This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

14 Jul 2026 at 16:03

Summary of the contracting process

Essex County Council, a public authority in the UK, is in the planning stage of a procurement process for its Adult Social Care practice. The council aims to adopt a "Case Notes Transcription & Summarisation Tool" as part of its wider Pioneering AI programme. The procurement falls under the services category, specifically targeting IT software, voice recognition, and information technology services, and is scheduled to commence in June 2027, with a completion date in June 2029. Currently, the council has scheduled a market engagement survey, with responses due by 28th July 2026, to inform their procurement strategy and to gauge market capabilities regarding AI tools assisting in transcribing and summarising social care case notes. The engagement is part of a planned, strategic roll-out of AI capabilities, with the procurement aim to enhance efficiency and case note quality across social care services.

This procurement opportunity presents significant potential for businesses specialising in AI software solutions, particularly those offering reliable transcription and summarisation tools compatible with diverse operational settings. Companies adept in developing secure, scalable, and compliant AI solutions for sensitive data, with expertise in UK data governance frameworks, would be particularly well-suited to bid. Additionally, software vendors with a strong portfolio in integrating AI with existing IT environments, particularly those scalable for extensive organisational adoption and supporting diverse user accessibility requirements, stand to gain from competing in this tender. The engagement allows businesses to propose innovative solutions to improve social care practices and could pave the way for long-term partnerships with the council.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Title

Case Notes Transcription & Summarisation Tool

Notice Description

Essex County Council (ECC) is seeking to explore how artificial intelligence can support Adult Social Care practice by transcribing and summarising practitioner and resident conversations. The work forms part of ECC's wider Pioneering AI programme, established to identify safe, ethical, and effective use of AI across the organisation. ECC has previously undertaken a proof of concept for this requirement that responded to significant pressures within Adult Social Care, including rising demand, workforce shortages, increasing case complexity, and a high administrative burden associated with recording case notes, which reduces time available for direct work with residents. Wider Roll Out Project: A pilot has been undertaken as part of ECC's AI Transcription and Summarisation Proof of Concept to test the use of AI tools in supporting Adult Social Care practice by transcribing and summarising practitioner conversations. At this point, ECC aims through potential future procurement and strategic decision making to scale this capability across Adult Social Care, selecting an appropriate mix of specialist tools and Microsoft capabilities, to deliver improved efficiency, consistent high quality case recording, and sustainable, compliant AI adoption at scale. The objective of this market engagement survey is to inform any future procurement process and assess if this market is viable, understanding whether AI tools and capabilities can reduce recording time, improve the quality and consistency of case notes, enhance practitioner and resident experience, and provide a clear evidence base and governance model for scaling AI safely and responsibly within high-risk statutory social care contexts. The following requirements are necessary: 1. Transcription Capability: The solution must support the accurate capture and transcription of conversations across a range of operational settings. This market engagement survey seeks to answer what transcription accuracy levels can be achieved; how the tool handles multiple speakers, overlapping conversations, accents, background noise, telephone calls and whether there is functionality for diverse language support. 2. AI summarisation Capability: The solution must generate structured summaries from conversations to support operational case recording and decision-making. This market engagement survey seeks to answer how summaries are generated; if summary outputs can be configured to align with service specific templates; how the tool would minimise/eliminate omissions of critical information and if outputs can be customised for different business processes and service areas. 3. Human oversight and quality assurance: The solution must support human review and validation of AI-generated outputs. This market engagement survey seeks to answer how users can review, edit and approve outputs; how the tool would support correction of errors; how changes can be applied across transcripts and summaries and the quality assurance mechanisms. 4. Security, privacy and information governance: The solution must satisfy public sector requirements for handling sensitive personal information. This market engagement survey seeks to answer how customer data is stored and processed, whether UK data residency is available, what certifications are held (ISO27001, Cyber Essentials Plus etc.), how is data encrypted in transit and at rest and also how is access controlled and monitored and how the solution supports GDPR compliance. 5. Auditability, transparency and responsible AI: The solution must be able to monitor usage and consumption by User Groups and dates, providing transparency, traceability and governance controls appropriate for high-risk public sector use cases. This market engagement survey seeks to answer what audit trails are available, how all user actions, AI outputs and changes can be logged as well as what mechanisms exist for monitoring biases, fairness and accuracy and how the tool supports challenge, redress and investigation. 6. Accessibility and Inclusion: The solution must be accessible to a diverse workforce and service user population. This market engagement survey seeks to answer if the tool would meet inclusion and accessibility standards, what accessibility features are available, how the tool may support neurodiverse users and if the solution would support screen readers and voice inputs. 7. Integration and interoperability: The solution must integrate with existing and future ECC technology environments. This Market Engagement Survey seeks to answer what integrations are currently available and if the summaries can be exported or copied into third party systems. Additionally, we are seeking to understand if APIs are available and if the tool can integrate with M365, Teams, case management systems and other telephony platforms. 8. Operational resilience and reliability: The solution must be reliable in both office-based and community-based settings including device compatibility and the ability to use own devices. This Market Engagement Survey seeks to answer what service availability levels are provided, what disaster recovery arrangements exist, how the tool handles interrupted recordings and what support exists for offline working and low bandwidth environments. 9. Scalability and enterprise adoption: The solution must support deployment across multiple services and large user populations. This market engagement survey seeks to answer how the tool scales, how user onboarding, training and support are delivered as well as what usage analytic and adoption metrics are available. 10. Commercial model and total cost of ownership: ECC requires a sustainable and transparent commercial model to meet our requirements. This market engagement survey seeks to answer what pricing model is used (license, usage, consumption, transaction or hybrid), what the structure of implementation and ongoing support is and if there are any constraints on users, recordings or storage.

Planning Information

The objective of this market engagement survey is to inform any future procurement process and assess if this market is viable, understanding whether AI tools and capabilities can reduce recording time, improve the quality and consistency of case notes, enhance practitioner and resident experience, and provide a clear evidence base and governance model for scaling AI safely and responsibly within high-risk statutory social care contexts. Please see here the link to complete our Preliminary Market Engagement Survey on Microsoft Forms - https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL8-SJGT0amlCn09Ud0NpBQxUN0w2TVJKWjdZODBHRERVRlA3QjY5QlExQS4u The deadline for all responses is 17:00 on 28/07/2026. Any submissions after this deadline may not be considered. Please note that information provided by organisations will be considered, but will not necessarily affect the outcome of the final tender documentation or the procurement process as a whole. Interested parties will not be prejudiced by any response or (lack of) to this survey. Nor shall a response to this survey guarantee an invitation to participate in any future procurement process that Essex County Council may conduct. Essex County Council is not liable for any costs, fees or expenses incurred by any party responding to this Market Engagement survey.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06cb5e
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/066461-2026
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
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support


CPV Codes

48314000 - Voice recognition software package

48517000 - IT software package

48900000 - Miscellaneous software package and computer systems

72222300 - Information technology services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
14 Jul 2026Yesterday
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
28 Jul 20262 weeks to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
1 Jun 2027 - 1 Jun 2029 2-3 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Planning
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
ESSEX 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
CHELMSFORD
Postcode
CM1 1QH
Post Town
Chelmsford
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLH East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLH3 Essex
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLH36 Heart of Essex
Delivery Location
TLH East (England)

Local Authority
Chelmsford
Electoral Ward
Moulsham and Central
Westminster Constituency
Chelmsford

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

JSON Markdown

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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At this point, ECC aims through potential future procurement and strategic decision making to scale this capability across Adult Social Care, selecting an appropriate mix of specialist tools and Microsoft capabilities, to deliver improved efficiency, consistent high quality case recording, and sustainable, compliant AI adoption at scale. The objective of this market engagement survey is to inform any future procurement process and assess if this market is viable, understanding whether AI tools and capabilities can reduce recording time, improve the quality and consistency of case notes, enhance practitioner and resident experience, and provide a clear evidence base and governance model for scaling AI safely and responsibly within high-risk statutory social care contexts. The following requirements are necessary: 1. Transcription Capability: The solution must support the accurate capture and transcription of conversations across a range of operational settings. 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