Scope
Reference
CS24772
Description
Hampshire County Council is considering establishing a register of Residential Care Providers to supplement the Children's Residential Collaborative Framework and support the commissioning of services for children with higher needs.
The register would be an flexible light touch vehicle to allow providers to join at any time, and for the Council to commission different services to best support their sufficiency duty.
Initially, the Council would be looking at the Register as the best method to commission new children's homes specifically for Hampshire children with complex or challenging needs. However, any procurement will be designed to ensure that any future needs for residential care that arise can be met.
New Children's homes Requirement;
We have an increasing need for residential care for those children between the ages of 12 (and most commonly 14) - 17, up to the age of 18.
We have seen an increase in children who have higher needs due to trauma, dysregulated or challenging behaviour and poor mental health. For this cohort of children it takes much longer to find a suitable residential setting, which can mean these children spend time in temporary placements and/or arrangement that do not meet their needs.
To address our sufficiency duty strategy we are exploring the option of commissioning four new children's homes specifically for Hampshire children with complex or challenging needs
We anticipate any tender exercise may commission:
• 3 x solo homes for children with the highest / most complex needs, either with a single or multiple providers
• 1 x multi bed setting with a focus on supporting children with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties which may also include challenging behaviours, poor mental health, DoLS and/or neurodiverse conditions.
Total value (estimated)
- £200,000,000 excluding VAT
- £200,000,000 including VAT
Above the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2030
- Possible extension to 30 April 2038
- 12 years
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 85000000 - Health and social work services
Contract locations
- UKJ3 - Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Engagement
Engagement deadline
31 December 2025
Engagement process description
Hampshire County Council are seeking the views of the market on the development of the services outlined in the service description. With the aim of further assessing the viability of the proposal for both providers and the Council, prior to any additional permissions being sought to progress the project.
To do this the Council is hosting a supplier event. The Council will follow the event with a questionnaire to seek the views of providers and may follow up individual meetings with providers who respond to gain further details.
Hampshire County Council would like to invite interested providers to an online market engagement session to help inform the Council's future commissioning arrangements.
The session will be 1 hour and will cover;
The potential new procurement model
The requirements around establishing new residential homes in Hampshire
The same session will be run twice to maximise the potential for suppliers to attend and will take place at 11:00 on Wednesday the 10 of December and 10:30am on Thursday the 11 December and be held via MS Teams. Providers only need to attend one of the two sessions.
Suppliers wishing to attend should register (if not already registered) on the Council's e-tendering platform, In-tend (https://in-tendhost.co.uk/hampshire/aspx/Home) and 'Express Interest' against the project 'CS24772 Residential Care - Hampshire'. Please then use the Correspondence function for the project and provide the name of attendees and their email addresses that invitations can be issued to.
Suppliers wishing to attend need to confirm with the Council, via the correspondence function of In-tend, by 9:00 on Tuesday 9th December 2025.
Submission
Publication date of tender notice (estimated)
1 March 2026
Procedure
Special regime
Light touch
Contracting authority
Hampshire County Council
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PBHM-7586-PWLP
High St, The Castle
Winchester
SO23 8UJ
United Kingdom
Contact name: Strategic Procurement
Email: strategic.procurement@hants.gov.uk
Website: https://www.hants.gov.uk
Region: UKJ36 - Central Hampshire
Organisation type: Public authority - sub-central government