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Invitation to Tender for the Provision of Registrant and Student Panels and Associated Services

General Dental Council

This public procurement record has 4 releases in its history.

Award

23 Jul 2026 at 15:04

UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Award

04 Jun 2026 at 08:21

UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Award

09 Feb 2026 at 13:19

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Tender

22 Aug 2025 at 19:05

UK4 - Tender Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The General Dental Council procured two related research and consultation services for delivery across the UK: a registrant panel and a dental student panel. The panels are intended to help the regulator understand the needs, experiences, perceptions and expectations of registrants and students, and the effects of external factors on dental education, the workforce and public access to dental services. The requirement covers recruiting, developing and maintaining diverse panels, including representation from underrepresented communities and the different roles on the dental register. It also covers coordinating participant recruitment and panel activities, advising on research design, managing consent and data protection, delivering surveys or other research, and producing agreed outputs. Call-off work may include social research, market research, and system, process or product development.

The procurement is complete and both lots were awarded on 13 January 2026 through an open competitive flexible procedure. Lot 1, the registrant panel, was awarded to the University of Manchester for £576,000 gross; its contract was signed on 2 July 2026 and runs from 6 July 2026 to 6 July 2028, with possible extension to 2030. Lot 2, the student panel, was awarded to Community Research Limited for £576,000 gross; its contract was signed on 27 April 2026 and runs from 27 April 2026 to 26 April 2028, with possible extension to 2030. The original tender deadline was 26 September 2025 at noon, and enquiries closed on 5 September 2025 at 5pm. Each lot was evaluated on 30% commercial criteria and 70% quality. Both lots were identified as suitable for SMEs and VCSEs.

This requirement demonstrates sustained demand from the General Dental Council for independently managed user panels and applied research in the dental sector. Credible competitors would need to recruit and retain diverse registrant or student cohorts, reach underrepresented and less well-served communities, and reflect the range of roles in dental education and professional registration. They would also need strong participant coordination, panel governance and research delivery, including consent management, data protection impact assessments, secure data handling, analysis and reporting. Useful capability includes advising on robust research approaches, managing longitudinal cohorts, producing detailed work plans and delivering activities to agreed timescales. Relevant providers may come from social or market research, public-opinion polling, statistical, health or social research backgrounds, with specialist expertise obtained through partnerships where required.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Invitation to Tender for the Provision of Registrant and Student Panels and Associated Services

Notice Description

The GDC's core function is to protect the public. This project represents a key task in our strategic commitment to embed user voice, empathy and compassion across all aspects of our work. The panels will play a vital role in enabling the GDC to better hear, understand, and respond to the needs, experiences, perceptions, and expectations of our registrants and students. The voices of registrants and students and the insights they provide will be vital in our work to enhance our effectiveness as a regulator and ensure our approach remains transparent, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of those we regulate. The GDC's registrant and student panels will ensure we sustain a robust, responsive and independently facilitated approach to involving user voice to inform a wide range of GDC activity. This includes using the panels to develop our understanding of the impacts of factors that are external to the GDC on the dental sector, dental education, the dental workforce, and the public's access to and experience of dental services. The General Dental Council (GDC) invites responses to our invitation to tender, 'Registrant and student panels and associated services'. This invitation breaks our requirements into two LOTs, each with a fixed price element for setting up and management of each of the panels, and a call-off element to allow for undertaking activities with the panels. Bidders are invited to bid for one or both Panels (LOTs). LOT I: Registrant Panel with estimated value of PS480,000(ex. VAT) for 4 years i.e. (2+2) LOT 2: Dental Student Panel with estimated value of PS480,000(ex. VAT) for 4 years i.e. (2+2) Element 1: Recruiting and Maintaining a Panel A2.16 The successful bidder/s must be able to recruit, develop and maintain a GDC Registrant or student panel that can be called upon to participate in a range of activities. We expect this to be a fixed price element of bidder/s' responses. A2.17 The panel must enable the GDC to capture and hear a diverse range of voices. This includes ensuring representation from underrepresented and less well served communities, as well as reflecting the diversity of roles within dental education, reflecting the roles on our register. We expect that panel members would 'opt in' to being approached by the GDC to take part in activities. We expect the successful bidder/s to: * Work with the GDC to understand the nature and requirements of the panel activities. * Be able to provide advice to the GDC on design or approach to activities to ensure the robustness of results. * Consider and define whether a longitudinal cohort as part of the panel is possible, and if this is the case, explain how this would be achieved, the advantages of having such a cohort and how this could be used. * Be able to manage and coordinate the end-to-end process of panel and activity recruitment. Element 2: Undertaking Panel Activities A2.20 When the GDC wishes to use the either of the panels for activities, the GDC will request a fixed price quotation based on a detailed activity specification - request for quotation (RFQ). The RFQ will include all the typical relevant information to be able to price the activity to meet the specific requirements identified by the GDC. A2.21 As well as providing participants for each activity, if delivering the activity, the successful bidder/s will need to manage the end-to-end activity, which needs to include but not limited to: * Selection of the participants for the panel activity. * Data protection impact assessment, including consideration of consent, disclosure, data handling, analyses, reporting and retention. * Provide a robust and detailed work plan for each panel activity. * Invitations and management of the cohort for the panel activity to ensure that the activity is undertaken to the agreed timelines. * Design and gain approval for the approach to delivering panel activities. * Undertake the activity. * Provide the outputs from the panel activity as specified and agreed. The successful bidder/s will need to provide the subject matter expertise needed for call down activities which will vary, from social research, to market research, to system, process and product development. Bidders can provide this through partnering to obtain the subject matter expertise.

Lot Information

Registrant Panel Requirements

Renewal: The contract will run for an initial two years with the option to renew annually for a further two years.

Student Panel Requirements

Renewal: The contract will run for an initial two years with the option to renew annually for a further two years.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-058d4d
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/069823-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Tender, Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Open
Procurement Method Details
Competitive flexible procedure
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Large, SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

85 - Health and social work services

CPV Codes

73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

73200000 - Research and development consultancy services

73210000 - Research consultancy services

73300000 - Design and execution of research and development

79311000 - Survey services

79315000 - Social research services

79320000 - Public-opinion polling services

79330000 - Statistical services

85000000 - Health and social work services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£720,000 £500K-£1M
Lots Value
£720,000 £500K-£1M
Awards Value
£576,000 £500K-£1M
Contracts Value
£576,000 £500K-£1M

Notice Dates

Publication Date
23 Jul 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
26 Sep 2025Expired
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
13 Jan 20267 months ago
Contract Period
6 Jul 2026 - 6 Jul 2028 2-3 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
General Dental Council
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
W1G 8DQ
Postcode Area
West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
Marylebone
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
4
Supplier Names

Community Research Limited

Community Research Ltd

THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

University of Manchester

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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