Frameworks, Dynamic Markets and DPS: How Care Contracts Are Bought Under the Procurement Act 2023

A place on a framework, dynamic market or approved list is not a won contract. It is the right to compete for one. Under the Procurement Act 2023, the routes councils use to buy adult social care have been renamed and rewritten, and the providers who understand how dynamic markets, framework agreements and light-touch rules actually work, and when each route opens to new entrants, win more of the work than those who celebrate simply being on the list.

At a glance

• The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, replacing the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Scotland keeps its own procurement rules.
• Adult social care is a light-touch service, with a higher threshold (about £663,540 including VAT for 2026) before the full rules apply.
• Dynamic markets replace the old Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) and, unlike a DPS, can be used for any procurement, not just off-the-shelf goods and services.
• You can apply to join a dynamic market at any time, but every call-off must be competed among members, so a place is never a direct award.
• A closed framework locks its supplier list for up to 4 years; an open framework is a new scheme of successive frameworks that must re-open to new entrants on a set schedule.
• Legacy DPS arrangements are on a countdown and must all expire by 23 February 2029.
• Being on a list gives you visibility and access, not guaranteed volume, so never plan capacity off a framework place alone.

What the Procurement Act 2023 changed for how care is bought

The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 and replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, along with the separate utilities, concession and defence regimes, with a single set of rules. It applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland is not covered and keeps its own procurement regime, so if you work across the border you are dealing with two different rulebooks.

For care providers, the most important feature is that adult social care remains a light-touch service. Home care, supported living, residential care and extra care sit in a category the Act treats more flexibly than ordinary goods and services, with a higher financial threshold (about £663,540 including VAT for 2026) before the full obligations apply. Below that threshold, and within the light-touch rules above it, a council has more room to design its own process, and in defined circumstances to make a direct award to respect a service user's choice of provider.

That flexibility cuts both ways. It means commissioners can shape routes to market that suit local need, but it also means the route you face for one contract may look nothing like the route for the next. Understanding the named tools the Act provides, dynamic markets, frameworks and the call-off mechanisms that sit inside them, is what lets you read a notice quickly and decide whether it is worth your time.

What is the difference between a framework and a dynamic market?

This is the question that trips up most providers, and the Procurement Act 2023 sharpened the distinction. A framework agreement is a closed or scheduled arrangement: a buyer, or group of buyers, appoints a set of suppliers and then buys from that set over the framework's life. A dynamic market is an open list that suppliers can join throughout its existence, from which individual contracts are then competed.

The practical difference is who can get in, and when. Under the Act, frameworks come in two forms. A closed framework fixes its list of suppliers at the point of award and admits no new entrants until it is re-tendered, and it generally lasts a maximum of 4 years (a longer term, up to 8 years, is allowed for defence, security and utilities, or where the nature of what is bought justifies it and the buyer publishes the reason). An open framework is a new concept: a scheme of successive frameworks that can run for up to 8 years but must re-open to new suppliers at least once in the first 3 years and then at least once every 5 years.

A dynamic market behaves differently again. It has no fixed membership and no closed door: you can apply at any time, and the authority must admit you as soon as reasonably practicable once you qualify. So the honest one-line answer to DPS vs framework, and to framework versus dynamic market, is this: a closed framework locks membership, an open framework re-opens on a timetable, and a dynamic market is always open to join.

Dynamic markets and the countdown on the legacy DPS

Dynamic markets are the Act's replacement for two older tools: the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) and qualification systems. The single biggest change is scope. A dynamic purchasing system was limited to commonly used, off-the-shelf goods and services, which made it a poor fit for bespoke care. A dynamic market can be used for any procurement, including bespoke services and works, so commissioners can now run a genuinely open list for the kind of individualised support that never suited a DPS.

Two rules matter for how you use one. First, you can apply to join at any time, which means the sensible strategy is to apply proactively rather than wait for a tender to appear. Second, every call-off from a dynamic market must be competed among its members. You cannot be direct-awarded work off a dynamic market, and a contract cannot be awarded to a provider who is not a member. Membership is therefore the entry ticket, and the competition still has to be won.

If you hold a place on a legacy DPS, watch the calendar. No new DPS could be set up under the old rules once the Act went live, an existing DPS cannot have its period of validity changed after 23 February 2026, and every existing DPS must expire by 23 February 2029. A DPS place is on a countdown, and the work it carries will move to a successor arrangement, often a dynamic market. If you are not watching for that successor, you can lose a live route without ever being told no.

How to get on a care framework: open, closed and the joining window

If you have ever asked how to get on a care framework and been told to wait, the reason is structural: a closed framework simply does not admit new suppliers between tenders. The only way in is to be ready when it is re-tendered, which may be every 4 years, so missing that window can mean years on the sidelines while competitors carry the work.

An open framework changes the maths. Because it must re-open to new suppliers at least once in the first 3 years and then at least once every 5 years, there are defined moments when the door opens again. Those dates are the ones to find and diarise, because an open framework re-opening is a scheduled opportunity you can plan around rather than a one-off you either catch or miss.

Care is also commissioned through routes that sit alongside frameworks: approved provider lists, and flexible or spot purchasing, where a council pre-qualifies providers and then buys individual packages, often ranking providers and offering packages in turn, with mini-competitions reserved for larger or more complex packages. Opportunities above the threshold are advertised on the Find a Tender service, now delivered through the Act's central digital platform, while dynamic-market applications and individual call-offs usually run through each council's own e-tendering portal. The lesson is to track both: the national notice for the big openings, and the local portal for the day-to-day work.

Does being on a framework guarantee work?

No. A place on a framework, dynamic market or approved list gives you the right to compete for work, or a position in a ranking, not the work itself. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in the sector, because providers plan staffing and cash flow around a place they have won and then find the volume never arrives.

How the work is actually allocated depends on the call-off mechanism, and you have to read it. The default under the Act is competition: a mini-competition, sometimes called a competitive selection process, run among the appointed suppliers. Direct award without competition is the exception, allowed only where there is a single supplier, or where the framework sets out an objective mechanism for choosing a supplier and the core terms, for example a ranking or a "next in line" order. Under an open framework, direct award is not permitted at all, so work there is always competed.

That mechanism changes your whole strategy. On a ranked framework, your one evaluation result is your pipeline: you win the position once, and packages then flow according to where you sit, so declining ranked offers quietly drops you down the list. On a competed framework or dynamic market, you must resource every mini-competition, because each package is a fresh contest and the ones you do not enter, you cannot win. Reading whether you face a ranked direct award or repeated mini-competition tells you how to staff your bid function.

The trade-offs that decide who actually wins

Once you accept that a list is a right to compete, the strategy becomes about which lists to back and how to work them. A place gives you visibility, access and credibility, and that is worth having, but it carries real overhead: application effort, insurance, policies and the ongoing maintenance of a portal profile. Joining everything spreads you thin, so back the routes your actual commissioners use rather than collecting memberships for their own sake.

Three habits separate the providers who win from those who wait. They apply proactively to dynamic markets instead of waiting for a tender to appear, because those markets admit qualifying suppliers at any time. They respond to call-off mini-competitions and think hard before declining a ranked offer, because non-response is read as absence. And they treat a legacy DPS place as temporary, watching for the dynamic-market successor that will carry the work after the DPS expires.

There is a wider signal here too. Across the public sector, the value of contracts awarded through frameworks rose sharply in recent years, by roughly 250%, from about £10bn in 2019 to about £35bn in 2023, and the National Audit Office has warned that heavier reliance on frameworks can reduce transparency and risk excluding smaller suppliers. For a smaller care provider, the defensive move is the same as the offensive one: prioritise the always-open dynamic markets, diarise every open-framework re-opening date, and never let a closed door you did not see coming take you out of a market for years.

FAQ

Does the Procurement Act 2023 apply in Scotland?

No. The Act applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland only. Scotland retains its own separate procurement regime, so a provider working on both sides of the border has to follow two different sets of rules. Check which regime governs each opportunity before you start.

Can a council still direct-award a care package to a chosen provider?

Within the light-touch rules for adult social care, a council has more flexibility than for ordinary services, and in defined circumstances it can make a direct award, for example to respect a service user's choice of provider. Off a dynamic market, though, direct award is not available, because every call-off must be competed among members. And under an open framework, direct award without competition is not permitted at all.

What happens to my place on an old DPS?

It is on a countdown. No new DPS could be created under the old rules after the Act went live, an existing DPS cannot have its period of validity changed after 23 February 2026, and all existing arrangements must expire by 23 February 2029. Watch for the dynamic market or framework that replaces it, because that is where the work will move.

How is a dynamic market different from a framework?

A dynamic market is always open to join, and you can apply at any time, with the authority obliged to admit you as soon as reasonably practicable once you qualify. A framework appoints its suppliers at set points: a closed framework not until it is re-tendered, an open framework only at its scheduled re-openings. In short, a dynamic market controls entry loosely and competes every contract, while a framework controls entry tightly.

If I am on a framework, why am I not getting any work?

Being on a framework is the right to compete, not a guarantee of volume, so the first thing to check is the call-off mechanism. If the framework runs mini-competitions, you only win work by entering and winning them, and the packages you do not bid for pass you by. If it uses a ranking, your position decides your share, so declining offers or missing responses moves you down the order.

The winners under the Procurement Act 2023 are not the providers with the most memberships; they are the ones who know exactly what each place entitles them to, when its door next opens, and which competition they have to turn up for. Treat every framework, dynamic market and approved list as the start of the contest rather than the end of it, and you will compete from a position most of your rivals never reach.