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PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY

National Data Dashboard for Children's Social Care Placements

Department for Education · Transparency notice on Find a Tender

Tender information last checkedLast checked 26 Sept 2026, 09:02.

Opportunity overview

A three-year contract to extend, enhance, and scale nationally an existing children’s social care placements data dashboard, which is already operational and used by approximately 62 local authorities. Delivery will build upon the existing Social Finance platform infrastructure and will align with the rollout of Regional Care Cooperatives. The maximum contract value is £2,865,473 inclusive of irrecoverable VAT. The contract will fund the following services: - Operation and maintenance of the existing data platform as a secure, scalable software-as-a-service. - Phased onboarding of all local authorities in England onto the platform. - Development and delivery of expanded data collection capabilities. - Development of analytical dashboards for local authorities, Regional Care Cooperatives, DfE and Ofsted. - Provision of APIs and data access to support DfE and Ofsted use. - Preparatory work for integration with complementary needs assessment and benchmarking tools (e.g. CANS, BERRI, CareCubed), and for future forecasting and scenario modelling capabilities. - Work in connection with the transfer of intellectual property rights to DfE and long-term platform sustainability.

Awarded to

Amounts belong to published awards or contracts. Where several suppliers share one value, it is labelled as shared and is not a supplier-specific allocation.

Social Finance Limited

Matched by number
Published award value
£2.4m
Awarded
Not supplied
Award ID
1
Status
pending
Identifier
GB-COH 06402143
Location
London, UKI44, SE1 2SX, United Kingdom

Classification

No classification was supplied.

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
ocds-h6vhtk-06dab9
Status
complete
Procurement Method
direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Why this procedure was chosen
The contract will be awarded directly under section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023, relying on the justification at Schedule 5, paragraph 5 (single supplier – exclusive rights). The Supplier holds the intellectual property rights required to supply the services under this contract. These rights include copyright in the software codebase and technical documentation, database rights in the data architecture and configuration, and proprietary rights in the analytical models and algorithms developed for the Dashboard. This contract is for the enhancement and national scaling of an existing, live platform that is already in operational use by c. 62 local authorities. The services cannot reasonably be separated from the existing platform: they require direct access to and modification of the codebase, data models, and system configuration that Supplier owns. Procuring a replacement platform from an alternative supplier would deliver different services (a new-build platform) that would require: (i) a full competitive procurement; (ii) platform design, build, testing and implementation; (iii) re-establishment of local authority data integrations; (iv) disruption to the local authorities currently using the existing system; and (v) delay of at least 18 months to the national rollout required to meet policy objectives. In the Authority’s assessment, this would not constitute a reasonable alternative to the enhancement of the existing platform, since it entails a different approach with different outcomes, extended timescales and greater risk.

Legal basis

Id
2023/54
Scheme
UKPGA

Procedure reasons

Entry 1
Id
singleSuppliersIntellectualPropertyExclusiveRights

Lots and requirements

Entry 1
Id
1
Status
complete

Published documents

Entry 1
Id
conflictOfInterest
Document Type
conflictOfInterest
Description
Not published

Buyer, suppliers and contacts

Organisation 1
Name
Department for Education
Id
GB-PPON-PDZG-3487-DPVD

Identifier

Scheme
GB-PPON
Id
PDZG-3487-DPVD

Address

Street Address
Sanctuary Buildings, 20 Great Smith Street
Locality
London
Postal Code
SW1P3BT
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Region
UKI32

Contact

Roles

buyer

Details

Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
UK_CA_TYPE
Id
publicAuthorityCentralGovernment
Description
Public authority - central government
Organisation 2
Name
Social Finance Limited
Id
GB-COH-06402143

Identifier

Scheme
GB-COH
Id
06402143

Address

Street Address
3rd Floor, Colechurch House, London Bridge Walk
Locality
London
Postal Code
SE1 2SX
Country
GB
Country Name
United Kingdom
Region
UKI44

Contact

Roles

supplier

Details

Scale
sme
Vcse
No

Award information

Award 1
Id
1
Status
pending
Main Procurement Category
services
Above Threshold
Yes

Items

Item 1
Id
1
Related Lot
1

Additional Classifications

Entry 1
Scheme
CPV
Id
85311300
Description
Welfare services for children and young people
Entry 2
Scheme
CPV
Id
72000000
Description
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Value

Including VAT
2,865,473
Amount
2,387,894
Currency
GBP

Suppliers

Supplier 1
Id
GB-COH-06402143
Name
Social Finance Limited

Contract period

Starts
17 Aug 2026, 00:00
Ends
31 Mar 2029, 23:59

Related lots

1

Documents

Entry 1
Id
073518-2026
Document Type
awardNotice
Notice Type
UK5
Description
Transparency notice on Find a Tender
Published
4 Aug 2026, 10:35
Format
text/html

Milestones

Entry 1
Id
1
Type
futureSignatureDate
Due
17 Aug 2026, 23:59
Status
scheduled

Recorded locations

  • Buyer location · London · UKI32 · SW1P3BT · United Kingdom

Notice and amendment history

1 published notice version reviewed by ProcuraAxis.

1 VERSION
  1. 073518-2026Transparency notice on Find a Tender ·