East Sussex County Council’s Adult Social Care Department has reopened applications to its Approved List for Supported Living Services for Working Age Adults. The Council is inviting providers to join the existing Approved List for the remainder of its current lifetime, with applications closing on 11 June 2026 at 06:00. This is not a fresh framework but a refresh of an established list first commissioned in June 2024, giving providers an opportunity to be added before the term concludes.

What services are required?

The contract covers Supported Living Services for Working Age Adults, combining accommodation-based care and support with housing support. Providers on the Approved List are commissioned to deliver client-specific packages for adults eligible for Adult Social Care who are living in a supported living service. The service user groups are explicitly defined: people with learning disabilities, people with mental health support needs, and people with physical disabilities, sensory impairment or long-term conditions.

Successful applicants are expected to deliver high-quality, person-centred support that encourages client participation and reflects changing needs and priorities over the life of the contract. The Council is explicit that it wants flexible, longer-term partnership relationships rather than transactional commissioning.

What is it solving?

The Approved List is designed to address three connected issues. 

1. Inconsistency in commissioning: The Council wants a consistent approach to how supported living packages are commissioned and delivered across East Sussex, replacing fragmented arrangements with a single quality-assured route to market.

2. Accommodation availability: The Council needs providers who already have local supported living accommodation in East Sussex, or who can credibly mobilise it within a reasonable period of contract award. 
3. Partnership and continuity: The framework is built around longer-term, integrated relationships that flex as client needs change, rather than short-term contracts that disrupt continuity of care for vulnerable adults.

For working age adults with learning disabilities, mental health needs, physical disabilities or long-term conditions, the underlying purpose is stability and independence – supported living that enables people to live in their own homes with the right level of care, rather than defaulting to residential or institutional alternatives.

Who is it ideal for?

This opportunity is suited to established supported living providers with an existing East Sussex footprint, or with the operational capacity to mobilise local accommodation quickly after contract award. Because the Council is recruiting onto an existing Approved List rather than launching a new framework, applicants need to be ready to deliver from the point of admission, not in a year’s time.

Service type and user group

The contract is for Supported Living services, encompassing both accommodation-based care and support and housing support, for working age adults who qualify for Adult Social Care under East Sussex County Council’s eligibility framework. The three primary cohorts are people with learning disabilities, people with mental health support needs, and people with physical disabilities, sensory impairment or long-term conditions.

Mandatory eligibility requirements

•       CQC registration is required for providers delivering personal care: Applicants whose service offer includes regulated personal care must be currently registered with the Care Quality Commission. Providers offering only housing-related support without personal care fall outside CQC scope but must still meet the Council’s quality and safeguarding requirements.
•       Working age adults eligible for Adult Social Care: The service user group is restricted to working age adults assessed as eligible under the Care Act 2014; this is not a children’s services or older people’s contract.
•       East Sussex accommodation – in place or credibly mobilisable: Applicants must either confirm they have access to local supported living accommodation in East Sussex, or submit a mobilisation plan evidencing how accommodation will be made available within a reasonable period of contract award.
•       Capacity to deliver across one or more service categories: Applicants should bid only for the categories they can demonstrably deliver, with the workforce, clinical governance and safeguarding arrangements appropriate to that cohort.

Lot and category structure

The Approved List is divided into six service categories, reflecting the different cohorts and complexity profiles within working age supported living. Providers can apply to be admitted to one, several, or all of the categories, depending on their experience, workforce specialism and accommodation portfolio. Applicants should select categories deliberately – the Council is looking for evidence of genuine specialism and capacity in each category bid for, not blanket applications across categories where the provider lacks a track record.

What should providers have in place?

•       CQC registration – current and active for the regulated activities relevant to the categories applied for, where personal care is part of the offer
•       Local accommodation or a credible mobilisation plan – evidence of existing East Sussex supported living properties, or a costed and time-bound plan for securing them
•       Specialist workforce capability by cohort – staff trained in positive behaviour support, mental health recovery, complex physical and sensory needs, or long-term condition management, depending on categories applied for
•       Up-to-date policies and procedures covering safeguarding adults, mental capacity and DoLS, medication, infection prevention, complaints, equality and diversity, and incident reporting
•       Person-centred planning evidence – demonstrable approaches to client participation, outcomes-based support planning, and review
•       Partnership and integration evidence – working relationships with local authority care management, community mental health teams, learning disability services, and primary care
•       Quality assurance and reporting infrastructure – systems capable of evidencing outcomes, incidents, and contract performance to the Council across the life of the framework

Next steps

If you would like to speak to a sales manager about your application for this Approved List, book a consultation with the AssuredBID team. We will talk through your eligibility across the six categories, your accommodation position, and your bid strategy, and outline how our specialist bid writers can support your submission ahead of the 11 June 2026 deadline.

To review the full eligibility criteria, scope and tender documentation, visit BIDSuite — East Sussex Approved List for Supported Living Services for Working Age Adults.