Children and Young People Welfare Tenders and Contracts

Children and young people welfare tenders cover services that protect and support the wellbeing of children and young people, such as fostering and adoption support, child protection casework, family safeguarding and short breaks care for children with additional needs.

Stotles brings together children's welfare tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Councils often commission children's welfare services through their own dynamic purchasing systems and portals, so many opportunities appear outside the national sites.

Children's welfare tenders are scored on quality as well as price, so bids show safeguarding, outcomes for children, staffing and supervision, and partnership with social workers. Many councils run open frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems, so joining them is usually the first step.

Providers of regulated children's services must be registered with Ofsted, or the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, and staff working with children need enhanced DBS checks with a children's barred list check. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar services at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Many are let as framework agreements or dynamic purchasing systems, letting councils commission providers as needs arise, alongside individual contracts for services such as family safeguarding or fostering support.

Local councils commission much of this work through their children's services teams. NHS trusts and community health partnerships also buy welfare and family support services for children and young people.

Read council sufficiency strategies, corporate parenting strategies, children in care and care leaver commissioning plans and cabinet papers on recommissioning. Market engagement events and meet-the-buyer notices often come before a formal tender or dynamic purchasing system round. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Children and young people welfare notices carry 85311300 (Welfare services for children and young people) and 85300000 (Social work and related services). Many council notices for advocacy, independent visitors and care leaver support carry no CPV code at all, so the work is better recognised by its titles than by a code.