Contracts Finder and Find a Tender are the two free government services that, between them, advertise most public sector care work in England. Knowing what each one covers and setting them up properly is the simplest, cheapest way to build a reliable pipeline. Here is how to use them.

What each service covers

Find a Tender (the Find a Tender Service) is where higher-value public contracts are published, broadly those above the legal thresholds. Most council and NHS care frameworks of any size appear here. Contracts Finder carries public sector opportunities including many below-threshold and lower-value local contracts, plus contract award notices. In practice you need both: Find a Tender for the larger frameworks, Contracts Finder for smaller and local work.

Set up alerts that actually reach you

Create a free account on each and save searches using the words commissioners use: domiciliary care, home care, supported living, residential care, extra care, supported accommodation, leaving care and housing support. Turn on email alerts so new notices come to you. Add the CPV procurement codes for health and social care services if the service lets you, to catch tenders that do not use your exact keywords.

Read the notice, then go to the portal

A notice on either service usually points you to the council's own e-tendering portal, such as ProContract, In-Tend or Atamis, to download the documents and submit. Register on those portals in advance so you are ready to act the day a relevant tender appears, rather than losing a day to registration.

Use award notices as intelligence

Contracts Finder and Find a Tender both publish who won past contracts and often the value. Use these to see which councils buy what you offer, when their contracts are due to be re-tendered, and who the incumbents are. This turns the services from a job board into a planning tool.

Act early, every time

The whole advantage of alerts is time. Seeing a tender the day it is published, rather than a week before the deadline, is the difference between a considered, top-band bid and a rushed one.

From alert to award

Finding the tender is the easy part; winning it is the work. We help care providers turn the right opportunities into awards, with a 92% win rate across 200+ submissions, and most of our writers ran care services before they wrote bids. Get a free, honest assessment of a tender you have found.