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Extra care tenders and tender writing

Extra care tenders in the UK

An extra care tender is how a council, sometimes with a housing association or the NHS, buys the on-site care and support in an extra care housing scheme: self-contained flats where older people, usually 55 and over, hold their own tenancy or lease with care staff on site day and night.

The tender buys the care, not the building. Most contracts pay a block sum for the on-site team plus an hourly rate for each resident's assessed care, and are scored mainly on quality.

See extra care tendersTender writing from £1,500 + VAT
A care worker going through notes with an older woman in the lounge of her flat

Coming up

Extra Care from 2027

West Sussex County Council£51m

Care on site
24/7
on-site cover in most schemes
Usual age to qualify
55+
usual age to qualify

Extra care is bought like home care but run like a small community. Panels score the on-site team, the nights, and how you work with the landlord.

A care worker chatting with an older woman on the sofa of her bright, accessible apartment

Extra care in numbers, Nov 2026

Sources: our tender feed, Older People's Housing Taskforce 2024, Find a Tender

in 6 extra care tenders open now or coming up
£93.1m
of older people live in housing with care, a tenth of the level in the USA and Australia
0.6%
later living homes needed every year, against about 5,000 to 7,000 built
30,000+
bids received for the 2026 extra care tenders we tracked below
3 to 43

Extra care and housing with care tenders

Updated 12 Nov 2026, refreshed every 30 minutes

Care and support contracts for extra care, housing with care and assisted living schemes, from single schemes to frameworks covering a whole county. Far fewer councils buy extra care than home care, and each contract runs five years or more, so watch the notices coming up.

open for bids today
0
pipeline and market engagement notices, and their published value
6 · £93.1m
extra care awards in the last two years in our feed
14

Showing 1 to 6 of 6

Market engagement · published 2 Jun 2026

Value

£51m

Extra Care from 2027

Buyer
West Sussex County Council
Area
Chichester, South East
Service
Area-wide contracts, Framework
Contract term
30 Sep 2027 to 30 Sep 2031
Show interestMore details

Extra care is often bought by the same teams as home care. See the home care notices too.

Home care tendersAll care tenders

What an extra care contract actually buys

An extra care scheme has a landlord and a care provider. The landlord owns the building and the tenancies. The tender buys the three layers of care that sit inside it, and each one is priced differently.

An extra care scheme drawn as a building: the landlord provides the housing, and the care contract covers night cover, a core or wellbeing service for all residents, and each resident's assessed care hours.
Housing

The landlord, outside the tender

A housing association, council or private operator owns the building, grants each resident a tenancy or lease and charges rent and a service charge. CQC does not register the building.

Night cover

Waking or sleeping staff on site overnight to answer alarms, help after falls and support anyone unwell. Some councils now drop it in extra care light schemes.

Paid asUsually an hourly rate for waking nights, which Sefton asks for separately

Core or wellbeing service

The on-site team for every resident, whether or not they have a care package: 24 hour response, wellbeing checks, activities and help to keep the tenancy.

Paid asA block payment, or a weekly charge to tenants such as Derby's £31.67

Assessed care hours

Each resident's personal care from their Care Act assessment, delivered flexibly on site rather than in fixed visits. This is the part CQC registers.

Paid asAn hourly rate: £20.80 in Derby, £21.58 to £26.69 in North Tyneside, £23.48 in Blackburn

The residents, each with their own front door

Usually 55 and over, nominated by the council from people assessed under the Care Act 2014, with a planned mix of needs. Hampshire aims for 40% high, 40% medium and 20% low need in each scheme.

Full extra care or extra care light

Most schemes keep staff on site around the clock. Some councils are now buying a lighter model with no care staff overnight, so read the specification for the hours before you price the core.

Care staff on site over 24 hours in a full extra care scheme and in an extra care light scheme

Full extra care

Most schemes

Extra care light

Powys, Pont Aur, 2026

Care staff on siteNo care staff on site

Fifteen extra care tenders: weightings, bids and winners

Every figure here is from the council's own tender or award notice, 2025 and 2026. The spread is the lesson: there is no standard extra care tender, so the scoring split decides how you write and how you price.

the share of marks for quality, from Essex to Worcestershire
30% to 100%
bids per tender, from Bromley to Blackburn with Darwen
3 to 43
Blackburn with Darwen bids rejected as non-compliant before scoring
29 of 43
Gilbert Court finalists were small or medium providers, and one of them won
7 of 8

Quality: written answersQuality: interviewPriceSocial valueValues exclude VAT unless marked; Sefton's and Sunderland's include it. Each name links to the notice.

Extra care is not residential care

Extra care sits between home care and a care home. Bids that describe residents, rooms and a care home routine lose marks, because the people are tenants in their own flats and the care is delivered to them, not around them.

  • Extra care housing

    Where people live
    Their own flat in a scheme, with a tenancy or lease
    Care on site
    A team on site, usually day and night
    Regulator
    CQC, for personal care only
    What the tender buys
    A core service for all residents plus assessed care hours
    Typical 2026 price
    £21 to £27 an hour plus a core charge

  • Home care

    Where people live
    Their own home in the community
    Care on site
    Visits at set times
    Regulator
    CQC, for personal care
    What the tender buys
    Hours of care, often by area or zone
    Typical 2026 price
    £22 to £28 an hour

  • Residential care

    Where people live
    A room in a care home
    Care on site
    Staff around the clock
    Regulator
    CQC, for accommodation with personal or nursing care
    What the tender buys
    A bed at a weekly fee
    Typical 2026 price
    About £956 a week, over 65s

  • Sheltered housing

    Where people live
    Their own flat in a scheme, with a tenancy
    Care on site
    None, or a visiting warden
    Regulator
    None for care, as no care is provided
    What the tender buys
    Housing support, if anything
    Typical 2026 price
    Rent and service charge

England. Hourly prices are 2026/27 council rates. Bidding for the others? Home care tenders and residential care tenders.

What extra care panels score

Worcestershire published every quality weighting for its 2026 Gilbert Court tender, scored 100% on quality. Safe care and what everyday life feels like for residents carried more than a third of the marks.

How Gilbert Court's quality marks were splitWorcestershire County Council, tender notice 2026

  1. 01Safe care

    Falls, medicines, safeguarding and the response to alarms, day and night.

    20%

  2. 02Lived experience and everyday care

    What a normal day and night feel like for a resident, in their words.

    17%

  3. 03Person-centred care

    Care that flexes around the person, not fixed call times.

    13%

  4. 04Resilient operations

    Covering sickness and vacancies on a single site without agency gaps.

    10%

  5. 05Workforce

    Recruiting and keeping a stable on-site team, with a named manager.

    10%

  6. 06Mobilisation and TUPE

    Taking over the existing staff and residents' care without disruption.

    10%

  7. 07Record keeping

    Digital care records, handovers between shifts and reporting to the council.

    10%

  8. 08Social value

    Local jobs, community use of the scheme and commitments you can report.

    10%

A worked example

“How will you respond to residents' unplanned needs, day and night?”

Reads like a care home, scores low
“Our staff are on duty 24 hours a day and carry out regular checks on all residents. If a resident needs help they can use their call bell, and staff will attend as soon as possible. Night staff complete hourly rounds.”
  • Rounds and call bells belong in a care home, not a tenant's flat
  • No response time, no figures, no link to the NHS
  • Nothing about what happens after the call
Reads like extra care, scores high
“Two staff are awake on site every night. Alarm calls go to their handsets and we aim to be at the door within 10 minutes; last year our average was [your figure]. After a fall we use a lifting cushion and a falls assessment, and call the NHS urgent community response team rather than 999 where it is safe. Extra hours are added that day and agreed with the council within 48 hours. Last year [your figure] hospital admissions were avoided this way.”
  • A staffing number, a response time and a measure
  • Shows admission avoidance, which commissioners and the NHS want
  • Explains how the hours change and who approves them

How extra care is priced in 2026/27

Councils pay an hourly rate for assessed care and a block or weekly charge for the core. In the councils that publish both, the extra care hourly rate sits about £1 to £1.50 below their home care rate, because staff do not travel between visits.

Extra care and home care hourly rates, 2026/27Council fee reports; Derby's are proposed maximums

  • Derby

    Extra care £20.80, home care £22.29

  • North Tyneside

    Extra care £21.58 to £26.69 enhanced

  • Blackburn with Darwen

    Extra care £23.48, home care £24.44

Extra care hourly rateSame council's home care rateNational Living Wage £12.71 an hour

The core, in Derby

£31.67

a week from each tenant towards the 24/7 core wellbeing service, from September 2026

Derby also lists an extra care retainer rate of £12.49 an hour alongside its £20.80 rate for planned care.

What one 24/7 post costs

£111,035

a year in wages alone: 168 hours a week at the £12.71 National Living Wage, before National Insurance, pension, holiday and cover.

  1. 01

    Price the core as a block

    Staff the core and the nights first, as a fixed weekly cost, before any assessed hours. Volumes change; the on-site team does not.

  2. 02

    Price the hours without travel

    No travel time between visits is why councils pay less per hour than for home care. Show the saving goes into staffing, not margin.

  3. 03

    Read the uplift and volume terms

    Liverpool's lot values rest on its current hourly rate, reviewed each year, and 2026/27 uplifts ran from 2.16% to 3.56%. Model the low case.

What is changing in extra care in 2026

The market is pulling two ways. Some councils are cutting back or bringing care in house, while new planning rules and development frameworks are adding schemes. Both change what commissioners will ask for in the next tender.

Shrinking or changing

  • Councils taking schemes back in house

    Rotherham will run two schemes itself from spring 2027, with 88 residents and the staff moving across under TUPE.

  • Fewer schemes, lighter models

    Blackburn with Darwen turned two schemes back into sheltered housing, decommissioned a third and moved one to extra care lite, with no care staff overnight. Powys is buying 7am to 11pm cover.

  • Tenders pulled, or left unawarded

    Liverpool cancelled its March tender and relaunched it at £19.8m. Bromley had three bids and did not award one of its two lots.

  • Shorter contracts

    Blackburn with Darwen cut its contracts from up to seven years to up to five because of local government reorganisation.

Growing

  • Planning rules that require it

    Since August 2026 national planning policy asks councils to assess the need for housing with care and identify sites for specialist older people's housing.

  • New schemes being built

    Cornwall appointed Housing 21 and Sanctuary to a £220m development framework. Sefton says it needs 1,306 units and opens a 90 flat scheme in 2027.

  • Large frameworks coming

    West Sussex is preparing £51m of extra care contracts from 2027, and Sefton is setting up a framework of up to 15 providers from April 2027.

  • Lighter regulation for the housing

    Extra care for over 55s with a landlord regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing is to be exempt from the new supported housing licences.

The seven stages of an extra care tender

Shown with Liverpool's 2026 extra care tender, which was cancelled and relaunched. From the first notice to the new contracts is over a year, and the scoring is now under way.

  1. 9 March 2026

    First tender

    Five schemes at £17.8m. The council cancelled it and started again.

  2. 13 July 2026

    Relaunch notice

    £19.8m in five lots, two at most per provider, under the light touch rules.

  3. After the relaunch

    Questionnaire

    Pass or fail checks on finances, insurance, registration and exclusions.

  4. Until 13 August 2026

    Clarification questions

    Questions on the portal, with answers shared with every bidder.

  5. 21 August 2026

    Submission

    Quality, social value and cost, scored 82%, 10% and 8%.

  6. 6

    Award due 17 November 2026Now

    Evaluation and award

    Scores, an assessment summary for each bidder, then standstill.

  7. 7

    1 April 2027

    Mobilisation

    The new contracts start across the five schemes, with extensions possible to 2033.

The lesson: a cancelled tender is not a lost chance. Keep your answers, ask for the reasons, and be ready to resubmit when it comes back, often at a different value.

Where to find extra care tenders, and what you need to bid

Notices are published on the national services and then run on each council's own portal, so register on both. Our tender feed brings them together and links straight to each notice.

What you need before you bid

  • Registration for personal care

    CQC in England, Care Inspectorate Wales, the Care Inspectorate in Scotland or RQIA in Northern Ireland. Powys asks for Care Inspectorate Wales registration.

  • Financial capacity for the scheme

    Bromley set a minimum turnover of £4.6m for its larger lot. Sefton offers each scheme to the top ranked provider that can afford to run it.

  • A rating, where it is asked for

    Some councils make the CQC rating pass or fail, as Bromley did. Check the conditions before you start writing.

  • An on-site manager and team

    A named scheme manager, a rota that covers days and nights, and a plan for sickness and vacancies on one site.

  • A plan for TUPE

    Most tenders replace an existing provider, so the care staff transfer to you. Your mobilisation plan needs to show how.

  • A way of working with the landlord

    Who does what in the building, how you share information about residents and how you handle tenancy concerns.

Not registered yet? CQC registration support from £4,000 + VAT, with the policies councils ask for.

Tender success stories

Tenders we have helped care providers win

Home care, supported living and community contracts won with bids we wrote, in Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Milton Keynes and Barnsley. The staffing, safe care and mobilisation answers carry straight into extra care. Each letter is the council's own.

council awards
10
councils
9
tenders won by Living Plus Care
6 of 7

Results from bids we wrote with each provider, as told in their success stories. Each letter opens the council's own notice. Living Plus Care Services shared a registered office with us and, until September 2026, a director, so its results are not an independent endorsement.

All success stories

Extra care tender writing

We write extra care tenders with providers, from single schemes to county frameworks, including the core and night model, the price and the TUPE plan. One fixed fee per tender, agreed before we start.

  1. 01

    Bid or no bid

    We read the pack with you: the schemes, the core and night model, the weighting, TUPE and the financial thresholds for each lot.

  2. 02

    Evidence and figures

    Your response times, falls and admission figures, staffing and case studies gathered before the deadline is close.

  3. 03

    Quality answers

    Safe care, everyday life, person-centred care, resilience, workforce, mobilisation and records, written to the scoring guide.

  4. 04

    Price and social value

    A block price for the core and nights and an hourly rate that still pays your staff, plus social value you can report.

  5. 05

    Compliance check and upload

    Every form, declaration and attachment checked against the instructions before it goes on the portal.

  6. 06

    Interview and mobilisation

    Interview practice for your scheme manager, then a TUPE and mobilisation plan for the handover.

A care worker tucking a blanket around an older woman resting on the sofa in her flat

Fixed fee

From £1,500

+ VAT per tender, agreed before we start

  • Single schemes, multi-scheme lots and extra care frameworks
  • Core, wellbeing, night cover and assessed care contracts
  • Rating holding you back? Mock inspections from £1,000 + VAT
Book a consultationMore about our tender writing

Watch before you bid

The eligibility checks that fail bids before they are read, winning without references, and getting paid once the contract starts.

The wrong regulator costs you the contract: tender eligibility checks

The checks councils run before reading a word of your bid, starting with registration for the right service.

How new care providers can win council and NHS tenders with no references

Routes into public contracts for providers without a track record, and how to evidence your team's experience.

Council won't pay your care invoice? How to get paid

The 30 day payment rule for public contracts and what to do when a council pays late.

Related guides and tender sectors

Some of the providers we have worked with

Client reviews

What care providers say about working with us

Care providers describe working with us, in their own words, on Trustpilot and Google.

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Bidding for an extra care tender?

Send us the tender or tell us which council you want to work with. We will tell you honestly whether you are ready for that framework or lot, and write a bid that answers what the commissioners asked, at a fixed fee.

  • An honest bid or no bid view on the tender and its lots
  • Quality answers written to the council's scoring guide
  • A core, night and hourly price that works on site
Book a consultation0333 577 0877
A care worker with a tablet sharing a laugh with an older woman in a bright communal lounge

Extra care tender FAQs

Last reviewed

An extra care tender is how a council, sometimes with a housing association or the NHS, buys the on-site care and support in an extra care housing scheme. Residents, usually aged 55 and over, live in their own flats with a tenancy or lease. The tender buys the care, not the building: typically a core service for everyone, night cover and each resident's assessed care hours.
Extra care housing, also called housing with care, is a scheme of self-contained flats or bungalows for older people with care staff on site, usually around the clock. Residents have their own front door and tenancy or lease, and there are shared spaces such as a lounge, restaurant or garden. It sits between living at home with visiting care and moving into a care home.
Most council-funded schemes are for people aged 55 and over who have care needs assessed by the council under the Care Act 2014, and who could live independently with on-site support. Councils usually nominate residents and plan a mix of needs: Hampshire aims for 40% high, 40% medium and 20% low need in each scheme. Some schemes also house younger adults with disabilities. Ask the local council's adult social care team about its waiting list.
In extra care people are tenants in their own flats, and the care is delivered to them by a registered provider. In residential care the person lives in a room in a care home, and the provider is responsible for both the accommodation and the care. Bids that describe residents, rooms, rounds and care home routines score poorly in extra care tenders.
Both are schemes of flats for older people with their own tenancies. Sheltered housing has no care on site, perhaps a visiting warden or an alarm service. Extra care housing has a care team on site, usually around the clock, who deliver residents' assessed personal care and respond to emergencies. That care is what councils put out to tender, and it must be registered with CQC.
Yes, in England, if your staff provide personal care. CQC registers the personal care, not the building, and expects a real separation between the care and the tenancy agreement. In Wales register with Care Inspectorate Wales, in Scotland with the Care Inspectorate and in Northern Ireland with RQIA. Some councils also make your CQC rating a pass or fail test.
It is the part of the contract that covers every resident, whether or not they have a care package: staff on site to answer alarms and emergencies, wellbeing checks, activities and help to keep the tenancy. It is usually paid as a block sum or through a weekly charge to tenants. In Derby tenants contribute £31.67 a week from September 2026.
Most combine a block price for the core service and night cover with an hourly rate for each resident's assessed care. In 2026/27 Derby pays £20.80 an hour for planned extra care, North Tyneside £21.58 to £26.69 and Blackburn with Darwen £23.48. Where a council publishes both, its extra care rate is about £1 to £1.50 below its home care rate, because there is no travel between visits.
There is no standard split. In 2025 and 2026 Worcestershire scored Gilbert Court 100% on quality, Middlesbrough 90% quality and 10% social value, Liverpool 82% quality, 10% social value and 8% cost, and Hampshire 80% quality. Barnsley and Leicestershire used 60% quality and 40% price, while Essex and Bromley gave price 60%. Bridgend gave 40% to an interview. Read the weighting before you decide how to write and price.
Safe care and a fast response to alarms day and night, what everyday life is like for residents, care that flexes around the person, a stable on-site team, a safe handover of staff under TUPE, good records and social value. Worcestershire's 2026 tender gave safe care 20% and everyday life 17% of the marks. Answers need numbers, such as response times and avoided admissions.
Extra care light is a scheme with care staff on site for part of the day only, with no care staff overnight. Powys is buying care at its Pont Aur scheme from 7am to 11pm, and Blackburn with Darwen moved one scheme to extra care lite in 2026. Powys scored its tender 60% quality and 40% price. Check the hours in the specification before you price the core and night cover.
Often, yes. Most tenders replace an existing provider, so care staff working at the scheme usually transfer to the new provider under TUPE. Worcestershire gave mobilisation and TUPE 10% of the quality marks for Gilbert Court. Councils taking schemes back in house, such as Rotherham from spring 2027, also use TUPE.
It varies widely. Bromley received three bids, Worcestershire and Sunderland 14 each, Hampshire 24, Essex 27 applications, Leicestershire 38 for each lot, Cornwall 40 and Blackburn with Darwen 43 across two lots. In Blackburn with Darwen 29 of the 43 bids were rejected as non-compliant before any scoring, so the compliance checks matter as much as the writing.
On Find a Tender for contracts above the threshold, Contracts Finder for lower value contracts in England, Sell2Wales, Public Contracts Scotland and eTendersNI, and on council portals such as ProContract and In-Tend, where you download the documents and submit. Our tender feed brings extra care notices together, including market engagement notices that show what is coming.
Integrated care boards and NHS trusts publish notices on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, and many use their own e-tendering portals. NHS-funded healthcare services are bought under the Provider Selection Regime, in force since January 2024, rather than the Procurement Act 2023. Extra care itself is mostly bought by councils, sometimes with NHS funding.
Under the Procurement Act 2023, in force since 24 February 2025, councils use the open procedure, where anyone can bid, and the competitive flexible procedure, which can shortlist bidders, add interviews or allow negotiation. Both are used for extra care, often under the light touch rules for social care. Before the Act the usual list was open, restricted, competitive dialogue and competitive procedure with negotiation.
The official ones are free: Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Sell2Wales, Public Contracts Scotland and eTendersNI. Councils then run each tender on portals such as ProContract, In-Tend, Delta or Atamis. Paid alert services add search and filters, and our tender feed covers care contracts including extra care, home care and supported living.
Market engagement, the tender notice, a questionnaire or conditions of participation, clarification questions, submission, evaluation and award with a standstill period, then mobilisation. Liverpool's 2026 extra care tender shows the timing: a first tender in March was cancelled, the relaunch was published on 13 July, bids closed on 21 August, the award was planned for 17 November and contracts for 1 April 2027.
Our extra care tender writing starts from £1,500 + VAT per tender, as a fixed fee agreed before we start. It covers the bid or no bid review, quality answers, social value, pricing support, the compliance check and interview practice. Larger frameworks with several lots or interviews take more work, and we agree the fee before we begin.
Yes. At Worcestershire's Gilbert Court in 2026, seven of the eight finalists were small or medium providers, and Civicare Central, an SME, won. Check the financial thresholds first: Bromley set a minimum turnover of £4.6m for its larger lot. Strong home care experience, a credible on-site team and good figures carry over well.
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