Why So Many Adult Social Care Tenders Are Coming in 2026–2027 (and How to Prepare Now)

Over the last few years, many adult social care providers have felt like “the big tenders never arrive” – or arrive in unpredictable waves. Then, when you start mapping frameworks and contracts, you realise something important: a huge volume of recommissioning has been pushed into 2026–2027.

In practice, this isn’t random. It’s the result of Covid-era extensions, budget pressures and now the transition to the Procurement Act, all stacking on top of each other. The outcome is a compressed period where many councils will need to refresh Supported Living, Home Care, Supported Employment and Shared Lives arrangements in a relatively short window.

To help providers make sense of this, I’ve developed the England Adult Social Care Tender Pipeline (2026–2029) – a high-level, strategic planning tool that maps likely recommissioning windows by region, council and service type.

1. Why so many tenders are now landing in 2026–2027

If you look across the country, you see the same pattern repeated:

  • Frameworks originally let in 2018–2020
  • Extensions used in 2021–2023 to avoid re-tendering during Covid and workforce crises
  • Further “bridge” extensions while councils wait for Procurement Act implementation or complete market reviews

The result: many contracts that could have been reprocured in 2023–2024 are now bunched into 2026–2027, often with:

  • 4–6 year frameworks reaching the end of their extension options
  • Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) that have been “stretched” and now need overhaul or replacement
  • New integrated models (e.g. Supported Living plus Outreach, or Home Care plus Reablement) being designed

When you map this nationally, you can see why 2026–2027 is shaping up to be a peak commissioning period – particularly for:

  • 🧩 Supported Living and complex needs (including LD, autism and mental health)
  • 🏡 Domiciliary / Home Care & Reablement
  • 💼 Supported Employment
  • 🏠 Shared Lives

The tender pipeline gives a single, consolidated view of this, so you don’t have to patch it together from dozens of portals and market-position statements.

2. Covid-era extensions: the hidden driver of this “bulge”

During the pandemic, many councils took pragmatic decisions to extend contracts rather than re-tender. In some areas, this has meant:

  • Core frameworks running past their original 4–6 year terms
  • Multiple 1+1 extensions used to “buy time”
  • Short-term pilots or block contracts layered on top of existing arrangements

Those extensions were understandable – but they create a knock-on effect:

  • Too many major contracts now reach end of life at roughly the same time
  • Councils have limited capacity to run complex tenders in parallel
  • Providers may face clashing deadlines across several core regions

This is one of the reasons I created the England Adult Social Care Tender Pipeline (2026–2029) – to help providers see the “bulge years” coming, rather than experiencing them as last-minute surprises.

3. Procurement Act transition: new rules, same capacity constraints

Alongside Covid extensions, councils and NHS partners have been preparing for the Procurement Act. That has meant:

  • Revisiting commissioning strategies, especially for “Light Touch” health and care contracts
  • Updating procedures, templates and evaluation models
  • Designing new outcomes frameworks and performance regimes

For providers, the implications are:

  • More emphasis on outcomes, performance and value, not just hourly rates
  • Tightened expectations around data, risk, governance and contract management
  • Possible changes in route-to-market (e.g. DPS replaced by frameworks, or vice versa)

All of this takes time for commissioners to design and approve – which again pushes some large procurements into 2026–2027 rather than earlier years.

4. What this means for providers: capacity, risk and opportunity

For providers, a “compressed” recommissioning period brings both risk and opportunity.

Risks include:

  • 🔥 Several core income streams being re-tendered in the same 12–18 month window
  • ⏱ Bid capacity stretched across overlapping deadlines and portals
  • 📉 Higher risk of losing places on frameworks simply due to rushed submissions

But there are also opportunities:

  • 📍 The chance to reshape your portfolio – exiting unviable contracts, targeting higher-fit regions
  • 📈 Using recommissioning to grow strategically into neighbouring areas or adjacent service types
  • 🤝 Aligning service models with new outcome and integration priorities (e.g. hospital discharge, PBS, employment pathways)

To seize the opportunity and manage the risk, you need to treat 2026–2027 as a planned programme of work, not a series of one-off tenders. That is exactly what the tender pipeline is designed to support.

5. Using the Tender Pipeline as a strategic planning tool

The England Adult Social Care Tender Pipeline (2026–2029) gives you a high-level, council-by-council view of:

  • Typical service models and contract structures by region
  • Approximate last procurement dates (where known)
  • Indicative recommission windows (e.g. “2026–2027”)
  • Notes on market reviews, integration plans and known pressures

You can use it to:

  1. Prioritise regions – identify which councils matter most to your sustainability and growth.
  2. Sequence your prep – work backwards 6–12 months from each expected recommission date.
  3. Align your model – check how your services map to local commissioning direction and outcomes.
  4. Spot clashes – where several key frameworks may go live in the same year or quarter.

The pipeline isn’t a formal notice or guarantee – but it’s a very useful “radar screen” to support board-level and SMT planning.

6. What to start doing now (practical actions)

If 2026–2027 is going to be a busy recommissioning period, what should you do in the next 6–18 months?

6.1 Build or refresh your tender library

  • Update policies to reflect CQC Single Assessment Framework and local commissioning priorities
  • Prepare service model narratives for Supported Living, Home Care, Supported Employment and Shared Lives
  • Develop robust, reusable content on governance, quality assurance, safeguarding and digital systems

6.2 Strengthen your outcomes and social value evidence

  • Collect baseline and improvement data (e.g. independence, hospital avoidance, progression outcomes)
  • Document case studies and structured examples of impact
  • Design a social value framework with real commitments and measurable KPIs

6.3 Map your risk exposure

  • Use the pipeline to identify contracts that are likely to be re-tendered close together
  • Plan internal bid capacity and, where needed, external support for peak periods
  • Agree in advance which tenders are non-negotiable “must win” vs. lower priority

7. How I can help providers prepare

If you’re looking at the 2026–2027 landscape and thinking, “We need to get ahead of this,” there are several ways I can support:

  • Strategic Reviews & Growth Planning – using the pipeline to map your key regions, risks and opportunities.
  • Bid Library & Process Design – building a reusable library aligned to commissioning and CQC expectations.
  • Contract Continuity & Evidence – helping you turn day-to-day delivery into robust tender evidence.
  • Bid Writing & Review – from full-service writing to targeted proofreading and “score booster” rewrites.

If you’d like to discuss how the tender pipeline relates to your organisation, you can:

However you approach it, treating 2026–2027 as a planned recommissioning cycle – rather than a series of emergencies – will put you in a much stronger position to protect your contracts, grow sustainably and deliver excellent outcomes for the people you support.

💼 Rapid Support Products (fast turnaround options)

🚀 Need a Bid Writing Quote?

If you’re exploring support for an upcoming tender or framework, request a quick, no-obligation quote. I’ll review your documents and respond with:

  • A clear scope of work
  • Estimated days required
  • A fixed fee quote
  • Any risks, considerations or quick wins
📄 Request a Bid Writing Quote →

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.

⬅️ Return to Knowledge Hub Index

🔗 Useful Tender Resources

✍️ Service support:

🔍 Quality boost:

🎯 Build foundations: