You worked on that tender for weeks. Your team pulled together case studies, updated policies, and crafted what you genuinely believed was a strong submission. Then the rejection email arrived with a score that made no sense. Your price was competitive. Your experience was solid. Your CQC rating was Good.…

Your care services might be excellent. Your CQC rating might be Good. Your residents might be genuinely happy. But if your workforce strategy isn’t clearly articulated in tender responses, commissioners are scoring you down and awarding contracts to competitors who’ve learnt how to demonstrate stability on paper. The adult social…

If you’ve been bidding for social housing maintenance contracts using the same approach you’ve always used, you’re about to face rejection. Commissioners are fundamentally reassessing what they need from suppliers, and the evaluation criteria that worked six months ago are no longer enough. The catalyst? New legal obligations that came…

The patient transport sector is experiencing the tightest procurement scrutiny it’s faced in years. Integrated Care Boards awarding Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services (NEPTS) contracts worth tens of millions are rejecting technically capable providers who fail to demonstrate comprehensive regulatory understanding. Recent framework awards reveal a consistent pattern: organisations losing on…

The supported living sector is undergoing a quiet but powerful transformation. Over the last few years, commissioners have been reshaping what they look for in providers — not just in terms of service delivery, but in long-term outcomes, digital transparency, and workforce resilience. As the procurement landscape evolves under the…

Day services don’t get much attention. When your local council talks about social care, they’re usually discussing care homes, home care, or supported living. When there’s another article about the sector being in crisis, it’s about care workers and nurses. Day services just keep running quietly in the background, supporting…

Nobody starts a domiciliary care or supported living service planning to face massive CQC fines or NHS contract terminations. You got into this work to support people in their own homes, help them maintain independence, and deliver person-centred care. But regulatory penalties in community-based services have become increasingly severe, and…

Amazon changed how we buy things. You search, compare prices and reviews, click purchase, and it arrives at your door. Simple, transparent, efficient. So here’s an uncomfortable question: could the same approach work for choosing care services? It sounds either brilliant or horrifying depending on how you look at it.…

If you’ve been in a provider meeting recently, you already know how this conversation goes. Someone mentions the latest tender opportunity, and within minutes you’re all discussing the same impossible maths: how to deliver the quality of care you’re committed to when the fee rates simply don’t cover your actual…

Every unsuccessful tender represents thousands of pounds in wasted effort and months of senior management time that could have been spent elsewhere. Analysis of failed health and social care bids shows patterns of avoidable mistakes that consistently stop capable providers from winning contracts they should have secured. With average tender…