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Suffolk Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service

Suffolk County Council

This public procurement record has 3 releases in its history.

TenderCancellation

01 Apr 2026 at 14:46

UK12 - Procurement Termination Notice
Tender

11 Mar 2026 at 17:15

UK4 - Tender Notice
Planning

26 Nov 2025 at 17:17

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Suffolk County Council is managing the procurement process for the Suffolk Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service. This procurement, now in the 'tender' stage, aims to deliver targeted early support within mainstream schools across the UKH14 region, mainly in Ipswich, United Kingdom. The procurement falls under the education and training services, as well as health and social work services industry categories. This open procurement procedure has a total contract value of £1,600,000 GBP, with electronic submissions allowed until 13th April 2026. The initial contract period is scheduled from 1st September 2026 to 31st August 2028, with potential extension of up to 24 months. A notable milestone was on 1st April 2026, when the council cancelled a previous tender due to changes in the documentation, with plans to reissue a new tender notice subsequently.

This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses that provide educational and social support services, particularly those experienced in managing complex educational needs and working collaboratively with schools and stakeholders. Companies that are Ofsted registered and can demonstrate past success in improving educational outcomes for vulnerable children, while offering innovative intervention methods, would be well-positioned to leverage this contract. The project's primary objective—to bolster educational attainment and inclusion for children at risk of exclusion—aligns well with businesses focusing on education, social care, and health services, thus offering a platform for substantial community impact and business growth.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Suffolk Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service

Notice Description

Suffolk County Council (SCC) are currently out to tender for an Alternative Provision Tier One (Outreach) Service. This involves delivering targeted early support within mainstream schools, supporting children across all Key Stages 1 - 4, to address emerging needs promptly. The goal is to provide assistance before challenges escalate for children, reducing the likelihood of exclusion, maximising engagement and participation in learning and promoting inclusion with the mainstream educational environment. Timely outreach support and robust intervention with Children and Young People (CYP) to ensure they can succeed and remain in mainstream education will raise education attainment and skill levels. This is important as these CYP are often our most vulnerable in our communities and failure to secure a good quality educational offer can often lead to a reliance upon other services such as social care or mental health providers. The CYP who will be referred, and who will access the Tier 1 Outreach support, will have complex needs that will require the provider to tailor their approach to the individual needs of the young person. This will involve working in partnership with other agencies, schools and stakeholders as well as parents/carers and the young people themselves to ensure best outcomes. The primary objective of Tier 1 AP is to provide specific support around barriers to learning and enable pupils to remain in their referring school. The Special Educational Needs/Alternative Provision Service Development Team has a core focus on commissioning high quality educational provision for vulnerable and disadvantaged learners as well as ensuring that this cohort of pupils can make progress based on age, ability and prior achievement through easy access to a robust 'Local Offer' as set out in the SEND reforms (Special Education Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years). Historically there has been a significant increase in the number of young people permanently excluded across all Key Stages. Suffolk County Council has a continued commitment to provide the right intervention at the right time. As such, this Tier 1 AP Outreach programme can have a key impact to avoid exclusion.

Lot Information

Lot 1

Renewal: Contract can be extended by up to 24 months.

Planning Information

Across SCC, we have been carefully considering our AP Strategy and how we further support children in Suffolk in line with the 3 Tiers of AP as defined by the DfE here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-alternative-provision-improvement-plan With this in mind, we are hosting a market engagement event on MS Teams from 10am - 11am on Tuesday 9th December 2025. If you would like to attend and support the next steps in Alternative Provision for Suffolk's CYP, please email providerservices@suffolk.gov.uk to confirm your interest. Please note, it is envisaged that prospective bidders will need to be an Ofsted registered educational setting in order to be eligible for this contract. This, and any other Conditions of Participation, will be clearly set out in the tender documents and in the tender notice should we go ahead with the procurement. Interested parties are also invited to complete the following questionnaire (ideally by 12 noon on Friday 5th December): https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=7GqcEEZQlUqPPIT2O6GK9NucBo7UfLdKgWqPcZtBi1RUQUgyOURQTFIxTFlJVzdRSks0VDMxM1FLMC4u We are aiming for a Tier 1 Outreach offer to be able to support children across mainstream schools from 1 September 2026, with a contract running for a minimum of two years.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-05e9aa
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/030429-2026
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Planning, Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK12 - Procurement Termination Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Open
Procurement Method Details
Open procedure
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

80 - Education and training services

85 - Health and social work services

CPV Codes

80000000 - Education and training services

85000000 - Health and social work services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£1,333,333 £1M-£10M
Lots Value
£1,600,000 £1M-£10M
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
1 Apr 20264 months ago
Submission Deadline
13 Apr 2026Expired
Future Notice Date
20 Feb 2026Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
1 Sep 2026 - 31 Aug 2028 2-3 years
Recurrence
2028-03-11

Notice Status

Tender Status
Cancelled
Lots Status
Cancelled
Awards Status
Cancelled
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Suffolk County 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
IPSWICH
Postcode
IP1 2BX
Postcode Area
Ipswich
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLH East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLH6 Suffolk
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLH62 Ipswich
Delivery Location
TLH14 Suffolk CC
Local Authority
Ipswich
Electoral Ward
Gipping
Westminster Constituency
Ipswich

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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