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PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY

Employment support products for JCS

Department for Work & Pensions · Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender

Tender information last checkedLast checked 25 Sept 2026, 23:51.

Opportunity overview

Background: The Get Britain Working (GBW) White Paper, co-authored by the Secretaries of State for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Department for Education (DfE) and His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT), sets out plans to set the country on a path to bring down economic inactivity and improve employment outcomes. A key enabler is to reform Jobcentre Plus (JCP) through the creation of a new single and universal Jobs and Careers Service (JCS). JCS will provide support for anyone who is looking for work, who wants to get on in work, or who wants to change their career or retrain. It will be a service that values employer engagement, working with employers to understand and support their current and future recruitment needs. Among the key objectives of JCS are: • Creating a digital, universal and fully inclusive service; and, • Providing high-quality personalised support to help people into work, support training and get on in work. Requirements / Contract subject-matter: DWP Digital teams are progressing digital activity which will underpin JCS and DWP is keen to explore third party solutions which could support this new digital service. The engagement will cover a wide range of requirements. DWP has defined 12 areas of employment support which we are keen to explore suitable products for, including AI solutions. JCS Employment Support categories: The JCS ‘Employment Support’ categories are listed below: • ES01 - Career advice • ES02 - Career planning • ES03 - Skills gap analysis • ES04 - Financial planning • ES05 - Career coaching • ES06 - Learning / Training / Provision • ES07 - Job discovery • ES08 - Job market insights • ES09 - CV support • ES10 - Job application support • ES11 - Application tracking • ES12 - Interview support DWP is conducting this preliminary market engagement to help develop the requirements and the strategy/approach for any future procurements for products/services that would align to the JCS Employment Support categories. Following this preliminary market engagement, DWP may decide to run multiple procurements (with each procurement covering an individual or a group of Employment Support categories), either in parallel or in a phased approach, in line with the priorities of the JCS programme. Suppliers are invited to participate even if they are only interested in specific components of the wider scope. Due to the early stage of this engagement and the fact that it could relate to numerous separate procurements, there are certain aspects of any associated procurement activities that are yet to be determined. As a result, there are some sections of this notice which cannot be completed at this time. Where this is the case, we have stated in the relevant field that the information is “To be determined.” The following points are examples of areas that still need to be determined: • Procurement procedure: will any resulting procurements be above or below the relevant threshold – to be determined. • Is a dynamic market or framework being established – to be determined. • Total Contract Value (estimated) – to be determined. • Contract start dates, end dates and extension options – to be determined (please ignore the start date of 01/01/2027 and end date of 31/12/2027 that are showing on this notice). • Publication date of the tender or transparency notice – to be determined.

Classification

  • CPV72260000 — Software-related services
  • CPV75200000 — Provision of services to the community
  • CPV75310000 — Benefit services

Lots

  • Lot 1Value not stated

Documents and notices

Published notice details

Additional information from the published procurement release. Fields appear only when supplied by the source; check the original notice and tender documents before acting.

Scope, procedure and submissions

Id
P-1650
Main Procurement Category
services
Status
planning

Legal basis

Id
2023/54
Scheme
UKPGA

Amendments

Entry 1
Description
The DWP is extending its market engagement period to the end of October 2026.
Id
078391-2026

Lots and requirements

Entry 1
Id
1
Status
planning

Suitability

Sme
Yes
Vcse
Yes

Contract period

Starts
1 Jan 2027, 00:00
Ends
31 Dec 2027, 23:59

Items and delivery

Item 1
Id
1
Related Lot
1

Additional Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
CPV
Id
72260000
Description
Software-related services
Entry 2
Scheme
CPV
Id
75200000
Description
Provision of services to the community
Entry 3
Scheme
CPV
Id
75310000
Description
Benefit services

Delivery locations

Entry 1
Region
UK
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom

Planning and budget

Milestones

Entry 1
Id
engagement
Type
engagement
Description
General Information: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Commercial Directorate is undertaking preliminary market engagement to inform the future procurement(s) of employment support products (including Artificial Intelligence solutions) for use in JCS. This engagement will involve various strands of activity (as detailed below) and aims to: (i) help Suppliers understand DWP’s objectives and early design considerations; and, (ii) enable the market to provide evidence-based feedback that may help shape DWP’s procurement approach. Specific strands of this preliminary market engagement will close as detailed in the relevant section below. Where a specific strand does not state a close date or deadline, DWP’s intended close date for all strands within this preliminary market engagement is 30 October 2026. DWP reserves the right to amend the various dates / deadlines for this preliminary market engagement and, in such event, will publish an update to this UK2 Preliminary Market Engagement Notice. 1) Supplier Briefing Event The Supplier Briefing Event will be held via Teams on Thursday 2 April 2026, 10:00am to 12:00pm. At the event DWP will outline the purpose, objectives and its requirements for the Jobs and Careers Service (JCS). DWP’s attendees at the event will be from DWP’s Digital team responsible for delivering JCS and DWP’s Commercial team responsible for the procurement of any required products/services from Suppliers. Suppliers are required to register their interest to participate in the Supplier Briefing Event no later than 11:00am on 31 March 2026 by submitting the MS Form at the following URL: https://forms.office.com/e/3jEXJ1bAaE Please note that attendance at the Supplier Briefing Event is not mandatory. Suppliers not attending the Supplier Briefing Event are still able to participate in the RFI Questionnaire. 2) RFI Questionnaire DWP will be issuing a Request for Information (RFI) questionnaire to Suppliers who wish to provide information relating to their products that address the high-level requirements of the JCS Employment Support categories detailed herein. The RFI will cover themes such as: details of the products /services available from the supplier; route to market options; commercial models; etc. Suppliers wishing to complete a questionnaire should request a copy of the RFI no later than 5:00pm on 17 April 2026 by submitting the MS Form at the following URL: https://forms.office.com/e/k0yShw63Wk A Supplier’s RFI Response must be submitted no later than 5:00pm on 1 May 2026 in accordance with the submission instructions that will be set out in the RFI. RFI Responses received after this deadline will not be considered. DWP may follow up with individual Suppliers to clarify the content of its RFI Response. Where further questions arise beyond those set out in the RFI, DWP may issue follow-up questions and request a further response to such follow-up questions from participating suppliers. The deadline for responding to any follow-up questions will be specified in DWP’s request. 3) One-to-one Supplier Meetings DWP may choose to invite a limited number of Suppliers on an individual basis to discuss potential solutions. These meetings will be recorded to ensure fairness. The DWP aims to complete one-to-one supplier meetings by 30 September 2026. 4) Product demonstrations DWP may choose to invite a limited number of Suppliers to provide a product/service demonstration for a potential specific solution that may meet DWP’s requirements and may help to develop specifications and assessment criteria. These sessions may also be used for DWP to explore alternative solutions. The DWP aims to complete all product demonstrations by 30 October 2026. Selection criteria for 1:1 meetings and product demonstrations: The selection criteria DWP will use for 1:1 supplier meetings and product demonstrations will be based on the following criteria: • Relevance to DWP’s high-level requirements; • Quality of capability in the relevant category; • Understanding of user needs; • Ability to demonstrate a mature product; • Ability of the product to provide any required interface / data sharing requirements. The JCS Employment Support categories are being explored individually at this stage. DWP welcomes participation from suppliers able to deliver products that address one, multiple or all categories. No preference will be given to suppliers based on the number of categories they can cover. Non participation in this preliminary market engagement will not advantage or disadvantage a supplier’s ability to participate in any future procurement (which will be conducted in accordance with applicable public procurement regulations).
Due
30 Oct 2026, 23:59
Status
scheduled

Documents

Entry 1
Id
078391-2026
Document Type
marketEngagementNotice
Notice Type
UK2
Description
Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
Published
18 Aug 2026, 09:48
Format
text/html

Buyer, suppliers and contacts

Organisation 1
Name
Department for Work & Pensions
Id
GB-PPON-PJCP-7274-TLRQ

Identifier

Scheme
GB-PPON
Id
PJCP-7274-TLRQ

Address

Street Address
Caxton House, 6-12 Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA
Locality
London
Postal Code
SW1H 9NA
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Region
UKI32

Contact

Name
DWP Commercial Directorate – Universal Credit and Working Age, Digital Category Team

Roles

buyer

Details

Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
UK_CA_TYPE
Id
publicAuthorityCentralGovernment
Description
Public authority - central government

Recorded locations

  • Buyer location · London · UKI32 · SW1H 9NA · United Kingdom
  • Delivery location · UK · United Kingdom

Notice and amendment history

2 published notice versions reviewed by ProcuraAxis.

2 VERSIONS
  1. 026897-2026Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender ·
  2. 078391-2026Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender ·