TUPE in Care Tenders: What Bidders Must Model Before Pricing
TUPE in care tenders: what transfers on a re-commissioned service, the Employee Liability Information to request, and how to model it before you price.
TUPE in Care Tenders: What Bidders Must Model Before Pricing
Posted by the TenderLab Editorial Team on 26 August 2026. Last updated 26 August 2026.
On most re-commissioned care contracts, an existing workforce transfers to the winning provider under TUPE, bringing its pay, hours and accrued entitlements. A bid that prices and plans without the TUPE information is guessing, and the guess is usually wrong. Price too low against the transferring pay bill and the contract is unaffordable from day one; plan a staffing model the transferred team cannot deliver and mobilisation fails.
TUPE is where a technically strong bid quietly becomes unaffordable or undeliverable. This guide sets out what TUPE is, what transfers, what to request from the buyer, and how the transferring workforce shapes both the price and the quality response.
At a glance
- TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006.
- On a re-tendered service, a service provision change usually transfers the incumbent staff to the new provider.
- Their contracts, continuity of service and terms and conditions transfer largely unchanged.
- The buyer or incumbent provides anonymised Employee Liability Information, or TUPE data: numbers, roles, pay, hours, service and pension.
- Request it early and model the true cost before you price.
- Changing transferred terms is tightly restricted, and pensions, including the Local Government Pension Scheme, carry their own protections.
- Continuity of the transferring workforce is itself a quality point to evidence.
What TUPE is, and the service provision change
TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. In care re-tenders the trigger is almost always a "service provision change": activities carried on by one provider stop and are carried on instead by another, as when a council or NHS body re-commissions a domiciliary care, supported living or reablement service and awards it to a different provider.
Employees wholly or mainly assigned to the grouping delivering that service then transfer automatically to the new provider, on their existing terms, with continuity of employment preserved so statutory service dates carry over. The transfer happens by operation of law: the incoming provider does not opt into it, and it does not depend on offering fresh contracts.
What transfers, and what does not
The incoming employer inherits the transferring employees' contracts of employment, their continuity of service, most terms and conditions, and certain connected liabilities. Accrued holiday, contractual sick pay, notice periods, pay rates and enhancements come across, along with liabilities that can predate the transfer.
Not everything moves the same way. Occupational pension rights receive specific treatment, covered below, rather than transferring on identical terms, and criminal liabilities do not transfer. For a bidder, precision matters: do not assume you can rebuild the workforce on your own terms, and do not overstate what transfers.
Get the TUPE information before you price
You cannot price a labour-based service without knowing who transfers and on what terms. The buyer, or the incumbent through the buyer, provides anonymised workforce data for this, often called Employee Liability Information or a TUPE schedule: headcount, roles, pay rates, hours and shift patterns, length of service, notice periods and pensions. Where it is thin, ask for what is missing through a clarification question.
Two things get confused here. Under TUPE, the formal Employee Liability Information must be provided by the outgoing employer to the incoming employer not less than 28 days before the transfer. That obligation bites late, around mobilisation, once the winner is known; it is not the data you price on. For bidding you need the anonymised data at tender stage, far earlier, so request it as early as the process allows.
Model the true cost
Build your price on the actual transferring population, not an assumed one. Cost the pay rates, enhancements and unsocial-hours payments in the TUPE data as they stand, add accrued holiday, contractual sick pay, notice liabilities and the real pension cost, and compare against your own standard staffing cost. If the incumbent pays more, as on long-established council or NHS contracts it often does, a bid on your standard rates will be unaffordable the day you take the contract on.
This holds even where the contract has no separately weighted price. On a call-off framework, a rate card or a quality-only evaluation, the transferring pay bill still sets the floor of what the service costs to run, and every method statement commitment, from staffing ratios to supervision and training, has to be fundable within it.
Changing terms is restricted
The instinct after a win is to harmonise transferred staff onto your own terms. TUPE tightly limits this. A variation of a transferring employee's contract is void if its sole or principal reason is the transfer itself, and that protection does not lapse after a set period. Changes may be possible where the reason is an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce, an "ETO reason", but the bar is specific and fact-dependent. A dismissal is also automatically unfair where the sole or principal reason is the transfer, subject to the same ETO exception.
The consequence for pricing is direct: do not build a bid on the assumption that you will cut transferred pay or strip out enhancements. You may not be able to, and getting it wrong exposes you to unfair dismissal and unlawful variation claims, so take specialist advice before assuming any change is available.
Pensions
Occupational pension rights receive specific treatment on a TUPE transfer, not on the same basis as the rest of the contract, and for staff transferring out of local government this matters commercially. The Local Government Pension Scheme, with public sector pension protections such as the Fair Deal and the Best Value pension requirements, commonly requires the incoming provider to offer transferring staff continued access to the LGPS or a broadly comparable scheme. Employer contributions into the LGPS are typically well above the auto-enrolment minimum, a real and often large cost.
Do not treat pensions as a rounding error. Confirm the position from the tender pack and the TUPE data, establish whether LGPS or comparable access is required, and price the employer contribution. If the pack is silent, ask.
Inform and consult, and mobilisation
TUPE places duties on both employers: the outgoing and incoming employers must inform, and where measures are envisaged, consult appropriate representatives of the affected employees. For the incoming provider, that consultation, the transfer logistics and any lawful harmonisation all have to sit inside the mobilisation timeline, not surface after award.
Build it into the mobilisation plan: when Employee Liability Information is due, when consultation happens, how you welcome the transferring team, check right-to-work and DBS status, and move staff onto your systems and rotas without a gap in cover. A transfer run well protects continuity of care through the handover, itself a quality strength to evidence.
Turn TUPE into a quality strength
The transferring workforce is the team service users already know and trust; that continuity is a genuine quality argument evaluators reward, and it protects outcomes through a period that would otherwise unsettle people.
Evidence it. Set out how you will welcome, retain, induct and train the team into your systems and standards, and how you will stabilise the service through mobilisation and beyond. Name the retention measures, the supervision structure and the induction timeline. Done well, TUPE is not only a cost to manage but a story to tell: continuity of a known workforce delivering continuity of care.
TUPE is complex and case-specific, and the position on any single contract turns on its own facts, so take specialist employment law advice on your specific transfer.
What to do about it
- Request the anonymised TUPE data as early as the process allows, and raise a clarification question if it is missing from the pack.
- Model the price on the actual transferring population, using their real pay rates, enhancements, holiday, sick pay, notice and pension cost.
- Confirm the pension position, establish whether LGPS or broadly comparable access is required, and price the employer contribution.
- Check whether any term changes you rely on need an ETO reason, and take specialist employment law advice before assuming you can make them.
- Plan the inform and consult process, the transfer logistics and any harmonisation into the mobilisation timeline.
- Evidence continuity of the transferring workforce as a quality strength, with named retention, induction and supervision measures.
- Never make method statement commitments the transferred cost base cannot fund.
Frequently asked questions
What is TUPE in a care contract?
TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. In a care contract, when a service is re-commissioned and awarded to a different provider, the staff wholly or mainly assigned to it usually transfer automatically, on their existing terms, with continuity of employment preserved. The incoming provider inherits their contracts and certain liabilities.
Does TUPE apply when a council re-tenders a service?
Usually, yes. When a council re-tenders a service and the work moves from one provider to another, that is a service provision change, a TUPE trigger, and the employees assigned to the outgoing service transfer to the new provider. The exact position depends on the facts, so confirm it from the pack and take advice on any unclear case.
What is Employee Liability Information?
Employee Liability Information is the workforce information the outgoing employer must give the incoming employer under TUPE, covering identity, age, terms and conditions, and certain claims and liabilities. It must be provided not less than 28 days before the transfer. For bidding, buyers separately provide anonymised TUPE data at tender stage so providers can price the transferring workforce before they commit.
Can TenderLab help us model the TUPE position in a bid?
Yes. We work through the TUPE schedule and pack with you, cost the transferring population on their actual terms including pension, and pressure-test whether your staffing model and method statement commitments are fundable within the budget. Where data is missing, we draft the clarification questions to get it.
Do you write the full quality response?
Yes. We write the full quality response, including the workforce and mobilisation sections, and evidence continuity of care as a scored strength. Every engagement includes an independent quality assurance pass and a pre-submission review before you approve and submit.
What is a realistic lead time to engage TenderLab before a deadline?
Engage us as early as you can, ideally as soon as the tender is published, because the TUPE data often has to be requested and modelled before pricing. We can work to shorter timescales, but early engagement leaves time to chase missing data, model the cost properly and complete the pre-submission review. Contact us as soon as you are considering a bid.
Price and plan the TUPE position before you commit
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 us, so they know how a transferring workforce shapes both the price and the quality response. Every engagement includes a pre-submission review before you approve and submit. TenderLab is registered at Companies House, number 17184263.
If a re-commissioned contract in your pipeline carries a TUPE transfer, price and plan it before you commit. Book a free consultation through our contact page, whether or not we turn out to be the right fit, and ask about bid writing and pre-submission review.
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