Live Tender Analysis19 Aug 20269 min read

South London HIV Peer Support Tender 2026: Bid Strategy

Image: A person holding a red ribbon, illustrating South London HIV peer support services.

South London's £734k NHS HIV peer support tender closes 18 September 2026. The 80/20 scoring, the Procurement Act regime and strategy from a 92% win-rate team.

Published by the TenderLab editorial team. Tender guidance is checked against the source material available on the publication date.

NHS South East London ICB
NHS South West London ICB
HIV
peer support
advice and advocacy
people living with HIV
blood-borne virus opt-out testing
emergency department testing
lived experience
Procurement Act 2023
Provider Selection Regime
light touch regime
South London
Live Tender Analysis

South London HIV Peer Support Tender 2026: Bid Strategy for a £734k NHS Contract

Posted by the TenderLab Editorial Team on 20 August 2026. Last updated 20 August 2026.

Two integrated care boards, NHS South East London and NHS South West London, have gone to market for peer support and advice and advocacy for people living with HIV. The contract is worth £734,480 excluding VAT, runs from 1 February 2027 for an initial 14 months, and is awarded on quality at 80% and price at 20%.

This is NHS-commissioned peer support delivered by people with lived experience of HIV, with advice and advocacy reaching into housing, finances and immigration. It is a quality-dominant award. The detail most providers miss sits in the regulation: the service is procured under the Procurement Act 2023 light touch regime, not the NHS Provider Selection Regime.

This analysis covers the service, the regime, the cohort, the single lot, scoring, common mistakes, a playbook and mobilisation.

At a glance

- Commissioning authorities: NHS South East London Integrated Care Board and NHS South West London Integrated Care Board

- Service: Peer support and advice and advocacy for people living with HIV

- Cohort: People living with HIV, including those newly diagnosed through emergency department opt-out testing

- Value: £734,480 excluding VAT (£881,376 including VAT)

- Term: 1 February 2027 to 31 March 2028 (initial 14 months), with a possible extension to 31 March 2029 (a further 12 months)

- Procedure: Open procedure under the light touch special regime

- Regulation: Procurement Act 2023, not the Provider Selection Regime

- Lots: Single lot

- Region: South London

- CPV: 85312300 guidance and counselling services, 85312320 counselling services

- Award criteria: Quality 80%, Price 20% (price shown as a Financial Model Template)

- Deadline: 18 September 2026, 11:59pm

- Find a Tender notice: 076287-2026

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

What the service delivers

The service is peer support delivered by people who live with HIV. Peer supporters provide in-clinic peer support inside HIV services, so people meet someone who has walked the same path.

Around that sits advice and advocacy. The notice names holistic support covering housing, finances and immigration, plus signposting to related services. One duty runs through the scope: supporting people newly diagnosed through the Emergency Department Blood-Borne Virus Opt-Out Testing Programme.

Why the regime matters: Procurement Act 2023, not the Provider Selection Regime

NHS-commissioned does not mean the Provider Selection Regime applies.

The Provider Selection Regime was made under the Health and Care Act 2022 and went live on 1 January 2024. It governs how NHS bodies, and some joint arrangements with local authorities, procure health care services. It is a clinical health care procurement regime.

This contract was not advertised under it. The notice places the service under the Procurement Act 2023 light touch regime. Peer support, advice and advocacy is not clinical health care, so it sits outside the Provider Selection Regime.

Confirm the regime from the documents before you plan, because it sets the process, timetable and standstill rules. Here, it is the Procurement Act 2023.

The cohort and the emergency department testing route

The people this service exists for are living with HIV, and many are newly diagnosed through blood-borne virus opt-out testing in emergency departments.

The Emergency Department Blood-Borne Virus Opt-Out Testing Programme is an NHS England programme offering opt-out testing for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C in emergency departments in areas of high HIV prevalence. A person can arrive for an unrelated reason and leave with an unexpected HIV diagnosis, in a setting with no HIV specialism and no continuity.

Someone diagnosed without warning is at risk of disengaging before they reach a clinic. Peer support drives linkage to care and retention in care.

A single lot across South London

This is a single lot: one provider or lead partnership delivers the whole footprint.

That footprint is large. South London spans boroughs including Wandsworth, Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth, Bexley, Greenwich, Bromley, Croydon, Merton, Kingston upon Thames, Sutton, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames. Reaching a dispersed cohort across that geography, while staying present in multiple HIV clinics, is a delivery problem you must answer.

You do not need clinical registration. Peer support, advice and advocacy is not a CQC-regulated activity, so the Care Quality Commission does not register it, which shifts the burden of proof onto your peer support model. Anchor the bid in a structured, supervised, lived-experience model, safeguarding and confidentiality, not clinical credentials.

How the award is scored, and what evaluators reward

Award is Quality 80%, Price 20%, with price submitted as a Financial Model Template.

Price is close to a formality here. Every meaningful mark sits in the quality responses.

Evaluators reward answers that are operationalised, not described. Name your peer support model. Name the HIV clinics and partnerships that put your peer supporters in the room. Show safeguarding and confidentiality built into how peer supporters work. Set measurable outcomes on linkage to care and retention in care, and say how you collect and report them.

The mistakes that lose marks

Six errors cost providers marks.

Bidding it as a clinical service. This is peer support and advocacy, not treatment, and clinical language answers a question that was not asked.

Assuming the Provider Selection Regime applies. It does not, and building your process on it starts you from the wrong place.

Treating peer support as befriending. The service needs a structured, supervised model led by people with lived experience, not a friendly volunteer.

Weak confidentiality and data handling. HIV status is among the most stigmatised information a person holds, and thin data protection answers are disqualifying.

Ignoring the emergency department testing route. The opt-out testing pathway is written into the scope, and skipping it misses a core duty.

Missing the 11:59pm hard stop. The deadline is 18 September 2026 at 11:59pm, and late is not scored.

A playbook to lift the score

Put your strongest writing behind the 80% quality weighting. Price is 20%, so invest where the marks are.
Evidence a structured, supervised peer support model led by people with lived experience of HIV. Show recruitment, training, supervision and boundaries, so it reads as a service, not goodwill.
Name the HIV clinic and emergency department partnerships, and set out the linkage-to-care pathway from opt-out testing through to specialist services.
Build confidentiality, consent and data protection into every answer, showing how peer supporters handle HIV status, records and information sharing.
Make holistic support concrete across housing, finances and immigration. Name what you deliver in each, and what you signpost to.
Set measurable outcomes on linkage to care and retention in care, with the method for collecting and reporting them.
Run an independent pre-submission review, so a fresh evaluator catches gaps while you can still fix them.

Mobilisation to the 1 February 2027 go-live

The service starts on 1 February 2027.

Under the Procurement Act 2023, award is followed by a standstill period before the contract can be signed. Plan for roughly 4 to 5 months to mobilise.

You will recruit and train peer supporters with lived experience of HIV. Clinic and emergency department partnership agreements need to be live from day one. Confirm the TUPE position from the pack, because staff may transfer from an incumbent and that changes your cost model. Set it out in a mobilisation plan the evaluators can see, with dates.

Frequently asked questions

When is the deadline for the South London HIV peer support tender?

The deadline is 18 September 2026 at 11:59pm. It is a hard stop under the Procurement Act 2023 process, and late submissions are not scored.

How much is the contract worth, and is it a single lot?

The contract is valued at £734,480 excluding VAT, or £881,376 including VAT. It is a single lot, so one provider or lead partnership delivers the whole service across South London. The term runs from 1 February 2027 to 31 March 2028, with a possible extension to 31 March 2029.

Who can bid for the South London HIV peer support contract, and is CQC registration needed?

Providers who can deliver a structured, supervised peer support model led by people with lived experience of HIV, alongside advice and advocacy, can bid. CQC registration is not required, because peer support, advice and advocacy is not a CQC-regulated activity.

How is the South London HIV peer support tender scored?

Award is Quality 80% and Price 20%, with price submitted as a Financial Model Template. This is a quality-dominant award, so the quality responses decide it.

Is this tender under the Procurement Act 2023 or the Provider Selection Regime?

It is under the Procurement Act 2023 light touch regime, per the notice, not the NHS Provider Selection Regime. NHS commissioning does not automatically mean the Provider Selection Regime, which covers clinical health care services. Confirm the regime from the documents, because it sets the process and timetable.

Can TenderLab help us bid for this NHS contract?

Yes. TenderLab is a sector-exclusive UK health and social care bid-writing consultancy and works on NHS-commissioned tenders of this kind. TenderLab can assess the opportunity, shape the win strategy around the 80% quality weighting and draft the response.

Do you write the full quality response?

Yes. TenderLab drafts the full quality response from your peer support model, clinic partnerships and outcomes. Every engagement includes a pre-submission review before you submit.

What is a realistic turnaround given the 18 September 2026 deadline?

There is time to produce a strong submission if you start now. TenderLab works back from the deadline of 18 September 2026 at 11:59pm, leaving room for drafting, your input and the pre-submission review.

Work with a sector-exclusive bid team

TenderLab is a sector-exclusive UK health and social care bid-writing consultancy. We hold 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 us, so they write the way commissioners read. Every engagement includes a pre-submission review, and we are registered at Companies House under number 17184263.

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