---
title: "National Gambling Helpline"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-0697fb"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-0697fb"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0697fb.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0697fb.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "NHS ENGLAND"
published: "2026-05-13"
---

# National Gambling Helpline

Buyer: NHS ENGLAND  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-0697fb

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## Summary

NHS England has completed a direct award contract for the National Gambling Helpline, a service within the health and addiction treatment category. This contract, valued at £14.5 million, is part of a broader plan following the introduction of the Statutory Gambling Levy, with NHS England taking responsibility for gambling harms treatment pathways. The procurement involves maintaining the service provided by GamCare, a VCSE organisation based in London. The contract ensures the continuity of the helpline's multi-channel access and support, which is crucial for stabilising the service as responsibilities shift from GambleAware. The contract period starts on 29th May 2026 and runs until 31st March 2027, with a 12-month extension option available, ensuring system stability during the transition. Key procurement classifications include the necessity of GamCare's expertise and ownership of the established national helpline, which is critical for preventing disruptions in service access.

This tender offers business growth opportunities primarily for large organisations with expertise in health services, specifically within addiction treatment. Businesses with established infrastructure and experience in providing comprehensive support and referral systems would excel in this environment. The direct award to GamCare highlights the importance of retaining specific capabilities and existing branding, which suggests potential strategic partnership opportunities for businesses looking to collaborate with a leading service provider. Opportunities may exist for expanding related services or innovating within interoperable support frameworks, particularly for businesses with a focus on digital health solutions, seamless referral systems, or those capable of contributing to a robust gambling harms treatment infrastructure.

## Notice

The introduction of the Statutory Gambling Levy in October 2025 resulted in NHS England becoming responsible responsible for commissioning the gambling harms treatment pathway, from referral and triage through to aftercare, as of 1st April 2026. The National Gambling Helpline, delivered by GamCare, a VCSE organisation, is an established, live service providing multi-channel access (including telephone, email, WhatsApp and online) and plays an integral role in the treatment system as a primary referral route into treatment and support services. GamCare owns the established national helpline number, which is extensively embedded across marketing and referral routes used by gambling operators, financial institutions, local authorities and VCSE providers. Maintaining continuity of this access route is critical, as changes would require extensive engagement and lead time, with potential disruption to patient access and referral flows. The requirement is limited to continuation of the existing service to ensure system stability during transition to future commissioning arrangements.

### Procurement Information

As well as providing 24/7 access to advice and onward referral/signposting, the National Gambling Helpline also offers brief interventions and a range of web-based self-help and support tools specific to gambling harms (not available elsewhere). They have a workforce with expertise in gambling harms, including lived experience, which NHSE is keen to retain to ensure the outcome and quality of the service, particularly given that there is limited expertise in this area. GamCare owns the phone number for the National Gambling Helpline which is extensively advertised on marketing materials by a wide range of organisations, including gambling operators, financial services, local authorities and other VCSE providers. Changing this phone number would require extensive engagement, including consultation with gambling operators via the Gambling Commission, and a considerable lead time. Additionally, a key and unique component of the National Gambling Helpline is their 'warm transfer' service from gambling operators and financial services, and to other VCSE service providers. This has specific interoperability requirements to ensure the proper functioning of the service. Incompatibility between systems would result in costly, time consuming and complex redesign and modification which would be unacceptable to our strategic objective of a "smooth transition" to the new treatment system and cause potentially harmful delays in patients accessing treatment services.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/044042-2026 |
| Notice type | UK5 - Transparency Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Direct |
| Procurement method details | Direct award |
| Tender suitability | VCSE |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 13 May 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 13 May 2026 |
| Contract period | 28 May 2026 - 31 Mar 2027 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £14,500,000 |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Pending |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | NHS ENGLAND |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | South East London |
| Postcode | SE1 8UG |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI4 Inner London - East |
| ITL 3 | TLI45 Lambeth |
| Local authority | Lambeth |
| Electoral ward | Waterloo & South Bank |
| Westminster constituency | Vauxhall and Camberwell Green |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | GAMCARE |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 33 - Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products
- 85 - Health and social work services

### Codes

- 33693300 - Addiction treatment
- 85100000 - Health services

## Release History

- 13 May 2026 at 14:28 - Award - UK5 - Transparency Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/044042-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/044042-2026
  13th May 2026 - Transparency notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://www.england.nhs.uk/
- 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-0697fb. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-0697fb.json.