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C0151:Solidarity Fund Scoping Contract (Learning,Development, Evaluation, and Monitoring Framework)

Big Lottery Fund

This public procurement record has 3 releases in its history.

Award

06 Oct 2026 at 10:43

UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Award

18 Sep 2026 at 12:17

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Tender

02 Jun 2026 at 12:02

UK4 - Tender Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The National Lottery Community Fund commissioned research consultancy services to scope two future contracts for its Solidarity Fund and design a monitoring framework. The work covers an impact evaluation approach, the scope of a learning and support service for funded organisations and grant holders, and a framework producing publishable programme data for stakeholders. The Solidarity Fund supports community organisations in England addressing the root causes of poverty, disadvantage and discrimination through systems change, collaboration, organising and learning led by people with lived experience. The scoping work is intended to help shape support for these organisations and assess the programme’s impact. The buyer is The National Lottery Community Fund. The procurement identifies the United Kingdom as the delivery location.

The procurement is complete: The Social Investment Consultancy Limited was selected and the contract was signed on 6 October 2026. The award was made on 18 September 2026, for £291,925 excluding VAT (£350,310 including VAT). The contract runs from 20 October 2026 to 19 June 2027, with an option, at the Fund’s discretion, to extend by up to four months at no additional cost. This was a single-lot, open procedure. The contract was awarded on a 90% technical and 10% commercial evaluation. The original estimated value was £333,333 excluding VAT (£399,999.60 including VAT). The submission deadline was 7 July 2026, and the deadline for enquiries was 16 June 2026. Nineteen bids were received.

This award shows demand for specialist research and evaluation consultancy supporting a large, multi-year grant programme focused on reducing inequality in England. A credible competitor would need to design practical impact evaluation and monitoring approaches, develop clear scopes for learning and support services, and produce data suitable for publication and use by programme stakeholders. Experience working with community organisations, grant holders and initiatives addressing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination would be relevant, particularly where work involves systems change, collaboration across communities and sectors, and learning grounded in lived experience. The buyer placed strong emphasis on technical quality relative to price, so suppliers would need to demonstrate a robust, well-evidenced methodology and the ability to deliver linked scoping and framework outputs. The work was a defined consultancy assignment, and SMEs and voluntary, community and social enterprises were considered suitable.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

C0151:Solidarity Fund Scoping Contract (Learning,Development, Evaluation, and Monitoring Framework)

Notice Description

A Solidarity Fund feasibility and design contract to support the procurement of two subsequent contracts and develop a monitoring framework. The three key outputs are: 1. An impact evaluation approach for the Solidarity Fund 2. A learning and support contract scope for the Solidarity Fund 3. To develop a monitoring framework for The Solidarity Fund that can provide publishable data about the programme for key stakeholders. The National Lottery Community Fund (the 'Fund') is seeking to procure a suitable contractor (an individual organisation or a consortium with a lead supplier) to scope two separate contracts to support the organisations and grantholders we fund through our Solidarity Fund programme and develop a monitoring framework. The Solidary Fund is a PS250m multi-year fund for charitable organisations tackling the root causes of inequality. The Fund's Solidarity Fund will offer grants of between PS1m and PS5m, to be spent over 5 to 10 years to support this aim. The Fund has committed to awarding approximately 12 grants each year from 2025 to 2030 and anticipate the portfolio to grow to approximately 60 projects by March 2030. Grants range from 5 to 10 year duration so delivery may continue up to 2040. From 2026/2027 the Fund also plan to introduce development grants which will be lower value and shorter in length for some applications. The Solidarity Fund will support community organisations in England that are already working towards making big and lasting changes to the root causes of poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. (Systems Change). The programme aims to change the way organisations or sectors work together (Solidarity), and bring people together to deal with the root causes of these problems, by supporting people to work on this across different issues and communities (Build Power/Organise). Organisations must be led by, and accountable to, people with lived experience of the issues they are tackling (Lived Experience) and create, share and use learning from people that experience inequality (Learning). This may be to help people have a say, and be heard or to support people to take action and make things better by: influencing decision making and changes to systems, helping people that are trying to reduce inequality, understand what has worked elsewhere, or change public understanding of inequality by sharing people's experiences. Further information is available in the tender documents.

Lot Information

Lot LOT-0000

Renewal: The extension option is only for additional time for the completion of services, at the discretion of the Contracting Authority, and no additional cost will be applied.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ab53
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/094137-2026
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
Open procedure
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

CPV Codes

73210000 - Research consultancy services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£333,333 £100K-£500K
Lots Value
£333,333 £100K-£500K
Awards Value
£291,925 £100K-£500K
Contracts Value
£291,925 £100K-£500K

Notice Dates

Publication Date
6 Oct 2026Today
Submission Deadline
7 Jul 2026Expired
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
18 Sep 20262 weeks ago
Contract Period
20 Oct 2026 - 19 Jun 2027 6-12 months
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

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

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Big Lottery Fund
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
BIRMINGHAM
Postcode
B15 1TR
Postcode Area
Birmingham
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLG West Midlands (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLG3 West Midlands
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLG31 Birmingham
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Birmingham
Electoral Ward
Edgbaston
Westminster Constituency
Birmingham Edgbaston

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

The Social Investment Consultancy

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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