This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

Award

07 Sep 2026 at 17:23

Award

07 Sep 2026 at 17:17

Summary of the contracting process

The Isle of Wight Council procured a one-year Living Well and Early Help service for adults on the Isle of Wight. This is a preventative health and social care service supporting residents to plan and manage their care, live well, maintain or regain independence, and reduce reliance on GPs, hospitals, emergency admissions and residential or nursing care. The service works with community resources and Public Health colleagues and is integrated with adult social care pathways. It supports more than 700 people each month and delivers more than 650 volunteer support hours monthly. The procurement covers services delivered across the Isle of Wight, under the health and social work services category (CPV 85000000). The buyer is the Isle of Wight Council.

The procurement is complete and Aspire Ryde has been selected through a direct award. The award date was 20 July 2026. The awarded value is £731,512 excluding VAT (£877,814 including VAT), for the period 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2028. A standstill period ends on 16 September 2026, with contract signature scheduled for 31 March 2027. The council relied on the absence of competition for technical reasons and stated that there were no reasonable alternatives, citing TUPE transfer, mobilisation, continuity of care, data migration, referral pathways and service redesign. The award covers one lot, considered suitable for SMEs. The council stated that the wider service is due to be reprocured for April 2027.

This award indicates demand for an integrated preventative support service for vulnerable adults, delivered through community resources and closely linked to adult social care and Public Health. A credible future provider would need experience helping people manage health conditions, build or regain independence and avoid escalation into acute or statutory services. It would also need the operational capacity to support a substantial live caseload and coordinate volunteer-led activity. Strong capability in service mobilisation, TUPE transfer, workforce planning, case transfer, referral pathways, data migration, information governance and system integration would be important. Experience building trusted relationships with residents, community organisations, GPs, hospitals, social care and other partner agencies would help demonstrate continuity and effective partnership delivery on the Isle of Wight.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Title

Living Well and Early Help Service for Adults on the Isle of Wight

Notice Description

The Living Well and Early Help offer is designed to be outcome focused looking at the diverse resources available within our community to meet our islands resident's needs. The current Living Well and Early Help Service on average each month supports over seven hundred people and provides over six hundred and fifty hours of support through their volunteers.This has been in place for 5 years (at expiry) and we need to continue for a further year alongside Public Health colleagues. This will enable us to meet the overarching key objectives of: * Increasing the ability of residents to participate in the planning of their care and support, and where they are able, to self-care to manage their own health conditions; * Helping people to live well and gain, maintain or regain their independence to meet their own objectives; * Reducing reliance on statutory services (GP's, acute hospital services and social care), delaying the need for emergency admission to hospital and/or permanent move into residential or nursing care.

Procurement Information

Due to the technical and operational implications arising from TUPE transfer, service mobilisation and continuity requirements, the Authority considers that 6(a) and (b) of Schedule 5 applies where the following conditions are met in relation to the public contract- (a)due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the services required, and (b)there are no reasonable alternatives to the service. Only a particular supplier, the incumbent, can supply the services required without a potential gap in provision if the supplier changed and there are no reasonable alternatives to this service at this time. The service is for vulnerable people and the risk to continuity of care and the meeting of statutory obligations is deemed unreasonable. Furthermore, whilst other providers may exist in the market, it is not considered reasonable to change provider for a temporary 12 month arrangement. Conducting a full procurement for a short interim contract would create disproportionate costs and operational disruption through TUPE transfer, mobilisation and transition activities. Any alternative provider would need to establish new referral pathways, data sharing arrangements, workforce structures and partnership arrangements for a limited contract period whilst the wider service model is being reviewed and redesigned. This would create an unacceptable risk to continuity of support for vulnerable adults and would not represent a reasonable alternative in the circumstances. Only Aspire can realistically deliver the service at this point in time, and there are no reasonable alternatives. The Living Well and Early Help contract is due to be reprocured for April 2027. We have met with Public Health colleagues who, following initial discussions, are now keen to provide financial support for the future procurement. However, they have said that they would first like to undertake a wider public consultation and feel there is insufficient time to complete this within the current procurement timeframe. They have requested additional time to carry out this work which will enable them to financially contribute to the service. There would be complex and time consuming inefficiencies if we were to look to switch suppliers without allowing time to understand the impacts and future approach required for the service. We are therefore seeking to extend the Living Well and Early Help contract via a direct award. We have already used the full extension within the current contract, ordinarily we would need to go back out to the market, but that isn't considered feasible for a short 12 month period due to TUPE and mobilisation impacts. If we were to retender in order to carry out the necessary period of consultation, it could have negative consequences on the vulnerable people the service is supporting. For example; - A new provider could not immediately replicate the current Living Well and Early Help model, this could result in technical and operational disruption to the delivery of the statutory preventative service. - Additionally migration to a new provider would require substantial data migration, system integration, information governance assurance and training, creating disproportionate technical difficulties and risks to the continuity of the service - Transition at this point could create disruption to those currently using the service, due to case transfers, reconfiguration of referral routes, re-establishing trusted relationships and reassessments of service users. -There is also a limited local provider market that would have the infrastructure to support this within the time scale. Alongside this a procurement would likely attract only the incumbent or a very small number of providers. In summary the current provider delivers an integrated prevention and early help service which is operationally embedded within ASC pathways, referral mechanisms, data sharing arrangements and community support networks. A change of provider during the proposed public consultation and service redesign period would require substantial migration of live cases, reconfiguration of referral pathways, establishment of new information sharing, workforce mobilisation and retraining and reintegration with partner agencies. This would create disproportionate technical and operational difficulties and present a risk to the continuity of support for vulnerable adults. A direct award for 12 months is therefore necessary to maintain service continuity while the future model is developed through consultation and then procured. A UK6 notice will now be published and will commence a standstill period.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f3f7
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/084621-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

85 - Health and social work services


CPV Codes

85000000 - Health and social work services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£731,512 £500K-£1M
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
7 Sep 20261 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
20 Jul 20261 months ago
Contract Period
1 Apr 2027 - 31 Mar 2028 1-2 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

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

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Isle of Wight 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
NEWPORT
Postcode
PO30 1UD
Postcode Area
Portsmouth
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLJ South East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLJ3 Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLJ34 Isle of Wight
Delivery Location
Not specified

Local Authority
Isle of Wight
Electoral Ward
Newport Central
Westminster Constituency
Isle of Wight West

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

Aspire Ryde

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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