How to Prepare for the Procurement Act 2023 (2025–2026): Practical Guide for Social Care & NHS Providers

📘 How to Prepare Your Organisation for the Procurement Act 2023 (2025–2026)

A practical guide for social care and NHS-commissioned providers

The Procurement Act 2023 went live in February 2025. But for most social care and NHS-commissioned providers, the real impact is being felt now — in late 2025 and into 2026 — as commissioners reshape their pipelines, evaluation models and renewal approaches.

We’re already seeing the early effects:

  • Fewer “compliance-only” wins.
  • More focus on Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) — value, risk, outcomes, and social value.
  • Greater scrutiny of governance, decision-making and performance evidence.
  • More flexible routes to renewals, extensions and call-offs where strong evidence exists.

For providers, the question is no longer “What is the Procurement Act 2023?” — it’s “How do we prepare for the way it’s being applied in 2025–2026?”

This blog offers a practical roadmap for social care and NHS-commissioned organisations who want to be ready for the next wave of frameworks, DPSs and call-offs — not just compliant, but competitive.

1️⃣ What’s Changing — and Why 2025–2026 Matters

The Procurement Act 2023 is designed to make public procurement:

  • More flexible – especially around renewals and call-offs for proven providers.
  • More transparent – with clearer reporting expectations and publication duties.
  • More focused on outcomes and value – not just lowest price.
  • More proportionate – with processes scaled to the risk and value of contracts.

In practice, that means 2025 has been a “bedding-in” year:

  • Commissioners adjusting evaluation models and templates.
  • Procurement teams revising frameworks and routes to market.
  • Providers trying to read the signals and adapt their bid strategy.

As we move through late 2025 and into 2026, you can expect:

  • New and refreshed frameworks that explicitly reference MAT and outcomes.
  • Greater use of call-offs and extensions where performance is clearly evidenced.
  • Less tolerance for weak or generic responses – especially on governance and social value.

Now is the time to move from “watch and wait” to “prepare and position”.

2️⃣ Key Shifts Under the Procurement Act 2023

🧮 Most Advantageous Tender (MAT)

MAT moves the focus from “lowest price that meets the spec” to the best overall mix of quality, outcomes, risk and value. For providers, this means:

  • Stronger emphasis on evidence of impact and social value, not just compliance.
  • More detailed expectations around governance, learning and risk management.
  • Need for clear, data-backed narratives in bids and contract reviews.

If you want help building a structured, defensible bid/no-bid process that reflects MAT, explore:

🔍 Transparency & Reporting

The Act raises the bar on transparency — not just at award, but throughout the contract lifecycle. Commissioners need defensible audit trails for:

  • Why a provider was chosen (or retained).
  • How performance, social value and risk are monitored.
  • What evidence underpins decisions to extend or vary a contract.

That’s where strong contract continuity and outcomes evidence becomes critical. To build this systematically, see:

⚖️ Proportionality & Flexibility

Proportionality means bigger, higher-risk contracts may have more rigorous processes — but smaller or lower-risk decisions can be simpler, especially where there is strong performance evidence.

For providers, this creates two opportunities:

  • Invest in governance and evidence to make it easier for commissioners to retain you.
  • Build robust internal decision-making so you don’t overstretch on low-fit opportunities.

3️⃣ What This Means for Social Care & NHS-Commissioned Providers

Across learning disability, supported living, home care, reablement, complex care and urgent/community health, the direction of travel is clear:

  • Higher evidence standards – especially on outcomes, social value and equity.
  • More mature governance expectations – incidents, RCA, supervision, workforce data.
  • More competitive frameworks – fewer places where “meeting the spec” is enough.
  • Greater focus on value – cost still matters, but so do impact and risk.

If your bid library still reads like it did in 2019–2021, it’s unlikely to reflect today’s evaluation language. This is where a structured refresh pays off. To modernise your foundation content, take a look at:

4️⃣ Six Things Providers Should Do Between Now and 2026

1. Audit Your Bid Library

Start by asking:

  • Do our method statements reflect MAT language (outcomes, value, risk, social value)?
  • Are we evidencing change over time, or just describing activity?
  • Are our answers clearly mapped to scoring descriptors?

If the honest answer is “not yet”, a structured review can save a lot of future rework. Consider:

2. Build or Improve a Bid Triage Process

Under tighter MAT scoring and more complex evaluations, “we’ll go for this and see how we get on” is no longer a sustainable strategy.

A good triage process will help you to:

  • Score opportunities on strategic fit, deliverability, risk and value.
  • Document defensible bid/no-bid decisions for your Board.
  • Protect your team from scattergun bidding and burnout.

If you want to formalise this, explore:

3. Strengthen Outcomes Evidence

Outcomes data is no longer a “nice-to-have”. Under MAT and transparency duties, commissioners need evidence they can stand behind.

Focus on:

  • Clear KPI sets aligned to specs and local priorities.
  • Simple dashboards with trend lines and commentary.
  • Co-produced case studies linked to data, not just narratives.

For structured support, see:

4. Refresh Social Value Evidence

Social value under MAT isn’t just a paragraph about local jobs. Commissioners want to see:

  • Specific, locally relevant commitments (employment, skills, inclusion, community assets).
  • How you will measure and report on these commitments.
  • Evidence of delivery to date, not just future promises.

As you refresh your library, make sure social value is woven across your method statements — not isolated in a single section.

5. Prepare Performance Dashboards

When commissioners are deciding whether to extend or re-tender, they’ll be looking at your performance evidence. Helpful steps include:

  • Consolidating disparate KPIs into a simple core dashboard.
  • Adding brief commentary – what you’re doing well, and where you’re improving.
  • Linking dashboard data to service changes, improvement plans and case studies.

This kind of assurance is exactly what the Contract Continuity & Outcomes Evidence Packages are designed to support.

6. Consider a Monthly Retainer to Stay Ready

For many providers, the challenge isn’t knowing what to do — it’s finding consistent capacity to do it amidst operational pressures.

If your pipeline is unpredictable but you want a steady level of support, a flexible retainer can help you to:

  • Cover live tenders, bid reviews and triage.
  • Chip away at library refresh and performance evidence.
  • Prepare for frameworks and renewals months in advance.

For details, see:

5️⃣ What Strong Providers Will Already Be Doing

From conversations with providers who are ahead of the curve, the strongest organisations tend to be:

  • Organising their information – centralising method statements, policies and evidence.
  • Cleansing data – focusing on a manageable set of KPIs they can actually maintain.
  • Strengthening governance – tightening supervision, RCA, learning logs, and board reporting.
  • Building local relationships – staying close to commissioners, PCNs, ICSs and provider forums.
  • Running gap analyses – asking “If this were re-tendered tomorrow, how would we score?”

For some organisations, a one-off strategic reset is helpful before diving into the detail — often combining bid triage, library refresh and outcomes evidence into a coherent plan for the next 12–18 months.

6️⃣ Quick Wins You Can Implement This Month

You don’t have to wait for a big project to start aligning with the Procurement Act 2023. A few quick wins can lift the quality of your next tender immediately:

  • Introduce a simple triage checklist before you commit to any new opportunity.
  • Refresh 3–5 core case studies so they clearly show baseline → action → outcome → evidence.
  • Standardise your KPI description across bids and reports (name, definition, target, trend).
  • Add social value proof (e.g. local partnerships, employment data, training records) to your library.
  • Run an evaluator-style proofread on your next submission.

If you want a structured external view on quality and scoring, you can use:

7️⃣ Conclusion: 2026 Will Reward Prepared Providers

The Procurement Act 2023 is no longer something on the horizon — it’s here, live, and beginning to reshape how contracts are awarded and renewed in real time.

Over the next 12–18 months, the providers who thrive will be those who:

  • Invest in bid triage – choosing the right opportunities.
  • Modernise their tender library – MAT-aligned, evidence-rich content.
  • Build contract continuity and outcomes evidence – dashboards, case studies, social value proof.
  • Secure predictable bid capacity – whether through internal roles, retainers, or both.

If you’d like support to get ready — whether that’s a quick quality lift on a live tender, or a structured plan across your library, triage and outcomes evidence — you can explore:

If you’re unsure where to start, a short scoping call can help prioritise the most impactful steps for your organisation.

Email: Mike.Harrison@impact-guru.co.uk

Written by Impact Guru, editorial oversight by Mike Harrison, Founder of Impact Guru Ltd — bringing extensive experience in health and social care tenders, commissioning and strategy.

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