Notice Information
Notice Title
Employment support products for JCS
Notice Description
Background: The Get Britain Working (GBW) White Paper, co-authored by the Secretaries of State for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Education (DfE) and His Majesty's Treasury (HMT), sets out plans to set the country on a path to bring down economic inactivity and improve employment outcomes. A key enabler is to reform Jobcentre Plus (JCP) through the creation of a new single and universal Jobs and Careers Service (JCS). JCS will provide support for anyone who is looking for work, who wants to get on in work, or who wants to change their career or retrain. It will be a service that values employer engagement, working with employers to understand and support their current and future recruitment needs. Among the key objectives of JCS are: * Creating a digital, universal and fully inclusive service; and, * Providing high-quality personalised support to help people into work, support training and get on in work. Requirements / Contract subject-matter: DWP Digital teams are progressing digital activity which will underpin JCS and DWP is keen to explore third party solutions which could support this new digital service. The engagement will cover a wide range of requirements. DWP has defined 12 areas of employment support which we are keen to explore suitable products for, including AI solutions. JCS Employment Support categories: The JCS 'Employment Support' categories are listed below: * ES01 - Career advice * ES02 - Career planning * ES03 - Skills gap analysis * ES04 - Financial planning * ES05 - Career coaching * ES06 - Learning / Training / Provision * ES07 - Job discovery * ES08 - Job market insights * ES09 - CV support * ES10 - Job application support * ES11 - Application tracking * ES12 - Interview support DWP is conducting this preliminary market engagement to help develop the requirements and the strategy/approach for any future procurements for products/services that would align to the JCS Employment Support categories. Following this preliminary market engagement, DWP may decide to run multiple procurements (with each procurement covering an individual or a group of Employment Support categories), either in parallel or in a phased approach, in line with the priorities of the JCS programme. Suppliers are invited to participate even if they are only interested in specific components of the wider scope. Due to the early stage of this engagement and the fact that it could relate to numerous separate procurements, there are certain aspects of any associated procurement activities that are yet to be determined. As a result, there are some sections of this notice which cannot be completed at this time. Where this is the case, we have stated in the relevant field that the information is "To be determined." The following points are examples of areas that still need to be determined: * Procurement procedure: will any resulting procurements be above or below the relevant threshold - to be determined. * Is a dynamic market or framework being established - to be determined. * Total Contract Value (estimated) - to be determined. * Contract start dates, end dates and extension options - to be determined (please ignore the start date of 01/01/2027 and end date of 31/12/2027 that are showing on this notice). * Publication date of the tender or transparency notice - to be determined.
Planning Information
General Information: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Commercial Directorate is undertaking preliminary market engagement to inform the future procurement(s) of employment support products (including Artificial Intelligence solutions) for use in JCS. This engagement will involve various strands of activity (as detailed below) and aims to: (i) help Suppliers understand DWP’s objectives and early design considerations; and, (ii) enable the market to provide evidence-based feedback that may help shape DWP’s procurement approach. Specific strands of this preliminary market engagement will close as detailed in the relevant section below. Where a specific strand does not state a close date or deadline, DWP’s intended close date for all strands within this preliminary market engagement is 30 September 2026. DWP reserves the right to amend the various dates / deadlines for this preliminary market engagement and, in such event, will publish an update to this UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement Notice. 1) Supplier Briefing Event The Supplier Briefing Event will be held via Teams on Thursday 2 April 2026, 10:00am to 12:00pm. At the event DWP will outline the purpose, objectives and its requirements for the Jobs and Careers Service (JCS). DWP’s attendees at the event will be from DWP’s Digital team responsible for delivering JCS and DWP’s Commercial team responsible for the procurement of any required products/services from Suppliers. Suppliers are required to register their interest to participate in the Supplier Briefing Event no later than 11:00am on 31 March 2026 by submitting the MS Form at the following URL: https://forms.office.com/e/3jEXJ1bAaE Please note that attendance at the Supplier Briefing Event is not mandatory. Suppliers not attending the Supplier Briefing Event are still able to participate in the RFI Questionnaire. 2) RFI Questionnaire DWP will be issuing a Request for Information (RFI) questionnaire to Suppliers who wish to provide information relating to their products that address the high-level requirements of the JCS Employment Support categories detailed herein. The RFI will cover themes such as: details of the products /services available from the supplier; route to market options; commercial models; etc. Suppliers wishing to complete a questionnaire should request a copy of the RFI no later than 5:00pm on 17 April 2026 by submitting the MS Form at the following URL: https://forms.office.com/e/k0yShw63Wk A Supplier’s RFI Response must be submitted no later than 5:00pm on 1 May 2026 in accordance with the submission instructions that will be set out in the RFI. RFI Responses received after this deadline will not be considered. DWP may follow up with individual Suppliers to clarify the content of its RFI Response. Where further questions arise beyond those set out in the RFI, DWP may issue follow-up questions and request a further response to such follow-up questions from participating suppliers. The deadline for responding to any follow-up questions will be specified in DWP’s request. 3) One-to-one Supplier Meetings DWP may choose to invite a limited number of Suppliers on an individual basis to discuss potential solutions. These meetings will be recorded to ensure fairness. The DWP aims to complete one-to-one supplier meetings by 30 September 2026. 4) Product demonstrations DWP may choose to invite a limited number of Suppliers to provide a product/service demonstration for a potential specific solution that may meet DWP’s requirements and may help to develop specifications and assessment criteria. These sessions may also be used for DWP to explore alternative solutions. The DWP aims to complete all product demonstrations by 30 September 2026. Selection criteria for 1:1 meetings and product demonstrations: The selection criteria DWP will use for 1:1 supplier meetings and product demonstrations will be based on the following criteria: • Relevance to DWP’s high-level requirements; • Quality of capability in the relevant category; • Understanding of user needs; • Ability to demonstrate a mature product; • Ability of the product to provide any required interface / data sharing requirements. The JCS Employment Support categories are being explored individually at this stage. DWP welcomes participation from suppliers able to deliver products that address one, multiple or all categories. No preference will be given to suppliers based on the number of categories they can cover. Non participation in this preliminary market engagement will not advantage or disadvantage a supplier’s ability to participate in any future procurement (which will be conducted in accordance with applicable public procurement regulations).
Notice Details
Publication & Lifecycle
- Open Contracting ID
- ocds-h6vhtk-0672ee
- Publication Source
- Find A Tender Service
- Latest Notice
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/026897-2026
- Current Stage
- Planning
- All Stages
- Planning
Procurement Classification
- Notice Type
- UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
- Procurement Type
- Standard
- Procurement Category
- Services
- Procurement Method
- Not Specified
- Procurement Method Details
- Not specified
- Tender Suitability
- SME, VCSE
- Awardee Scale
- Not specified
Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)
- CPV Divisions
72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
75 - Administration, defence and social security services
-
- CPV Codes
72260000 - Software-related services
75200000 - Provision of services to the community
75310000 - Benefit services
Notice Value(s)
- Tender Value
- Not specified
- Lots Value
- Not specified
- Awards Value
- Not specified
- Contracts Value
- Not specified
Notice Dates
- Publication Date
- 24 Mar 20261 weeks ago
- Submission Deadline
- Not specified
- Future Notice Date
- 30 Sep 20266 months to go
- Award Date
- Not specified
- Contract Period
- 1 Jan 2027 - 31 Dec 2027 6-12 months
- Recurrence
- Not specified
Notice Status
- Tender Status
- Planning
- Lots Status
- Planning
- Awards Status
- Not Specified
- Contracts Status
- Not Specified
Buyer & Supplier
Contracting Authority (Buyer)
- Main Buyer
- DEPARTMENT FOR WORK & PENSIONS
- 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
- SW1H 9NA
- Post Town
- South 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
- St James's
- Westminster Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster
Further Information
Notice Documents
-
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/026897-2026
24th March 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)
View full OCDS Record for this contracting process
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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