---
title: "Fit-Testing Solutions - Early Market Engagement"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-061582"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-061582"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-061582.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-061582.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Planning"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE"
published: "2026-02-03"
---

# Fit-Testing Solutions - Early Market Engagement

Buyer: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE  
Current stage: Planning  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-061582

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## Summary

The Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) in the United Kingdom is initiating an early market engagement process concerning "Fit-Testing Solutions" for respirator fit testing, particularly for Filtering Facepiece Class 3 (FFP3) masks. This endeavour sits within the broader industry categories of health and social work services, and medical apparatus. The initiative, currently in the planning stage, involves multiple roundtable discussions scheduled on 24th, 25th, and 26th February 2026 in London. Prospective participants are encouraged to register their interest by 17th February 2026, with a subsequent survey open until 2nd March 2026, aimed at exploring long-term, innovative solutions to improve fit-testing capacities, including potential technological advancements.

This market engagement represents a unique opportunity for businesses involved in health and social care equipment, digital innovation, and AI technology development to present potential solutions for expanding fit-testing capacity. Enterprises such as manufacturers of respirators and fit-testing machines, providers of fit testing services, and digital solution developers stand to benefit the most. With the UK health sector encompassing a vast workforce and the ongoing demand for efficient protection measures, participating businesses can leverage this initiative to contribute to vital healthcare solutions while expanding their footprint and establishing significant partnerships within the public sector. Such involvement could position these businesses at the forefront of addressing a critical industry challenge, offering substantial growth potential.

## Notice

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is looking to engage stakeholders to explore how the UK can strengthen capacity for respirator fit testing across health and adult social care, namely for "Filtering Facepiece Class 3" (FFP3) masks. FFP3 masks offer high levels of protection, removing at least 99% of airborne particles such as viruses, toxic dusts, and aerosols. To ensure this level of protection is achieved, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) requires in-person fit testing by a trained tester. There's an ongoing shortage of respirator fit-testing capacity across the health and care sector. During business as usual, adult social care and the NHS can have limited need for tight-fitting respirators. However, changes in demand (such as during a pandemic) could significantly constrain access to appropriate protection without sufficient fit-testing capability. DHSC is therefore seeking input from stakeholders with relevant experience and expertise to identify challenges and potential solutions. This engagement is seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders that have direct or indirect involvement in delivering fit testing across health and social care, with a focus on longer-term, innovative approaches to improving fit-testing capacity, including digital or artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. In a separate engagement exercise, DHSC is planning to engage exclusively with fit-testing providers, specifically to gain further understanding of the current fit-testing market and landscape, and implications for associated surge capacity to delivering fit testing in a future pandemic. Thus, this other exercise will aim to deliver increased resilience and preparedness for a future pandemic, if required, in the near term, while longer-term initiatives are defined and pursued. This could be a significant opportunity to contribute towards developing a solution for fit testing across health and social care, helping to address a need that is currently not being met. In England, there were a total of 1.71 million workforce posts in adult social care in 2024/25 (plus unpaid carers and personal assistants) and a further 1.5 million in the NHS (August 2025).

### Planning Information

For this engagement, DHSC will be holding three roundtable discussions, scheduled for:
• Tuesday 24 February 2026, 10am-12pm
• Wednesday 25 February 2026, 11am-1pm
• Thursday 26 February 2026, 1pm-3pm
The roundtables will discuss:
• the current status and problems with fit testing within the health and adult social care sector,
• the solutions that exist within industry or elsewhere to effectively fit test, and
• the potential development of a technological solution, such as a solution involving digital or AI tools, to improve access to fit testing within health and social care.
DHSC is keen to hear your ideas and feedback, particularly on the feasibility of innovative solutions, the practicalities, and the potential for procuring services/products. We want this to be an open discussion, allowing you to tell us what the potential solutions are.
Please register your interest for a roundtable using this form:
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MIwnYaiRMUyMH-9N6Jc6HOQJJ-YaKaRHkRg1bw3qXlZUQldUQjJWNUhFNTM3VTJaSEw0VklTQTgxMS4u
The deadline to register interest is 11:59 pm on Tuesday 17 February 2026.
DHSC welcomes interest from:
• Adult social care providers
• NHS organisations (primary, secondary, community, and social care)
• Local authorities
• Manufacturers or sole distributors of respirators, especially FFP3 masks
• Manufacturers or sole distributors of quantitative fit testing machines
• Manufacturers or sole distributors of qualitative fit testing kits
• Fit testing providers, trainers, or individual fit testers
• Relevant industry bodies and trade associations
• Regulatory or accreditation bodies
• Other users of respirators and fit testing services
• Solution designers (including digital/AI innovators)
DHSC may adjust the number or timing of roundtables depending on demand. If interest exceeds capacity (25 participants per roundtable), DHSC may not be able to invite all eligible stakeholders. In this case, DHSC will select roundtable participants based on the below criteria:
• Ensuring a balanced mix of stakeholder groups for each roundtable 
• Ensuring a balanced representation across regions.
Alongside this, all stakeholders are encouraged to complete an accompanying survey. All stakeholders are invited to complete this survey, regardless of whether they are attending a roundtable. All individual responses will be kept confidential within DHSC and used solely to gather insights on challenges and potential solutions in fit-testing capacity. Only aggregated and anonymised insights may be shared wider.
Complete the survey here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MIwnYaiRMUyMH-9N6Jc6HD5FeWMrqfNMlI-J0y-poM1UM0k4NVIzMExSMFo2NzFPNk1PS0FXUVRTOS4u
Survey deadline: 11:59 pm, Monday 2 March 2026
(This engagement is neither a procurement exercise nor a call for competition. DHSC does not commit to any specific action at this stage. The roundtables and survey are for information gathering only. Further engagement may follow as required.)
For any questions about this opportunity, please contact fit-testing@dhsc.gov.uk.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009517-2026 |
| 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 |
| All stages | Planning |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 3 Feb 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | 2 Mar 2026 |
| Award date | Not specified |
| Contract period | 3 Feb 2026 - 2 Mar 2026 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Planning |
| Lots status | Planning |
| Awards status | Not specified |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1H 0EU |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI3 Inner London - West |
| ITL 3 | TLI35 Westminster and City of London |
| Local authority | Westminster |
| Electoral ward | St James's |
| Westminster constituency | Cities of London and Westminster |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 18 - Clothing, footwear, luggage articles and accessories
- 33 - Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products
- 38 - Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses)
- 48 - Software package and information systems
- 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
- 85 - Health and social work services

### Codes

- 18100000 - Occupational clothing, special workwear and accessories
- 33141000 - Disposable non-chemical medical consumables and haematological consumables
- 33190000 - Miscellaneous medical devices and products
- 38540000 - Machines and apparatus for testing and measuring
- 48180000 - Medical software package
- 72212180 - Medical software development services
- 85000000 - Health and social work services

## Release History

- 3 Feb 2026 at 14:36 - Planning - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009517-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/009517-2026
  3rd February 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MIwnYaiRMUyMH-9N6Jc6HD5FeWMrqfNMlI-J0y-poM1UM0k4NVIzMExSMFo2NzFPNk1PS0FXUVRTOS4u
- https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MIwnYaiRMUyMH-9N6Jc6HOQJJ-YaKaRHkRg1bw3qXlZUQldUQjJWNUhFNTM3VTJaSEw0VklTQTgxMS4u
- https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents

## 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-061582. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-061582.json.