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Reablement tenders and contracts

Reablement tenders in the UK

A reablement tender is how a council, often with the NHS, buys short-term support that helps people relearn everyday tasks after a hospital stay, fall or illness. It is free to the person for up to six weeks, done with them rather than for them, and judged on how many people finish needing no ongoing care. Most are bought as lead provider contracts by area, cost and volume blocks, or reablement lots in home care frameworks.

See reablement tendersTender writing from £1,500 + VAT
A reablement worker going through goals with an older woman at her home

Coming up

Home (Domiciliary) Care Service

London Borough of Harrow£160m

Free to the person for
6 weeks
free to the person
Tenders coming up
9
coming up, £250m

Reablement is the one care contract that pays you to be needed less. Panels score how many people leave with no package and how fast you start, not how many hours you deliver.

A nurse talking with a smiling older man in a hospital bed before he goes home

Reablement in England, 2024/25

Source: DHSC, ASCOF and adult social care activity data

of people needed no ongoing support after reablement
77.1%
of over 65s discharged into reablement were still at home 12 weeks later
60.7%
of over 65s leaving hospital were offered reablement
5.7%
short-term support episodes for people new to care
244,000

Reablement tenders and contract notices

Updated 12 Nov 2026, refreshed every 30 minutes

Community reablement, hospital discharge, intermediate care beds and reablement lots inside home care frameworks. Contracts usually run three to seven years, so the notices coming up matter more than the one open today.

open for bids today
0
pipeline and market engagement notices, and their published value
9 · £250m
reablement, discharge and intermediate care awards in the last two years
28

Showing 1 to 9 of 9

Reablement is often bought with home care. See the home care notices too.

Home care tendersAll care tenders

Reablement is not home care with a different name

The most common reason reablement bids lose marks is a home care answer with the word reablement added. Panels look for a service designed to end.

What it is for
Home care: Keeping someone safe and well at home for as long as they need it
Reablement: Getting someone back to doing everyday things for themselves
How long
Home care: Ongoing, reviewed each year
Reablement: Up to six weeks, often four
Cost to the person
Home care: Means tested
Reablement: Free for the first six weeks
Who refers
Home care: Council brokerage, after a needs assessment
Reablement: Hospital discharge teams, therapists and council reablement teams, often the same day
The worker's job
Home care: Carry out the care plan reliably
Reablement: Prompt, watch and step back as the person regains skills
What success looks like
Home care: Reliable visits and the same faces
Reablement: The person leaves needing less care, or none
How you are paid
Home care: Per hour delivered
Reablement: Block hours, cost and volume, or hourly with outcome measures

Hours a week for one person

An illustration, not data

Ongoing home care

W1W2W3W4W5W6

Reablement

W1W2W3W4W5W6

In reablement the hours fall as the person regains skills. The best result is zero by the final week.

Where reablement sits: hospital discharge and the community

Most reablement starts on the day someone leaves hospital, on discharge pathway 1. The rest is step-up reablement for people at home whose abilities are slipping, to keep them out of hospital. Many tenders now buy both.

Leaving hospitaldischarge pathway

  1. Pathway

    0

    Home, no new support

    Most people. Family, friends or a voluntary service may help.

    Who buys: No contract

  2. Pathway

    1

    Home with support

    Reablement, rehabilitation and discharge to assess in the person's own home. The default under home first.

    Who buys: Councils and ICBs, often jointly

    Where most reablement tenders sit

  3. Pathway

    2

    A short-term bed

    Rehabilitation or recovery in an intermediate care or discharge to assess bed, then home.

    Who buys: ICBs and councils, block beds

  4. Pathway

    3

    A care home

    For people likely to need long-term care, assessed after they arrive.

    Who buys: Councils and ICBs

From the community

Step-up reablement is for people at home whose abilities are declining, referred by the council or community health teams, to avoid a hospital stay or a long-term package. Walsall's 2026 tender buys both routes in one contract: pathway 1 after discharge and community reablement.

Discharge to assess
The person goes home first and their longer-term needs are assessed there, not on the ward. Pathway 1 reablement is usually how that support is delivered.
Home first
The principle that home, with support if needed, is the default destination after hospital. It is why pathway 1 capacity is in such demand.

How councils buy reablement in 2026

Four models, each with a real tender from this year. The model decides what you have to prove, so read it before you read the questions.

  1. 01

    Lead provider for an area

    One provider per district or lot runs the whole reablement service, taking every referral in that area. Fewer, larger contracts, with a cap on how many areas one provider can win.

    Example: Hertfordshire, 2026: £44.1m across 11 lots worth £1.5m to £6.2m each, one provider per lot and no more than four lots each, scored 80% quality and 20% price.

    In your bid: Prove you can cover a whole area from day one, with a credible plan to recruit and mobilise.

  2. 02

    Cost and volume, or block hours

    The council buys a guaranteed number of hours or a capacity level, paid whether or not every hour is used, sometimes with extra hours at an agreed rate.

    Example: Walsall, 2026: a £65m cost and volume framework of up to four providers for pathway 1 and community reablement, scored 90% quality and 10% social value.

    In your bid: Show how you keep capacity free for same-day discharges and what you do with hours that are not called off.

  3. 03

    Reablement lots in a home care framework

    Reablement sits as its own lot inside a home care framework or flexible framework, often at a fixed hourly rate with quality deciding the winners.

    Example: Harrow, 2026: three reablement lots worth £1m in all, for two or three providers each, inside a £160m home care framework scored 90% quality and 10% social value, with the reablement rate fixed at £20.20 an hour.

    In your bid: Write a separate reablement answer. Reusing the home care response is the fastest way to lose marks.

  4. 04

    Beds and extra capacity

    Intermediate care and discharge to assess beds for pathway 2, and top-up contracts where the council's in-house team cannot meet demand.

    Example: Sefton is buying residential intermediate care beds. Essex plans £20m of additional reablement capacity from 2027.

    In your bid: Be clear about therapy input, length of stay and how people move home or on.

Which rules apply. Reablement bought by a council is social care, so it is procured under the Procurement Act 2023, mostly through the light touch rules. Health services bought by an integrated care board, such as therapy-led intermediate care, usually follow the NHS Provider Selection Regime instead. A joint tender can involve both, and the notice says which.

The outcomes you will be measured on

Councils report reablement results to the government every year, so they buy providers who can move those numbers. Quote yours against the national figures.

2024/25 · ASCOF measure 2A

People who needed no ongoing support after reablement

68.5%West Midlands
77.1%England
86.0%South West

60.7%

of over 65s discharged into reablement were at home 12 weeks later

5.7%

of over 65s leaving hospital were offered reablement

Source: Measures from the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework, England 2024 to 2025 (DHSC, December 2025).

No ongoing support at the end
What share of people leave with no care package at all?
England 77.1%
Still at home after 12 weeks
Are people who came out of hospital still living at home three months on?
England 60.7%
Referral to first visit
How many hours from referral to the first visit, including Fridays and weekends?
Set in each contract
Hours at start against hours at exit
How much did support fall over the episode?
Your own data
Goals met
Did people reach the goals they set, on a recognised measure such as the Barthel Index or a goal scale?
Your own data
Hand-offs at the end
How long do people wait between reablement ending and a long-term package starting?
Set in each contract

How reablement bids are scored

Quality decides reablement tenders. In three 2026 procurements it carried 80% to 90% of the marks, and two had no price score at all, so the written answers were the whole contest.

How three 2026 reablement tenders were weightedFrom the tender notices on Find a Tender

  • Walsall

    Community and pathway 1 reablement

  • Harrow

    Home care framework, reablement lots

  • Hertfordshire

    Reablement lead providers, 11 lots

QualitySocial valuePrice

  1. 01

    The enablement model

    How workers do with, not for: specific, measurable goals agreed and written down with the person, prompting before helping, stepping back as skills return.

  2. 02

    Referral to first visit

    Who takes the referral, how it is triaged and how you start the same day, including a discharge at 4pm on a Friday.

  3. 03

    Working with therapists

    How workers follow occupational therapy and physiotherapy plans, and what happens when a plan changes mid-week.

  4. 04

    Risk and equipment

    Falls and safety in the first 72 hours at home, equipment in place, and positive risk-taking that is recorded.

  5. 05

    Measuring progress

    A baseline and an exit measure for every person, weekly reviews, and the figures the council reports nationally.

  6. 06

    Ending well

    The final week, a clean hand-over to any long-term care, and telling people how to come back if they need to, as NICE recommends.

A worked example

“Describe how your service will maximise people's independence.”

Reads like home care, scores low
“Our caring, experienced staff will support service users with all of their personal care needs, including washing, dressing and meals, at times that suit them. We offer continuity of care so people see the same familiar carers every day.”
  • Describes doing tasks for people, not with them
  • No goals, no measure and no end point
  • Continuity is a home care strength, not a reablement one
Reads like reablement, scores high
“At the first visit the worker and the person agree up to three goals, such as making a hot drink safely or showering alone, and record a baseline. On every visit the worker prompts before helping and logs what the person did unaided. Goals are reviewed weekly with the therapist and visits are cut as soon as a task is independent. Last year [your figure]% of people left needing no ongoing package.”
  • Goals, a baseline and a weekly review
  • Shows the hours falling, on purpose
  • Ends with your own outcome figure, against the national 77.1%

The seven stages of a reablement tender

Shown with Hertfordshire's 2026 reablement procurement. From the first notice to the contract start is more than a year, and the strongest bidders were preparing from February.

  1. February 2026

    Market engagement

    Notices invite providers to shape the model; questionnaires due 9 March.

  2. 2 June 2026

    Pipeline notice

    The council confirms it plans to tender in the coming months.

  3. 10 September 2026

    Tender notice

    £44.1m across 11 lots, scored 80% quality and 20% price; providers opt in on the portal.

  4. September 2026

    Conditions of participation

    Registration, rating, finances and exclusions checked as pass or fail.

  5. 8 October 2026

    Submission

    Quality, social value and price answers in by 12 noon.

  6. 6

    Award due 4 January 2027Now

    Evaluation and award

    Scores, an assessment summary for every bidder and a contract award notice, then standstill.

  7. 7

    1 April 2027

    Mobilisation

    New lead providers take over as the current contracts end on 31 March 2027.

The lesson: by the time a reablement tender notice is published you have about four weeks. The outcome data, staffing plan and therapy partnerships that win it take months, so start when the market engagement notice appears.

Tender success stories

Tenders we have helped care providers win

Council frameworks, dynamic purchasing systems and approved lists won with bids we wrote, led by home care and community support in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Barnsley. 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

Reablement tender writing

We write reablement, discharge to assess and intermediate care tenders with providers, from the first read to the first referral. One fixed fee per tender, agreed before we start.

  1. 01

    Bid or no bid

    We read the pack with you: the model, lots, rate, volumes and whether you can staff same-day starts across the area.

  2. 02

    Outcome evidence

    Your own figures for people leaving with no package, referral to first visit and goals met, gathered before the notice.

  3. 03

    Quality answers

    The enablement model, referral to start, therapy working, risk and ending well, written to the scoring guide.

  4. 04

    Social value and price

    Commitments you can deliver and report, and a rate that still works when hours fall as people recover.

  5. 05

    Compliance check and upload

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

  6. 06

    Mobilisation and feedback

    A plan for your first referrals and a review of the scores for the next tender.

A care team going through plans together around a table

Fixed fee

From £1,500

+ VAT per tender, agreed before we start

  • Reablement lead provider, cost and volume and framework lots
  • Discharge to assess, intermediate care and joint NHS tenders
  • Rating holding you back? Mock inspections from £1,000 + VAT
Book a consultationMore about our tender writing

Watch before you bid

A real 2026 tender with reablement lots, the eligibility checks that fail bids before they are read, and getting paid once the referrals start.

Harrow's 2026 home support tender, including the reablement lots, explained

Seven lots, three of them adult reablement, a fixed reablement rate and a 90% quality, 10% social value split.

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.

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

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Bidding for a reablement 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 reablement 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 price that still works as hours fall
Book a consultation0333 577 0877
A care worker checking in with a smiling older woman at her home

Reablement tender FAQs

Last reviewed

A reablement tender is the way a council, often working with the NHS, buys short-term support that helps people relearn everyday tasks after a hospital stay, a fall or an illness. The council publishes a notice, providers bid, and the winners deliver reablement in people's homes for up to six weeks, usually as a lead provider for an area, under a cost and volume contract, or as a reablement lot in a home care framework.
Reablement is for adults who have lost some independence after a hospital stay, a fall or an illness and who are expected to regain skills with short-term support. The council or a hospital team assesses whether the person has the potential to improve. NICE guideline NG74 says goals should be agreed with the person, based on specific and measurable outcomes, written down and shared with them. It is not usually offered to people whose needs are not expected to change, who are supported in other ways.
Yes. In England councils cannot charge for reablement for the first six weeks, or for the whole programme if it is shorter, under the Care and Support (Preventing Needs for Care and Support) Regulations 2014. Most specifications set up to four weeks, extended to six by exception. Any care needed after that is assessed and may be charged for.
Home care supports someone for as long as they need it and is judged on reliable visits and continuity. Reablement is short and is designed to end: workers prompt and step back so the person does more for themselves, visits fall week by week, and success is the person leaving with less care or none. Bids that describe home care with the word reablement added lose marks.
Typical reablement goals include making a hot drink or a simple meal safely, washing and dressing without help, getting in and out of bed or the bath, managing stairs, taking medicines on time, and going out to the shops or a local group. The worker watches, prompts and encourages rather than doing the task, and records what the person managed alone.
Every council and NHS tender under the Procurement Act 2023 is published on Find a Tender, the government's free platform, and Wales also uses Sell2Wales. The bidding happens on the council's own portal, such as In-Tend, ProContract, Delta eSourcing or Atamis. Reablement is often a lot inside a home care tender, so search for home care too. Our feed brings the reablement notices together on this page, refreshed every 30 minutes.
Mostly on quality. In 2026 Walsall scored its £65m reablement framework 90% on quality and 10% on social value, Harrow scored its home care framework with reablement lots the same way, and Hertfordshire weighted its £44.1m reablement tender 80% quality and 20% price. Panels look at your enablement model, how fast you start after a referral, how you work with therapists, risk and equipment in the first days at home, how you measure progress and how the episode ends.
The main measure is the share of people who need no ongoing support at the end, which councils report nationally: 77.1% in England in 2024/25, from 68.5% in the West Midlands to 86.0% in the South West. Councils also track whether people discharged from hospital are still at home 12 weeks later (60.7% nationally), time from referral to first visit, hours at the start against the end, and goals met.
Discharge to assess means a person goes home from hospital first and their longer-term needs are assessed there, not on the ward. Pathway 1 is the discharge route for people who go home with health or social care support, such as reablement, and under the home first principle it is the default for people who need support. Pathway 2 is a short-term bed and pathway 3 a care home.
NICE guideline NG74 describes four: bed-based intermediate care in a care home or community hospital, crisis response that can start within two hours of a referral, home-based intermediate care led by health professionals, and reablement, which helps people recover skills and confidence at home. Most people use them for up to six weeks. Reablement tenders often sit alongside crisis response and bed-based contracts in the same intermediate care system.
Yes, in England. Reablement includes personal care, so you need CQC registration for personal care, and most councils expect a Good rating. In Wales you register with Care Inspectorate Wales and in Northern Ireland with RQIA, where Health and Social Care Trusts run reablement. Registration for the wrong service fails a bid before it is read.
It depends on the contract model. Some councils fix an hourly rate: Harrow's 2026 tender pack set £20.20 an hour for reablement. Others buy blocks of hours or capacity on a cost and volume basis, as Walsall does, or score price, as Hertfordshire did at 20%. For comparison, councils in England paid an average of £25.05 an hour for home care in 2025/26, according to GOV.UK fee data. Price your bid on your own costs, including the hours you hold free for same-day starts.
Reablement bought by a council is social care and is procured under the Procurement Act 2023, mostly through the light touch rules. Health services bought by an integrated care board, such as therapy-led intermediate care, usually follow the NHS Provider Selection Regime, which allows direct awards and competitive processes. Joint tenders say in the notice which rules apply. Both are published on Find a Tender.
Preliminary market engagement, a pipeline notice, the tender notice, conditions of participation, submission, evaluation and award with assessment summaries and a contract award notice, and finally mobilisation. Hertfordshire's 2026 reablement procurement shows the timescale: market engagement in February, the tender notice on 10 September, submissions by 8 October, an award decision planned for 4 January 2027 and new contracts from April 2027.
Under the Procurement Act 2023 there are two competitive procedures, the open procedure and the competitive flexible procedure, plus direct award and call offs from frameworks and dynamic markets. Older guides list open, restricted, negotiated and single source tenders, the terms used under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which apply only to procurements started before 24 February 2025.
Our tender writing starts from £1,500 + VAT per tender, as a fixed fee agreed before we start. The price depends on the number of lots and questions and how much outcome evidence needs gathering. It covers the bid or no bid review, the quality and social value answers, a price check and the compliance check before upload.
It is harder than home care. Panels expect outcome figures, same-day starts and staff who work to therapists' plans, which a new provider may not be able to evidence yet. Many providers build that record on home care or a smaller reablement contract first, or join as a subcontractor or partner to a lead provider. We will tell you honestly whether to bid.
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