--- title: "Soft-market testing: Communications and engagement for community, public and private sector audiences" ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-044767" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-044767" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-044767.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-044767.json" source: "Find A Tender Service" current_stage: "Planning" buyer: "ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL" published: "2024-03-11" --- # Soft-market testing: Communications and engagement for community, public and private sector audiences Buyer: ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL Current stage: Planning OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-044767 [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-044767) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-044767.json) ## Summary Essex County Council is planning a tender opportunity titled "Soft-market testing: Communications and engagement for community, public and private sector audiences" in the services category. The procurement aims to support resident and business engagement, consensus building, and promotional campaigns. This opportunity, currently in the planning stage, involves soft market testing to gauge interest and explore potential contract options, with an estimated budget of £80,000. The buying organisation is located at County Hall, Market Road, Chelmsford, UK. The communication of future notice is scheduled for April 1, 2024. This tender from Essex County Council presents an opportunity for businesses specializing in research and development services, economic research, polling, statistics, and equal opportunities consultancy. Suitable businesses would excel in providing services related to resident and business engagement, consensus building, and promotional campaigns. Given the nature of the procurement, businesses with experience in delivering similar services to public sector audiences would be well-equipped to compete. The soft market testing exercise will help inform potential suppliers about the scope of the opportunity and potential changes to the requirements. ## Notice The Essex 2055 programme helps to achieve transformational change for residents and businesses. It does this by building support for infrastructure, land and property projects - and attracting the investment required to deliver them. Essex County Council ("ECC") intends to procure specialist advice to support deliberative resident and business engagement, consensus building amongst politicians and partners, and promotional material and campaigns for both private sector and central government audiences. ECC is considering how to structure this service. A survey has been created to capture insight from prospective suppliers. This survey can be accessed here: https://forms.office.com/e/EunctGCyV2 . At this stage, this opportunity is soft market testing only and not a call for competition. This market test exercise is to allow the Council to ascertain interest from the market, investigate potential options, and consider the best route for a potential future contract opportunity. The total budget for these requirements is estimated to be PS80,000 but the number of tender opportunities will be informed by this soft market testing exercise. ### Lot Information Lot 1 Respondents are advised that the purpose of this PIN is to engage with the market and ascertain interest / feasibility and to inform the sourcing route and structure of the potential opportunity. The scope of service, date of publication or potential contract value may be amended following the conclusion of soft market testing and should not be taken as a final "version" of requirement. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Find A Tender Service | | Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/007736-2024 | | Notice type | Planning Notice | | Procurement type | Standard | | Procurement category | Services | | Procurement method | Not Specified | | Procurement method details | Not specified | | Tender suitability | Not specified | | Awardee scale | Not specified | | All stages | Planning | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 11 Mar 2024 | | Submission deadline | Not specified | | Future notice date | 31 Mar 2024 | | Award date | Not specified | | Contract period | Not specified | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | £80,000 | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | Not specified | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Planned | | Lots status | Planned | | Awards status | Not specified | | Contracts status | Not specified | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL | | Locality | CHELMSFORD | | Post town | Chelmsford | | Postcode | CM1 1QH | | Country | England | | ITL 1 | TLH East (England) | | ITL 2 | TLH3 Essex | | ITL 3 | TLH36 Heart of Essex | | Local authority | Chelmsford | | Electoral ward | Moulsham and Central | | Westminster constituency | Chelmsford | | Delivery location | TLH3 Essex | ## CPV Codes ### Divisions - 73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services - 79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security - 98 - Other community, social and personal services ### Codes - 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services - 79300000 - Market and economic research; polling and statistics - 98200000 - Equal opportunities consultancy services ## Release History - 11 Mar 2024 at 16:13 - Planning - Planning Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/007736-2024 ## Notice URLs - https://forms.office.com/e/EunctGCyV2 - https://procontract.due-north.com - https://www.essex.gov.uk/ ## Provenance This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-044767. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-044767.json.