---
title: "The Fosterline Service"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-06eeb8"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-06eeb8"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06eeb8.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06eeb8.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Planning"
buyer: "Department for Education"
published: "2026-08-28"
---

# The Fosterline Service

Buyer: Department for Education  
Current stage: Planning  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-06eeb8

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## Summary

The Department for Education is exploring a national Fosterline service providing free, independent advice to current and prospective foster carers. The existing service includes a helpline, website and webchat, with individualised support for ongoing issues and detailed tax and benefits advice. Its purpose is to help foster families remain together during crises, reduce placement breakdown and avoid associated costs. This is a public-sector support and advice service, classified as helpdesk and support services (CPV 72253000). Delivery is intended across England, covering the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East and South West. The Department for Education is the buying organisation.

The process is at planning stage and is an early market engagement exercise, not an invitation to tender. An online engagement event is planned for 10 September 2026, from 13:00 to 14:00, for interested organisations to contribute. The buyer expects a subsequent notice on 1 November 2026. Any procedure, contract value and term references are expressly illustrative and may change; the current indicative value is £0. The planned contract period is 1 January 2027 to 28 December 2028, with a possible extension reaching 31 December 2029. There is one planned lot. The service is treated as a light-touch service, and the lot is marked suitable for SMEs and voluntary, community or social enterprises.

This engagement is relevant to organisations able to design, operate or improve a national support service for current and prospective foster carers. Useful capabilities include managing a helpline, website and webchat together; providing independent, individualised advice; and handling sensitive enquiries about ongoing fostering issues, tax and benefits. Providers should understand how timely support can help foster families through crises, reduce placement breakdown and protect continuity of care. Organisations with experience supporting foster carers or families, and those able to deliver advice consistently across England, are likely to be well placed. The planned lot is identified as suitable for SMEs and voluntary, community or social enterprises, so smaller specialist providers may wish to prepare for the later procurement.

## Notice

This is a notice seeking early engagement from interested parties in relation to the Department for Education Fosterline Service Please note that all references to procedure, value and term length are purely illustrative and subject to change. The event will describe the existing set of national Fosterline services offering free, independent advice to current and prospective foster carers and the proposed service moving forward The current service offers individualised services for current or prospective foster carers requiring help with ongoing issues or detailed tax and benefits advice. The services aim to support foster families to stay together during times of crisis, reducing placement breakdown, and avoiding costs associated with this. The service is currently composed of a helpline service, website and webchat function. Please note that this notice is for early market engagement and exploratory purposes and is not a call for competition hence the PS0 value indicated at this point. The Department reserves the right not to enter any formal processes or agreements. Accordingly, the authority will not be liable for any bid cost, expenditure, work, or effort incurred by a provider in acting based on this notice.

### Planning Information

An online market engagement event will be held for interested parties to contribute on September 10th between 13:00 – 14:00
Please visit Department for education eSourcing portal Jaggaer to register via the View Opportunities section and to obtain a link to attend the online event
https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html (scroll to view opportunities)
The SSQ will remain open after the market engagement event to allow organisations who initially miss this notice or the event, to register an interest prior to any procurement opportunity being advertised

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/082254-2026 |
| Notice type | UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Not Specified |
| Procurement method details | Not specified |
| Tender suitability | SME, VCSE |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Planning |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 28 Aug 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | 1 Nov 2026 |
| Award date | Not specified |
| Contract period | 1 Jan 2027 - 28 Dec 2028 |
| 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 for Education |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Postcode area | South West London |
| Postcode | SW1P 3BT |
| 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 | TLC North East (England), TLD North West (England), TLE Yorkshire and The Humber, TLF East Midlands (England), TLG West Midlands (England), TLH East (England), TLI London, TLJ South East (England), TLK South West (England) |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

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

### Codes

- 72253000 - Helpdesk and support services

## Release History

- 28 Aug 2026 at 15:03 - Planning - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/082254-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/082254-2026
  28th August 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html
- 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-06eeb8. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06eeb8.json.