Case Study · Sheffield City Council · DPS
Sheffield Adults with Disabilities DPS, Lot 3 Overnight Short Breaks 2025
Place secured on Sheffield's Adults with Disabilities DPS at the first window. Standstill cleared without challenge.
From no Sheffield DPS footprint → awarded Lot 3 Overnight Short Breaks.
The Award Letter
Verified Source
Source: Sheffield City Council Successful Alcatel Letter under PCR 2015 Regulation 87, reference 62329, dated 24 January 2025. Standstill closed midnight 3 February 2025.
Section 01Case Overview
This case study examines the entry of Alicelyn Healthcare onto Sheffield City Council's Adults with Disabilities Dynamic Purchasing System for Lot 3 Overnight Short Breaks (reference 62329). The tender was procured under Public Contract Regulations 2015 and the provisional award was confirmed via Successful Alcatel Letter on 24 January 2025. The standstill closed at midnight on 3 February 2025 without challenge.
Section 04Starting Gaps & Limitations
The provider had no place on the Sheffield DPS and no internal bid lead. The overnight delivery was operationally strong — staffing ratios, handover procedures, sleep-in protocols and risk escalation were all mature — but none of this had been translated into procurement evidence. The bid narrative needed to surface the overnight operational substance in the language of the DPS evaluation criteria.
Section 08Our Role
We took the engagement as lead writer on the full DPS submission, building a weighting register from the published evaluation criteria and writing every quality response against it. The overnight staffing matrix was extracted from the provider's rota system and packaged as evidence. Five case examples were built as a reusable library from the provider's operational records.
Working from a similar starting point?
Free consultation. We will read the specification, identify the deterministic and discretionary points, and tell you whether the win is realistic.
Section 12What Changed the Trajectory
Building the overnight staffing matrix as a standalone evidence document — showing cover ratios, handover procedures and sleep-in escalation steps against the published DPS criteria — moved the operational substance from implicit to explicit. The five-beat case-example library structured the narrative around named individuals and dated interventions, closing the evaluator's discretion on outcome evidence.
Section 13Outcome Achieved
The provisional award was confirmed on 24 January 2025. Lot 3 Overnight Short Breaks was confirmed on the DPS, the standstill closed at midnight on 3 February 2025 without challenge, and the provider is now eligible to receive every overnight short breaks call-off in Sheffield over the framework lifetime.
Measurable Uplift
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Lot awarded | Lot 3 Overnight Short Breaks |
| DPS reference | 62329 |
| Award status | Provisional award confirmed |
| Standstill window | Closed midnight 3 February 2025 |
| Standstill challenge | None received |
| Award route | DPS, PCR 2015 Reg 87 |
The provider had no place on Sheffield's Adults with Disabilities DPS and no structured route to bid for Council overnight short breaks call-offs. The underlying overnight delivery was strong, but the procurement narrative was thin.
The provider holds a confirmed place on the DPS for Lot 3 and is eligible to receive every overnight short breaks call-off in Sheffield over the framework lifetime. The weighting register, overnight staffing matrix and five-beat case-example library sit inside the organisation as reusable bid infrastructure.