Work through a realistic tender — Social care & community services

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to defend a bid decision and prepare a consistent submission.

Common to all countries

Make a decision that survives delivery

A bid review has three separate gates: admissibility, a credible route to a competitive score, and the ability to deliver at an acceptable return. A high score cannot cure an inadmissible offer; a technically possible offer can still be commercially unsound. Give each unresolved issue an owner and a decision deadline before the submission cut-off.

Assemble the final response from the controlled requirements and evidence registers. Check names, totals, document versions, signatures, portal fields and uploaded files. Use an independent read-through to find contradictions between the method, staffing and price. After a permitted test of the submission workflow, allow time for the actual upload and retain the receipt. A finished PDF on your computer is not a submitted offer.

Worked example — Provide a community support service

This is a fictional teaching case. Quantities, prices and contractual conditions below are assumptions for the exercise, not legal requirements or market benchmarks.

A local authority commissions scheduled support visits for adults who need help accessing community services. The contract requires continuity, respectful communication and escalation of concerns. Cost per visit cannot be assessed without the visit’s scope and staffing assumptions.

Review position. The team can deliver the base requirement, but one clarification remains open and the extra cost below is not included in its original price. Submission is five working days away; this is a case assumption.

The brief forecasts 200 visits per month without defining visit duration or geographic spread. Ask for planning assumptions and how changes in assessed need affect the service and price.

Staff absence can break continuity for several people at once. Price trained cover and supervision, and avoid a plan that relies on unpaid travel or impossible visit sequences.

Item	Cost (currency units)
Visits, travel and records	36,000
Supervision and coordination	8,000
Training and secure administration	4,000
Total	48,000

Total cost is 48,000. To retain 20% of the selling price as profit, price is 48,000 ÷ 0.80 = 60,000. If “Trained replacement capacity” adds 4,800 to cost without a price increase, profit becomes 7,200, or 12% of price. Preserving 20% would require 66,000, only where the procurement permits that price. A cost increase does not automatically entitle the supplier to a contract price increase.

Country specific — what to verify

Check the service’s regulated status, provider and professional registration, safeguarding requirements, labour rules and privacy duties in the destination. Social-service procurement can have a particular regime; eligibility and service authorisation are separate checks. This course covers bidding, not care practice.

Local provider evidence and care-service schedules. Use the destination-country module and the actual tender pack. The sources below are references with their own scope; they do not form a single worldwide regime. For the general method, revisit the foundations.

Put it into practice

Prepare a final review with four decisions: admissibility, clarification, return and submission. State the conditions for a yes and the conditions requiring a no. Produce three response headings linked to requirements.

Model answer

Model decision: conditional bid, not immediate approval. Obtain the official clarification, confirm evidence and resources, then decide the price or withdraw before submission. Do not conceal non-compliance in a prohibited qualification. The three response sections are understanding the need, method and resources, then controls and acceptance. Measure scheduled and completed visits, reasons for exceptions and follow-up actions while protecting confidentiality. Separate activity counts from service-user outcomes. Review failures with the authorised commissioner rather than concealing them to protect a target.

Keep this worksheet in your working file. The quiz below checks the lesson’s decisions; passing it is neither a professional qualification nor a guarantee of an award.