Stoke-on-Trent City Council Launches £20.4m Community Support Framework

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has launched a new £20.4 million Community Support Framework, seeking multiple providers to deliver support services for children, young people and families with a range of needs.

The framework covers seven lots, including short breaks, planned interventions and urgent short-term support, with separate opportunities available for CQC and non-CQC registered providers.

Running for up to eight years, the framework will support children with disabilities alongside children on the edge of care or already in care, with services ranging from community-based activities through to complex personal care and urgent support required at short notice.

Framework Factfile

Framework: Community Support Framework – CAFS/2025/290
Contracting authority: Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Sector: Children’s services / health and social care
Estimated value: £20.4 million excluding VAT
Location: Stoke-on-Trent, with some children potentially supported elsewhere in the UK
Framework term: 1 February 2027 – 31 January 2035
Number of lots: 7
Maximum suppliers: Unlimited
Enquiry deadline: 12pm, 12 November 2026
Tender submission deadline: 8pm, 13 November 2026
Estimated award decision: 18 December 2026

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What Is the Community Support Framework?

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is establishing the framework to source multiple organisations capable of supporting children and families whose needs require statutory intervention.

This includes children with disabilities, children on the edge of care and those already in care.

The scale of local demand is significant. Stoke-on-Trent has approximately 58,305 children and young people, including 8,703 with Special Educational Needs. According to the Council's published figures, 455 children and young people with SEND are known to social care, including 249 with an Education, Health and Care Plan.

The framework is therefore intended to create a broad network of providers capable of responding to different levels and types of need.

Services include:

• Short break packages
• Outreach and wraparound support
• Planned interventions
• Positive behaviour support
• Mentoring and structured activities
• Edge-of-care interventions
• Urgent same-day or next-day support
• Complex personal care
• Behaviour management associated with assessed needs

Providers will be engaged through individual call-off agreements throughout the framework term.

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How Are the Lots Structured?

The seven lots have been designed around the type, complexity and urgency of support required, with an important distinction between services requiring CQC registration and those that do not.

Lot 1a – Short Breaks: Non-CQC

Estimated value: £2 million excluding VAT

This lot covers short breaks for children with disabilities, with activities delivered within the child's home or community.

Personal care is excluded, meaning CQC registration is not required.

This could provide an opportunity for organisations delivering community activities, outreach, respite-style services and wider support that does not involve regulated personal care.

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Lot 1b – Short Breaks: CQC

Estimated value: £2 million excluding VAT

Lot 1b also covers short breaks for children with disabilities in the home or community, but personal care may form part of the service.

Providers bidding for this lot must therefore be CQC registered.

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Lot 1c – Short Breaks for Complex Needs: CQC

Estimated value: £5.2 million excluding VAT

The largest of the short-break lots focuses specifically on children with disabilities who have complex health needs and/or require high-hour packages.

Providers must be CQC registered and capable of delivering complex personal care and/or behaviour management in line with assessed needs.

Organisations considering this lot will need to demonstrate that their workforce, clinical or care governance, training and operational capacity reflect the increased complexity of the service.

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Lot 2 – Planned Intervention

Estimated value: £800,000 excluding VAT

This lot covers planned support including:

• Positive behaviour support
• Mentoring
• Structured activities
• Edge-of-care interventions

The focus is therefore broader than traditional care provision, opening the framework to organisations capable of delivering preventative and targeted interventions for children and families.

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Lot 3a – Urgent Short Term: Non-CQC

Estimated value: £320,000 excluding VAT

This lot covers urgent interim support required on the same or next day following identification of need.

Children and young people with disabilities may be supported, but personal care is excluded and CQC registration is not required.

The key consideration for providers here is likely to be responsiveness and mobilisation capacity.

Organisations will need to consider whether they have the workforce and systems necessary to accept and safely mobilise packages at very short notice.

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Lot 3b – Urgent Short Term: CQC

Estimated value: £3.6 million excluding VAT

Lot 3b also covers urgent same-day or next-day interim support, but personal care may be required.

Providers must therefore be CQC registered.

For bidders, demonstrating access to suitably trained staff and a robust process for quickly assessing, mobilising and monitoring new packages is likely to be particularly important.

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Lot 3c – Urgent Short Term & Complex Needs: CQC

Estimated value: £3.6 million excluding VAT

This lot combines urgent mobilisation with more complex requirements.

Providers must be CQC registered and capable of delivering complex personal care and/or behaviour management associated with assessed needs, potentially at very short notice.

This makes capacity, workforce competency, safeguarding, risk management and rapid mobilisation particularly important considerations for organisations targeting this lot.

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Is This Framework Relevant to Your Organisation?

The framework covers a broad spectrum of children's support services, meaning the right lot will depend heavily on your organisation's registration status, experience and operational capacity.

It could be relevant to:

• Children's care and support providers
• Short break and respite providers
• CQC-registered home care providers
• Complex care providers
• SEND support organisations
• Children's outreach services
• Positive behaviour support providers
• Mentoring organisations
• Edge-of-care and family support providers
• Community-based children's services
• Organisations delivering structured activities for children and young people

Crucially, not every provider needs to deliver regulated personal care or complex support to participate.

The inclusion of non-CQC lots means organisations delivering relevant community, outreach and short-break services may also have a route onto the framework.

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CQC or Non-CQC: Which Lots Should You Consider?

One of the first bid/no-bid questions for providers should be whether their current registration and service model align with the requirements of each lot.

Non-CQC opportunities include:

Lot 1a – Short Breaks: Non-CQC
Lot 3a – Urgent Short Term: Non-CQC

These exclude personal care and do not require CQC registration.

CQC opportunities include:

Lot 1b – Short Breaks: CQC
Lot 1c – Short Breaks for Complex Needs: CQC
Lot 3b – Urgent Short Term: CQC
Lot 3c – Urgent Short Term & Complex Needs: CQC

Providers should avoid selecting lots based purely on their financial value.

Particularly across the urgent and complex lots, organisations need to be confident that their workforce, registrations, experience, systems and capacity genuinely support the level of service required.

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An Eight-Year Open Framework

One of the most notable features of this procurement is its structure.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is establishing an open framework running until 31 January 2035, with an unlimited maximum number of suppliers.

Unlike a traditional closed framework, an open framework can provide further opportunities for suppliers to join during its lifespan, subject to the reopening arrangements set out in the procurement documentation.

For successful providers, the framework creates the potential to access call-off opportunities over a long period.

However, securing a place on the framework does not automatically guarantee work.

Call-offs will be awarded through competition, meaning providers will still need to compete for individual packages and demonstrate value throughout the framework period.

Tendered pricing will also be used to benchmark the subsequent call-off process.

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Quality Accounts for 70% of the Evaluation

The framework will be evaluated on:

Quality – 70%
Price – 30%

For providers, this is one of the most important features of the procurement.

With more than two-thirds of the available marks allocated to quality, the framework is not simply a race to submit the lowest price.

Providers will need to clearly demonstrate how they will deliver safe, effective and responsive services for children and families with potentially complex needs.

While the specific tender questions should guide each response, bidders should be prepared to evidence areas such as:

• Safeguarding
• Service mobilisation
• Workforce recruitment and retention
• Staff training and competency
• Person-centred support
• Positive outcomes for children and families
• Risk management
• Behaviour support
• Partnership working
• Quality assurance
• Service continuity
• Responding to changing needs
• Experience supporting comparable cohorts

Generic statements about providing "high-quality care" will be unlikely to maximise scores without clear processes and evidence behind them.

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What Should Providers Focus on Before Bidding?

Choose Your Lots Carefully

Seven lots does not necessarily mean seven opportunities your organisation should pursue.

Consider your registration status, workforce, service experience, capacity and ability to respond to the specific cohort before deciding which lots provide the strongest fit.

A focused submission targeting your strongest service areas may create a more credible tender than pursuing lots where evidence is limited.

Review Your Evidence

A 70% quality weighting places significant emphasis on what your organisation can demonstrate.

Start identifying relevant case studies, performance data, outcomes, policies, safeguarding processes and examples of successful delivery before drafting begins.

Where possible, evidence should show not just what you do, but the impact it has had on children, young people and families.

Consider Mobilisation Capacity

This will be particularly important for Lots 3a, 3b and 3c.

The Council may require urgent provision on the same or next day, meaning providers need more than a theoretical mobilisation process.

Your operational model should demonstrate how referrals are received, assessed, resourced and safely mobilised within extremely short timescales.

Demonstrate Workforce Resilience

For care and support contracts, workforce availability can quickly become one of the biggest delivery risks.

Providers should consider how they will evidence recruitment, retention, training, competency, supervision and contingency arrangements.

For complex needs lots, this becomes even more important.

Put the Child at the Centre of Your Responses

The procurement is ultimately about stabilising children and families experiencing significant support needs.

Responses should therefore avoid becoming overly process-driven.

Strong answers should connect your systems, staffing and governance arrangements back to the experience and outcomes of the child and their family.

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Procurement Timeline

The framework is being procured through an open procedure under the light-touch regime.

Key dates currently published include:

• 12 November 2026 at 12pm: Enquiry deadline
• 13 November 2026 at 8pm: Tender submission deadline
• 18 December 2026: Estimated award decision
• 1 February 2027: Estimated framework commencement

The framework is expected to remain in place until 31 January 2035.

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How Bid Writing Service Can Help

Health and social care tenders can require providers to translate complex day-to-day service delivery into clear, evidence-led tender responses.

This becomes particularly important on opportunities such as the Stoke-on-Trent Community Support Framework, where 70% of the available marks are allocated to quality.

At Bid Writing Service, we can support providers with:

• Bid/no-bid and opportunity assessment
• Lot selection
• Bid planning and management
• Quality response writing
• Case study and evidence development
• Tender compliance
• Policy development and review
• Social value support
• Independent tender reviews
• Final quality assurance and submission support

Our support can be tailored around your internal resources, whether you need complete bid management, additional writing capacity or an independent review before submission.

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Final Thoughts

With an estimated value of £20.4 million, seven distinct service lots and an eight-year framework term, this is a significant opportunity for organisations supporting children, young people and families.

The structure also makes the procurement accessible to a broader range of providers.

There are opportunities for CQC and non-CQC organisations, services supporting children with complex needs and providers specialising in preventative, community-based or urgent interventions.

However, the 70% quality weighting means providers need to demonstrate much more than basic eligibility.

Strong bids will need to clearly evidence relevant experience, workforce capability, safeguarding, mobilisation, quality assurance and, above all, how the proposed service will achieve positive outcomes for children and families.

The deadline for submissions is 8pm on 13 November 2026.

If you're considering bidding for one or more lots, get in touch with the Bid Writing Service team to discuss your tender and how we can support your submission.