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Service Design for Embedding Positive Cultures in Residential Care across Wales

Social Care Wales

This public procurement record has 7 releases in its history.

Award

17 Jul 2026 at 11:30

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
TenderUpdate

04 Jun 2026 at 14:21

UK4 - Tender Notice
TenderUpdate

28 May 2026 at 14:35

UK4 - Tender Notice
TenderUpdate

20 May 2026 at 09:51

UK4 - Tender Notice
Tender

19 May 2026 at 16:36

UK4 - Tender Notice
PlanningUpdate

21 Apr 2026 at 14:05

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Planning

08 Apr 2026 at 15:49

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Social Care Wales commissioned services to embed positive cultures in residential and adult social care across Wales. The requirement was split between two complementary services. Lot 1 covered co-design and testing of a leadership support programme and practical tools, working with six adult social care provider pilot sites. Activities included workshops, interviews, assessments of culture, coaching, site consultations, action plans, iterative testing and service and tool design reports. Lot 2 covered an independent evaluation and impact assessment of that work, including evaluation framework development, mixed-method research, outcome and systems analysis, lived-experience and workforce input, and recommendations for policy, practice and possible scale-up. The work combines health and social care, consultancy, social research, and research and development services, delivered across Wales.

The open procedure has reached award stage. Lot 1 was awarded to Basis Ltd for £119,200 net (£143,040 gross), with an award date of 17 July 2026 and a contract period from 3 August 2026 to 31 March 2027. Lot 2 was awarded to Opinion Research Services Ltd for £37,282.07 net (£44,738.49 gross), also on 17 July 2026, with a contract period from 3 August 2026 to 2 July 2027. Bidders could apply for one or both lots, but could receive only one because of the conflict between delivery and evaluation. Evaluation weighted quality at 70%, social value at 10%, and price or cost at 20%. Lot 1's standstill ends 28 July 2026, with signature scheduled by 31 July 2026.

This procurement indicates demand from Social Care Wales for specialist suppliers able to work sensitively with adult social care providers, leaders, managers and frontline staff across Wales. A credible future competitor would need experience in co-design, service design, leadership development, positive or compassionate workplace cultures, user research and practical improvement support for Lot 1. Relevant capability includes designing accessible bilingual tools, facilitating engagement, testing interventions with pilot sites, developing theories of change and turning learning into actionable reports. Lot 2 requires independent mixed-method evaluation, impact assessment, contribution analysis, measurement of wellbeing and culture change, synthesis of data from several workstreams, and clear bilingual reporting. Both routes value partnership working, social value, collaboration, governance and the ability to share evidence with delivery and evaluation partners.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Service Design for Embedding Positive Cultures in Residential Care across Wales

Notice Description

Award of both Lots 1 & 2 under contract notice Service Design for Embedding Positive Cultures in Residential Care across Wales

Lot Information

Co-design and Test Leadership Support Programme & tools for nurturing positive cultures Adult Social Care Providers across Wales

What is required / 'The Requirements' We are seeking a supplier with the expertise and experience to undertake the following requirements: (a) Co-design and Testing of a New Support Service (Phase 2) The supplier must: - Work collaboratively with Social Care Wales, Care Inspectorate Wales and sector partners to identify and recruit six adult social care providers to act as pilot sites, using agreed selection criteria and ethical engagement processes. - Design and facilitate co-design workshops with leaders, managers, frontline staff and stakeholders to develop success criteria and design principles for the support service. Including a shared understanding of the behaviours, conditions and practices that enable positive cultures. - Develop a Theory of Change that will guide the design and testing of the support service. - Support assessments of each pilot site's positive culture position at the start of testing, mid point and end point. - Deliver a programme of testing activities with the sites, which may include coaching, mentoring, team learning sessions, mini-sprints and other supportive interventions tailored to local needs. - Carry out site visits or virtual consultations to understand day-to-day practice, challenges and opportunities for improvement. - Produce site-specific action plans in collaboration with Responsible Individuals, Registered Managers and staff. - Refine the support service iteratively based on feedback and learning from pilot sites. - Produce a service design report summarising: ~ What was designed and why ~ How it was tested ~ Lessons learned ~ Recommendations for scaling and sustainability. (b) Co-design and Testing of a Tool (Phase 3) The supplier must: - Facilitate co-design workshops with stakeholders to agree success criteria, functions and design principles for the tool. - Contribute to a measurement framework aligned with: ~ The Positive Cultures principles ~ Strengths-based practice ~ Compassionate leadership models - Design a bilingual, accessible tool, capable of: ~ Helping organisations understand their current culture position ~ Producing tailored action plans ~ Supporting organisations to manage and sustain improvement over time ~ Enabling practical reporting on culture indicators - Test and refine the tool with the same six pilot sites from phase 2 through iterative cycles of feedback and adaptation. - Produce a tool design and testing report with recommendations for future development and scale-up. (c) Collaboration and Learning The supplier must: - Work sensitively alongside leaders and managers with different levels of knowledge and confidence. - Maintain regular communication with the Social Care Wales project team to ensure alignment with project aims and emerging insights. - Work constructively with a separately commissioned evaluation partner, providing agreed data, access and evidence throughout the project. - Draw on and integrate Social Care Wales' existing offers (e.g., compassionate leadership training, wellbeing resources, strengths based practice, workforce support and research, innovation) where relevant. - Deliver a programme of co-design engagement activities, including workshops, interviews and focus groups. We anticipate a minimum 20 engagement sessions in total across the project. This figure is indicative and may be refined collaboratively during project initiation and informed by stakeholder and user research to ensure the most effective approach. - Work openly and share learning in real time, along with reporting at key milestones. (d) Shared Requirements (Applicable to both Lots) Suppliers appointed to either Lot must: - Start delivery in July 2026. - Work in close partnership with Social Care Wales, while respecting the distinct roles of delivery and evaluation. - Collaborate effectively with the supplier appointed to the other Lot to support the Programme's Theory of Change and share data with one another to inform both lots. - Engage constructively with adult social care providers, leaders and frontline staff with varying levels of confidence and capacity. - Draw on and integrate Social Care Wales's existing services and resources where relevant, including: ~ Compassionate Leadership training programme ~ Social Care Fair Work Forum ~Workforce wellbeing programme ~ Strengths based practice programme ~ Attraction and recruitment support ~ Insight collective website ~ Innovation Coaching service - Share learning openly, participate in governance and reporting arrangements, and contribute to dissemination of findings.

Programme evaluation and impact assessment of the co-design and testing of a new leadership programme and tools for nurturing positive cultures in adult social care services across Wales

Lot 2 will focus on the independent evaluation of Phases 2 and 3. This includes the development and delivery of an evaluation and impact framework to assess the design and testing activity undertaken through Lot 1. Lot 2 will: - Evaluate the leadership support offer and tool(s) developed under Lot 1 - Assess outcomes, learning and early impact - Synthesise findings and generate evidence to inform future policy development, practice improvement and potential wider roll-out. Lot 2 will not be involved in the delivery of design of the support being evaluated. What is required / 'The Requirements' (a) Evaluation Requirements (Phases 2 & 3) This phase will develop an evaluation and impact framework which forms part of a wider programme to support positive cultures in adult care services Lot 2 is for undertaking an independent, mixed methods evaluation of the User research and codesign and testing of: - a leadership support service to nurturing positive cultures; and - a tool for implementing, measuring and evaluating positive cultures. The evaluation will synthesise data from Phase 2 & 3 to assess outcomes, identify lessons learned, and inform future policy and practice. It will ensure accountability and support continuous improvement across the sector. The evaluation will: - Assess the extent to which the support offer and tool were delivered as in-tended and detail any adaptations - Explore: ~ whether the programme achieved it's desired aims, ~ the factors that influenced the impact of the programme and whether these varied across test sites, ~ what difference the programme made to staff, management, the or-ganisation and people accessing care and support, and ~ the influence of wider systemic factors had on the impact of the pro-gramme. - Explore the outcomes from the programme including: ~ Any positive or negative outcomes and impacts from the programme, ~ The factors that contributed to those outcomes ~ whether any systemic barriers need to be addressed to improve outcomes from the work. - Develop theory of change alongside the programme provider (building on the Rayne Foundation expected outcomes) using contribution analysis to: ~ Map intended outcomes, ~ explore contribution towards outcomes, ~ monitor ongoing outputs and explore changes to workforce and provider behaviour and; ~ Explore any systemic barriers impacting on the programme. - Assess positive cultures at the test sites at the start, mid-point and end of testing - Involve lived experience and workforce voices wherever possible - Measure changes in behaviours, leadership, wellbeing, culture, practice and collaboration - Assess how, where and why positive cultures emerge - Highlight barriers and enablers to positive cultures - Explore implications for policy, commissioning and regulation - Outline considerations and recommendations for upscaling the programme going forward. The Supplier will need to work in close collaboration with Social Care Wales, providing regular updates to ensure the work remains aligned with the project's aims and adheres to the contract deadline. The successful Supplier must work closely with both the co-design supplier and Rayne Foundation evaluators (Bean Consultancy) to ensure reporting requirements and outcomes measures are addressed. The successful Supplier will need to work closely with the co design supplier in the design of the evaluation framework to ensure effective monitoring data is collected throughout the delivery process to measure the impact of the support offer. The Successful supplier should therefore have experience of working in partnership to design and collect relevant data to ensure the most effective use of time and resources for all parties involved. The successful Supplier must demonstrate: - Expertise in mixed-method evaluation in social care contexts. - Ability to design and apply evaluation frameworks that measure positive cul-ture changes, wellbeing outcomes and systemic change. - Experience in working with suppliers and partners in capturing agreed data as well as synthesising data from multiple workstreams. - Ability to produce clear, bilingual reports and presentations. (b) Shared Requirements (Applicable to both Lots) Suppliers appointed to either Lot must: - Start delivery in July 2026. - Work in close partnership with Social Care Wales, while respecting the distinct roles of delivery and evaluation. - Collaborate effectively with the supplier appointed to the other Lot to support the Programme's Theory of Change and share data with one another to inform both lots. - Engage constructively with adult social care providers, leaders and frontline staff with varying levels of confidence and capacity. - Draw on and integrate Social Care Wales's existing services and resources where relevant, including: ~ Compassionate Leadership training programme ~ Social Care Fair Work Forum ~ Workforce wellbeing programme ~ Strengths based practice programme ~ Attraction and recruitment support ~ Insight collective website ~ Innovation Coaching service - Share learning openly, participate in governance and reporting arrangements, and contribute to dissemination of findings.

Planning Information

THIS SESSION HAS NOW TAKEN PLACE. FOR A LINK TO THE RECORDING PLEASE EMAIL - procurement@socialcare.wales We will be holding x 1 preliminary market engagement sessions via MS Teams on: 11am, Monday, 20 April 2026 The sessions will be hosted by project lead Emma Davies, Jon Day (Assistant Director Employer and Service Support), supporting project team members Angharad Dalton , Emyr Williams and a member of the Procurement team. Both sessions will begin with the same presentation outlining the requirements, following which an opportunity for questions and answers will follow. The sessions will be recorded and uploaded against this notice on Sell2Wales. If you are interested in joining a preliminary market engagement session, please email procurement@socialcare.wales advising the tender title and desired session date/time. Following the sessions the Sell2Wales question and answer portal will be live for a following 2 working days up until 17:00, 22 April 2026. Byddwn yn cynnal x 1 sesiwn ymgysylltu rhagarweiniol â'r farchnad trwy MS Teams ar: 11am, Dydd Llun, 20 Ebrill 2026 Bydd y sesiynau'n cael eu cynnal gan arweinydd y prosiect, Emma Davies, Jon Day (Cyfarwyddwr Cynorthwyol Cymorth i Gyflogwyr a Gwasanaeth), aelodau cefnogol tîm y prosiect, Angharad Dalton, Emyr Williams ac aelod o'r tîm Caffael. Bydd y ddwy sesiwn yn dechrau gyda 'r un cyflwyniad yn amlinellu'r gofynion, ac yna bydd cyfle i gwestiynau ac atebion yn dilyn. Bydd y sesiynau'n cael eu recordio a'u llwytho i fyny yn erbyn yr hysbysiad hwn ar Sell2Wales. Os oes gennych ddiddordeb mewn ymuno â sesiwn ymgysylltu rhagarweiniol â'r farchnad, anfonwch e-bost at procurement@socialcare.wales gan roi gwybod i deitl y tendr a' r dyddiad/amser sesiwn a ddymunir. Yn dilyn y sesiynau, bydd porth cwestiynau ac atebion GwerthwchiGymru yn fyw am y 2 ddiwrnod gwaith canlynol hyd at 17:00, 22 Ebrill 2026.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-067e50
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/067661-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Planning, Tender, Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Open
Procurement Method Details
Open procedure
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
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

79315000 - Social research services

79400000 - Business and management consultancy and related services

85000000 - Health and social work services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£157,500 £100K-£500K
Lots Value
£157,500 £100K-£500K
Awards Value
£156,482 £100K-£500K
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
17 Jul 20262 months ago
Submission Deadline
15 Jun 2026Expired
Future Notice Date
27 Apr 2026Expired
Award Date
17 Jul 20262 months ago
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active, Pending
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Social Care Wales
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
CARDIFF
Postcode
CF10 1EW
Postcode Area
Cardiff
Country
Wales
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLL Wales
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLL5 South East Wales
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLL52 Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
Delivery Location
TLL Wales
Local Authority
Cardiff
Electoral Ward
Cathays
Westminster Constituency
Cardiff South and Penarth

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
2
Supplier Names

Basis Ltd

Opinion Research Services Ltd

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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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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