standards, creating administrative burden requiring dedicated staff time and systems investment.

Innovation and Delivery Tension

Winning tenders often include innovative approaches that impress evaluators. Delivering these while maintaining basic service quality creates significant pressure.

Innovations that sounded feasible during bidding may prove difficult to implement. Technology solutions take longer to develop, staff training requires more time than planned, and service users may resist changes from established routines.

Meanwhile, you still need to deliver safe, reliable services daily. Pressure to focus on immediate operational needs can delay or derail promised innovations, affecting performance ratings and future opportunities.

To support providers navigating these post-award complexities, we maintain practical contract delivery resources including mobilisation checklists, regulatory compliance templates, and innovation implementation frameworks that help bridge the gap between tender commitments and operational realities.

What Success Looks Like

Despite challenges, many providers successfully deliver contracts benefiting everyone involved. These organisations share key characteristics like realistic expectations from the start, investment in robust systems and people, strong stakeholder relationships, and continuous improvement focus.

Whether you’re considering bidding, recently won, or seeking to improve existing contract performance, understanding that success is measured by delivery outcomes, not just contract awards, is crucial.

Ready to turn contract wins into delivery success? Connect with our delivery support specialists to discuss how AssuredBID can support your contract delivery journey, helping you navigate the challenges that separate providers who simply win contracts from those who deliver sustainable success that benefits commissioners, service users, and their own long-term business growth.