Camden and Islington Young Carers Tender 2026: Bid Strategy Guide

Camden and Islington Young Carers Tender 2026: Bid Strategy Guide

Posted by the TenderLab Editorial Team on 19 August 2026. Last updated 19 August 2026.

Camden and Islington have jointly commissioned a single statutory and preventative young carers service across both boroughs, procured as one contract under the light touch regime of the Procurement Act 2023. It is worth £968,792 excluding VAT over an initial 36 months, is quality-led with quality at 60% and price at 40%, and closes at 2:00pm on 10 September 2026.

The service supports children and young people aged 5 to 17 who care for a family member with a disability, illness, mental illness or substance misuse. This analysis covers the service and its statutory duty, the cohort, the contract, the scoring, the mistakes, a playbook and mobilisation.

At a glance

- Commissioning authorities: London Borough of Camden and London Borough of Islington (joint commission)

- Service: statutory and preventative young carers services

- Cohort: children and young people aged 5 to 17

- Value: £968,792 excluding VAT (£1,210,990 including VAT)

- Term: 1 February 2027 to 31 January 2030 (initial 36 months), with a possible extension of up to 24 months to 31 January 2032

- Procedure: open procedure under the light touch regime of the Procurement Act 2023

- Lots: single lot

- Region: London (Camden UKI31, Islington UKI43)

- CPV: 85000000 (health and social work services)

- Award criteria: Quality 60%, Price 40%

- Deadline: 10 September 2026, 2:00pm

- Find a Tender notice: 075830-2026

You can read the full contract notice on Find a Tender.

What the service delivers

The service identifies young carers, assesses their needs and reduces the impact of caring on a child's education and wellbeing. Its anchor is the young carer's needs assessment: the Children and Families Act 2014 inserted section 17ZA into the Children Act 1989, with the Young Carers (Needs Assessments) Regulations 2015, and the authority must assess a young carer's support needs within the section 17 children in need and early help framework.

The whole-family approach links the young carer's assessment to the cared-for person's, so the reason a child is caring is addressed. As the child nears 18, the Care Act 2014 adds a transition assessment your model must plan for, not a cliff edge.

This is not a CQC-registered or Ofsted-registered activity, so no inspection grade is available as assurance. Anchor quality instead in the statutory young carer duties, the whole-family approach and safeguarding under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023, through named roles, timeframes and measurable outcomes.

The cohort: young carers aged 5 to 17

The cohort is children and young people aged 5 to 17 who care for a family member with a disability, illness, mental illness or substance misuse. These children have their own rights and their own young carer's needs assessment.

Many are hidden: they do not self-identify, families may not disclose caring for fear of intervention, and schools see the effects, such as tiredness, lateness or falling attainment, before anyone names the cause. Your bid must show how you find these children, not only support those already referred. Identification is where this service is won or lost.

As a young carer nears 18 they become a young adult carer, so the model must plan that transition into adult carer support and the Care Act 2014 transition assessment.

A single lot across Camden and Islington

The contract is a single lot, jointly commissioned by Camden and Islington. You bid for both boroughs or not at all, with no separate award per authority.

Bidding one contract across two London boroughs carries the demands of a county-wide service. You need genuine reach into both, not a base in one with a promise to travel: identification routes in the schools, GP practices and adult social care teams of each borough, and capacity that does not thin out on the other side. A joint commission reads for parity, and a bid strong in one borough and vague in the other invites doubt.

How the award is scored

The award criteria are quality at 60% and price at 40%. Quality outweighs price, so this is won not on cost but by the provider who can operationalise the service on paper.

That means mechanisms, not intentions. Name the identification routes into schools, GP practices and adult social care. Set out the young carer's needs assessment step by step: who does it, where and in what timeframe. Show whole-family working as a linked assessment, and attach measurable outcomes to each strand, such as hidden young carers identified, caring hours reduced, attendance and attainment, and wellbeing on a named scale. The 60% rewards specifics; generalities hand marks to rivals.

Mistakes that lose marks

The first mistake is treating this as a generic children's service; activities and trips are not the service, identification, assessment and whole-family support are.

The second is claiming a CQC or Ofsted rating as assurance. The service holds neither, so no inspection grade is available; asserting one shows you have misread it.

The third is ignoring the young carer's needs assessment, the statutory core. Support described without the assessment behind it answers a different question.

The fourth is dropping the whole-family and transition elements: support the child alone, with no plan for young adult carer status at 18, and the model is incomplete.

The fifth is administrative. The 2:00pm deadline on 10 September 2026 is a hard stop, and a late portal upload is not evaluated.

A playbook to lift your score

1. Weight effort to the marks. Quality carries 60%, so put your best writers on the quality responses and price to win, not to lead.
2. Name the identification routes. Say how referrals reach you from schools, GP practices and adult social care in both boroughs, and how hidden young carers surface.
3. Evidence the needs assessment. Show the young carer's needs assessment step by step under section 17ZA: trigger, assessor, timeframe, the child's voice, support plan and review.
4. Run a whole-family approach. Link the young carer's assessment to the cared-for person's so the cause of the caring role is addressed, naming the adult services involved.
5. Set measurable outcomes. Commit to reportable numbers: young carers identified, caring hours reduced, attendance and attainment, and wellbeing on a named measure.
6. Make social value local. Tie it to Camden and Islington through local recruitment, spend with local organisations and young carer voice in design.
7. Get an independent pre-submission review. Have someone who did not write the bid score it against the criteria before you submit, fixing gaps in time.

Mobilisation to the 1 February 2027 go-live

The service goes live on 1 February 2027. After the 10 September 2026 deadline the authorities evaluate and award, then a standstill period runs before signing, leaving roughly 5 months to mobilise.

This is not a soft start. Identification and referral routes must be live from day one; a young carer not found in February is unsupported. Show the school, GP and adult social care links active at go-live.

If a service already runs across the two boroughs, workforce continuity is live. Read the tender pack for the TUPE position and address it: staff transferring and how you hold delivery steady, keeping the trusted adults these children know.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Camden and Islington young carers tender deadline?

The deadline is 2:00pm on 10 September 2026, a hard stop; a late submission through the portal is not evaluated, regardless of quality.

What is the contract value?

The contract is worth £968,792 excluding VAT, or £1,210,990 including VAT. That covers the initial 36 months from 1 February 2027 to 31 January 2030, before any 24-month extension to 31 January 2032.

How many lots are there, and can we bid for a single borough?

There is a single lot, jointly commissioned by Camden and Islington. You cannot bid for one borough alone; the contract is awarded as one service across both, so your bid must evidence delivery in each.

Who can bid, and do we need CQC or Ofsted registration?

Any provider able to deliver a statutory young carers service across both boroughs can bid, under the light touch regime of the Procurement Act 2023. You do not need CQC or Ofsted registration: this is not a regulated activity and the service holds neither rating. Assurance rests on the statutory duties instead: the young carer's needs assessment under section 17ZA of the Children Act 1989, the Care Act 2014 transition assessment and safeguarding under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.

How is the tender scored?

The award criteria are quality at 60% and price at 40%. Quality outweighs price, so the strongest route is a quality response built on named identification routes, the young carer's needs assessment, whole-family working and measurable outcomes.

Can TenderLab help us qualify for this tender?

Yes. TenderLab is a sector-exclusive UK health and social care bid-writing consultancy and works on services exactly like this, a statutory young carers contract scored on quality and price. It checks your position against the criteria, then builds the quality responses around named routes, the assessment process and outcomes.

Do you write the full quality response?

Yes. TenderLab drafts the full quality response, from the young carer's needs assessment and whole-family approach to identification routes, social value and measurable outcomes. Every engagement includes an independent pre-submission review before you submit.

What is a realistic turnaround given the 10 September 2026 deadline?

There is time if you start now. From today, 19 August 2026, just over three weeks remain to the 2:00pm deadline on 10 September 2026, enough for drafting, review and a pre-submission check but not to leave to the final days. The sooner routes, evidence and outcomes are pinned down, the stronger the score.

Work with a sector-exclusive bid team

TenderLab is a sector-exclusive UK health and social care bid-writing consultancy with a 92% win rate across more than 200 UK health and social care submissions. Our writers are evaluator-trained, and most began on the frontline of care before joining, so they write the way commissioners read. Every engagement includes a pre-submission review. We are registered at Companies House, number 17184263.

If you are weighing up this tender, book a free consultation through our contact page, whether or not we turn out to be the right fit. See our bid-writing service and pre-submission review.

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