The tender notification arrives looking fairly standard, another NHS framework for domiciliary care services. You download the documents and scan through the usual sections about service delivery, staffing, and quality. Then you reach page 47 and stop. The specification states that bidders must submit a 10-minute video presentation introducing their organisation and key staff.

This isn’t some future possibility anymore. Several NHS trusts and councils started asking for video submissions in late 2024, and it’s happening more frequently in 2025. If you haven’t come across this yet in your tendering, you probably will soon. Most providers aren’t ready for it.

The Procurement Act 2023, which came into full effect in February 2025, doesn’t require video submissions. However, it does encourage innovation in how buyers assess suppliers, and video is becoming one way commissioners are trying to see beyond the endless written responses that all start sounding the same after reading twenty bids.

Why Councils and NHS Trusts Are Asking for This

Procurement teams spend weeks reading tender responses, and frankly, many of them blur together. Everyone claims person-centred care, strong quality systems, and experienced managers. The written responses often look remarkably similar, especially when providers use professional bid writers who know exactly what commissioners want to hear.

Video changes things. When you’re watching someone explain their approach to supporting people with dementia, you can tell whether they genuinely understand it or they’re just repeating what their consultant wrote. You can see the actual building where services will operate, meet the people who’ll manage the contract, and get a sense of company culture that’s difficult to show in written documents.

For health and social care, this matters more than in other sectors. Care is fundamentally about human relationships. Commissioners are buying services that need empathy, communication skills, and the ability to build trust with vulnerable people. Seeing your team on video gives evidence of those softer skills that tender responses struggle to show convincingly.

There’s also the authenticity factor. With AI writing tools becoming more sophisticated, commissioners worry about whether they’re judging your organisation or your AI’s version of what you should say. Video makes it much harder to present capabilities you don’t have or people who don’t actually work for you.

What Commissioners Are Actually Requesting

The requirements vary, but common requests include a 5-10 minute video introducing your organisation, showing your team, facilities, and approach to care. Some want recorded answers to specific tender questions about your method for managing medication, how you handle complex care needs, and your safeguarding approach.

A few are asking for short case studies showing brief videos of actual service delivery or client testimonials with proper consent. There’s even discussion about live virtual interviews becoming part of tender evaluation, though that’s still uncommon.

The specifications usually include basic technical requirements about file format, maximum size, and how to submit it. What they often don’t include is much guidance on what makes a good tender video versus what works against you.

Where Providers Are Getting It Wrong

Based on what commissioners are saying about submissions so far, providers are making predictable errors. The most common is treating this like a marketing video when it’s actually a tender response. You’re not trying to look slick and corporate. You’re trying to demonstrate capability and build trust with the people who’ll oversee your contract.

Some providers are clearly hiring professional videographers and producing polished content that feels cold. Perfect lighting, professional presenters, and corporate messaging that could be any care provider anywhere. It looks expensive but doesn’t tell commissioners anything useful about whether you can actually deliver the contract.

Others go too far in the opposite direction with smartphone videos featuring poor lighting, background noise, and rambling responses that don’t address the actual questions. That suggests you’re not taking the tender seriously or can’t organise yourselves for a simple video recording.

The challenge is finding the middle ground. You need to appear professional enough to be taken seriously yet genuine enough to be believed.

How to Get This Right Without Overcomplicating It

You don’t need a production company or expensive equipment. A decent smartphone or laptop camera works fine if you pay attention to basics. Find a quiet room with good natural light or buy a cheap ring light. Frame the shot so you’re not sitting in a dark corner with a messy office behind you.

Plan what you’ll say but don’t write out a script word for word. Commissioners can tell when someone’s reading, and it kills the authenticity you’re trying to achieve. Know your key messages, perhaps three to five main points you need to cover, and speak naturally about them.

Include the right people. Commissioners want to meet the actual contract manager, the clinical lead, and the operational staff who’ll deliver services. Don’t just put your managing director on camera if they won’t be involved in service delivery. The whole point of the video is seeing who’ll actually do the work.

Keep it relevant to the tender. If they’re asking about your safeguarding approach, show them your safeguarding lead explaining your systems. If it’s about medication management, have a qualified nurse walk through your processes. Match your content to how they’ll score the bid, just like you would with written responses.

Practice before recording. You don’t need to be perfectly polished, but you do need to be clear and confident. Watch it back before submitting. If you wouldn’t want to work with the people in that video, commissioners probably won’t either.

The Confidentiality Issues You Need to Consider

Video creates data protection challenges you need to think through carefully. You can’t just film service users or show identifiable people without proper consent. You can’t discuss specific cases in ways that might reveal personal information.

If you’re showing facilities, make sure there’s nothing visible that shouldn’t be there. Medication records, care plans, and service user information on whiteboards are all easy to accidentally include in the background of a video.

Get proper consent if you’re including staff members. Some people don’t want to appear on video that will be shared with procurement teams, and that’s their right. You need willing participants, not people who feel pressured into appearing.

What This Means for Your Tender Preparation

Video requirements add time and complexity to bid preparation. You need to allow for filming, reviewing, potentially re-recording, and uploading video files which are much larger than document submissions. That probably means starting tender responses earlier than you currently do.

It also means involving different people in your bid team. Your best bid writer might not be your best on-camera presenter. You need to work out who should appear in videos and make sure they’re available when you need to film, which needs more coordination than writing sections separately.

The bar for winning tenders just went up. Providers who can communicate well on video have a new advantage over those who can only write good responses. If you’re uncomfortable on camera or don’t have team members who present well, you’ve got an issue to address.

The Question of Fairness

Not everyone has equal ability to produce video content. Smaller providers might not have the expertise, equipment, or confident presenters that larger organisations can field. There’s a legitimate worry that video requirements disadvantage certain providers despite having excellent services.

Commissioners should be keeping video requirements optional or providing clear guidance on what’s expected. They should judge content not production quality, focusing on what’s said rather than how professional it looks. However, in practice, presentation affects perception whether commissioners intend that or not.

If you genuinely struggle with video requirements and feel it’s creating unfair disadvantage, it’s worth raising with commissioners. The Procurement Act emphasises proportionality and accessibility. Video should enhance evaluation, not exclude capable providers.

Preparing for What’s Coming

Even if you haven’t seen video requirements yet, assume you will. Start building capability now rather than scrambling when a tender with tight deadlines demands a video you’re unprepared to produce.

Create a simple video about your organisation showing your facilities and introducing key team members. You might not submit it anywhere immediately, but the process of making it helps you work out what works and what needs improving. Get comfortable being on camera. Practice explaining your services naturally without reading from notes.

Work out who your best communicators are and make sure they understand how to present for tender evaluation rather than marketing. These are different skills. Marketing videos sell whilst tender videos demonstrate. Know the difference.

Consider getting brief training in on-camera communication. This doesn’t need to be expensive. There are plenty of online courses covering basics of speaking to camera, framing shots, and managing nerves. An hour or two of learning makes a real difference to output quality.

Where Procurement Is Heading

Video submissions are just the beginning. Procurement is moving toward mixed approaches combining written responses with digital media, live presentations, and potentially interactive elements. The days of text-only tender responses are probably numbered.

This isn’t necessarily bad, though it feels uncomfortable if you’ve built expertise in written bids and suddenly need different skills. Video actually gives you more ways to demonstrate capability and stand out from competitors. It rewards authenticity and expertise rather than just good writing.

The providers who adapt earliest will have an advantage whilst this is still new. Once video becomes standard, that advantage disappears and it just becomes another requirement everyone meets. However, right now, doing it well still sets you apart from competitors who are struggling with it or resisting entirely.

For health and social care providers, video should actually play to your strengths if you’re genuinely committed to person-centred care. The empathy, communication skills, and human connection that make you good at care work should come through naturally on camera. If it doesn’t, that might be worth thinking about.

Making This Work for Your Organisation

The shift to video tendering represents more than just a new format requirement. It reflects a broader change in how commissioners evaluate suppliers, moving from assessing what you write about yourselves to seeing who you actually are and how you communicate.

This change favours providers who are genuinely good at what they do over those who are simply good at describing what they do. If your strength lies in actual service delivery rather than bid writing, video requirements might actually work in your favour once you get comfortable with the format.

The key is treating video as seriously as you’d treat any other tender requirement whilst keeping it authentic and relevant to the specific contract. Over-produced marketing videos won’t win tenders. Neither will poorly prepared, rambling recordings. What works is professional, genuine communication from the people who’ll actually deliver the services.

Start preparing now even if you haven’t encountered video requirements yet. Build the skills, identify your presenters, and practice the format. When the requirement appears in a tender you really want to win, you’ll be ready whilst your competitors are still working out where to point the camera.

 Want to know how you can move with the new? Our workforce-focused tender writing and strategic consultancy services are specifically designed to address that.