The process
Six stages. Buy them together or separately.
Most providers start with a single submission and move to a retainer once the answer library starts paying for itself.
Sourcing
Daily monitoring of Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, ProContract, In-Tend, YORtender, the Chest and regional portals, filtered to your service types, geography and real capacity.
Bid / no-bid
An honest read on whether you can win before you spend three weeks finding out. Turnover thresholds, insurance, CQC rating gates, TUPE liability, lot structure, incumbent advantage.
SQ, PSQ and PQQ
Selection stage completed and checked against exclusion grounds and Conditions of Participation. A pass/fail gate that quietly ends more bids than the quality stage does.
Method statements
Quality responses written to the rubric and the word count, using your real staffing, systems and outcomes. Interview-led, so it sounds like you and not a template.
Compliance audit
Before you press submit: attachments, signatures, pricing schedule arithmetic, portal quirks, clarification answers, version control. The errors that void a strong bid are almost always clerical.
Debrief
Win or lose, we read the scoring feedback and turn it into a stronger answer library. Most providers lose the same two marks repeatedly without ever being told which.
What a scored answer looks like
The gap between 2 and 5 is evidence, not effort.
Every provider we meet believes they deliver excellent care. Most of them do. The problem is that an evaluator can only award marks for what is on the page, in the words of the question.
Describe how you will maintain continuity of care during planned and unplanned staff absence.
Unacceptable, no award
"We have been providing outstanding person-centred care for over twelve years. Our staff are our greatest asset and we pride ourselves on our reputation across the region for reliability and compassion."
Why it fails: it never answers the question. Nothing here describes what happens when someone calls in sick at 6am. An evaluator cannot award marks for sentiment, and a zero on a weighted question often ends the bid outright.
Partially met, where most submissions land
"We maintain a bank of relief staff and operate an on-call system to cover absence. Rotas are planned four weeks in advance and all cover staff are trained and inducted before deployment. Continuity of care is a priority for us."
Why it stalls: it describes an intention, not a mechanism. How large is the bank, relative to the hours it must cover? Who holds the on-call phone, and what happens if they don't answer? No named role, no timescale, no proof it has worked. This is the answer that gets a provider onto a framework and then no call-offs.
Fully met, evidenced and contract-specific
"Cover is held by a relief bank sized at 15% of contracted hours, recruited to this contract's geography so no cover journey exceeds 25 minutes. Unplanned absence routes to the on-call Registered Manager, who has 60 minutes to confirm a named replacement matched to the person's care plan and any communication needs. If unfilled at 60 minutes it escalates to the Operations Lead and is logged as a near-miss. Call completion, missed calls and the actions taken are reviewed at the monthly quality meeting, with minutes available on request. Every cover worker shadows a minimum of one visit with the person before working alone."
Why it scores: every claim is a number, a named role, a timescale, or a document the evaluator could ask to see. It answers both halves of the question, planned and unplanned, and ties continuity back to the individual's care plan, which is what the commissioner is actually buying.
Specialisms
Where we work.
Twelve service areas across four sectors, UK-wide. If yours is not listed, ask: the selection stage rarely changes, whatever is being bought.
Domiciliary & supported living
Home care frameworks, DPS and DPV routes, supported living for learning disability, autism and mental health, reablement and extra care.
More →Care homes & nursing
Residential and nursing placements, specialist dementia provision, block and spot contracts, respite and short breaks.
More →Cleaning & facilities management
Soft FM for councils, NHS trusts, academy trusts and housing associations. TUPE-heavy, mobilisation-led, and won on whether your priced hours reconcile to the specification.
More →Construction & maintenance
Responsive repairs, planned works, voids and compliance contracts. Common Assessment Standard, SSIP and CDM competence eliminate more bidders here than the quality stage does.
More →Security services
Manned guarding, mobile patrols and CCTV monitoring. SIA licensing and ACS approval thin the field before the tender opens, so the written submission genuinely decides it.
More →Frameworks, DPS & NHS
Local authority frameworks and dynamic purchasing, ICB accreditation, Any Qualified Provider routes and Provider Selection Regime processes.
More →Children's services
Residential children's homes, fostering, 16+ semi-independent and supported accommodation, short breaks and edge-of-care support.
More →Supported housing & TA
Housing-related support, floating support, temporary accommodation frameworks, dispersed accommodation and rough sleeping initiatives.
More →Community, VCSE & grants
Community health services, ICB procurements and social value submissions, plus grant applications for charities and community groups.
More →Extra care & retirement living
On-site care teams in extra care housing schemes for older adults. Local authority funded, block-hours based, and consistently less contested than mainstream domiciliary frameworks.
More →Reablement & discharge
Short-term reablement, hospital discharge to assess, and step-down provision. Outcome-weighted rather than hours-weighted, which changes how the answers must be written.
More →Day opportunities
Day services, community activities and short breaks, increasingly commissioned through flexible purchasing systems rather than block contracts.
More →Who we bid for
Public sector first. Private buyers too.
“Public sector” means any organisation funded and run by government, national or local. Councils (local authorities) are the biggest part of it for most of our clients, alongside the NHS. It is where our record is, and where the rules are written down.
Public sector: our speciality
- Local authorities: county, district, unitary and London borough councils, and children’s trusts
- The NHS: integrated care boards, trusts and national frameworks
- Schools, academy trusts, colleges and universities
- Police, fire and rescue, and central government departments
- Shared procurement hubs buying for several of the above
These buyers follow published rules, such as the Procurement Act 2023, or the Provider Selection Regime for NHS healthcare in England. That means set stages, published scoring, and feedback when the result comes out.
Private and not-for-profit buyers: we write these too
- Housing associations
- Private care and healthcare groups placing contracts or subcontracts
- Companies and property managers buying cleaning, FM or security
- Main contractors choosing supply-chain partners for public projects
Private tenders are less formal. The buyer sets its own process, price and relationships often carry more weight, and there is usually no formal feedback. What wins is the same: answer the question asked, and back every claim with evidence.
Pricing
Fixed fees. You know the number before we start.
No hourly rates, and no percentage of contract value. Price depends on the number of scored questions, the sector and the deadline, so we quote it in writing once we have seen the pack. Tell us what you are bidding for and you will have a figure the same day.
You've written it. We mark it before the evaluator does.
- Every scored answer assessed against the published rubric, with an indicative score
- Question-by-question notes on what's missing and what would lift it
- Word count compliance across the pack
- Full compliance audit: attachments, signatures, policy dates, pricing arithmetic
- One-page summary of the changes that would move the most marks
Feedback only. We don't rewrite, and it's one round.
Request a feeThe whole thing, from opportunity to submitted.
- Bid/no-bid review first. If we advise against it, your fee carries to the next suitable opportunity
- 60-minute call with your registered manager to source real evidence
- SQ, PSQ or PQQ completed and checked against exclusion grounds
- Every scored method statement written to the rubric and the word count
- Pre-submission compliance audit
- Two rounds of revisions
- Debrief when the result arrives, win or lose
For providers bidding continuously rather than occasionally.
- Three full submissions per month
- Daily portal monitoring filtered to your services and geography: a shortlist, not a feed
- Bid/no-bid review on everything sourced
- Your answer library built and maintained
- Debrief on every outcome
- Priority on deadlines
Additional bids discounted against the single rate. 30 days' notice after the initial term.
Request a feeWhere preparation, not writing, decides the outcome.
- Evidence gaps identified and closed before the notice appears
- Policies reviewed and brought to tender standard
- Mock scoring against the likely rubric
- Full submission written when it opens
We do not work no-win-no-fee. It sounds generous and it corrupts the incentive, it pushes writers toward volume, and toward bids you should have walked away from.
Got a tender with a deadline on it?
Send the closing date and the portal link. We'll tell you honestly whether it's worth your time, before you pay us anything.