Home care contracts: Here’s what you need to know…

You might think you’re ready to bid for home care contracts, but do you know what to expect? Luckily for you, the Healthcare Tenders Team know everything there is to know about tendering for healthcare contracts. And they’re here to share their secrets!

In this blog, we’ll explore the things you should expect when bidding for home care contracts. Keep reading to find out more…

Things to consider before tendering for home care contracts

• Look at your financial standing 

Firstly, when you bid for home care contracts, you need to consider your economic financial standing. What do we mean by this? Well, basically, you should consider your financial position to ensure you can deliver the requirements of the tender.

To do this, you should look at the following:

• Your annual turnover
• Financial ratios
• Insurance(s).

Top tip from Healthcare Tenders! Generally, we advise that you don’t bid for contracts worth more than 50% of your annual turnover. For example, if your annual turnover is £500,000, you shouldn’t tender for contracts worth more than £250,000.

• Do you need to be CQC registered? 

Does your business need to be CQC (Care Quality Commission) registered to secure the contract? This is super important when bidding for home care contracts! Before you spend precious time and resources on your tender response, make sure you read the tender documents carefully.

The last thing you want is to be halfway through your tender response, only to realise you aren’t actually eligible. To avoid this, healthcare businesses have two options:

• Register with CQC
• Only bid for contracts that don’t require a CQC registration.

• Think about your experience

To bid for home care contracts, you need to show your previous experience with similar projects. It’s not enough to tell the buyer how you’re going to do something – you need to show them.

So, instead of outlining what you can do for them, show them how you delivered for your previous clients. The best way to do this is through case studies. Ideally, you’ll have two to three case studies from the past five years, all similar in size, scope and complexity. If you can get testimonials that showcase your past successes, even better!

Remember, it’s crucial that your contract examples are relevant to the tender you’re going for. For example, if you’re trying to win homecare contracts, don’t include your experience with medical equipment tenders!

• Go above and beyond for the contract

When it comes to home care contracts, you’ll be competing against other suppliers in your field. To stand out in such a competitive space, you need to add as much value as possible to the contract. Added value, also known as social value, is now mandatory in public sector contracts, with a compulsory weighting of 10%. You need to show the buyer how your business will deal with environmental, social and economic factors. So, for example, you should consider how your company will:

• Support ongoing COVID-19 recovery
• Encourage economic growth
• Tackle climate change
• Create new job opportunities
• Give back to the local community.

Need help writing your next home care tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and have over 60 years of collective bidding experience. We offer four bid writing support packages that can get you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next home care contracts.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a home care tender response and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Contact us for more information regarding our bid management consultancy services.

Where can I find home care contracts?

You may be wondering where you can find home care contracts. You likely don’t have the time to trawl through numerous websites, relying on inaccurate CPV codes. Luckily for you, we have a solution.

Our Healthcare Tenders portal uploads all the relevant tenders in the healthcare industry across the UK. This helps to streamline the process, saving you time and resources.

Below are previous home care contracts sourced on our Healthcare Tenders portal:

Home First Bridging Care Service

Southampton City Council – South East – Budget: £939,500

The Provision of Home Care and Reablement Services

City of London Corporation – London – Budget: £1,900,000

Provision of a Care at Home Service

Inverclyde Council – Scotland – Budget: £4,441,760

Support at Home Service

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council – North West – Budget: £73,000,000

CSW – Refresh 2 – Care at Home Services Lots 2, 3 and 4

Shared Service (CSW) – West Midlands – Budget: Undisclosed – £91,000,000

What makes Healthcare Tenders different?

Healthcare Tenders is a time-saving tool. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search numerous sites for the latest healthcare leads and opportunities. They upload a whole range of opportunities such as single-provider contracts, NHS frameworks and DPS’. Once they are uploaded to our portal, you can filter the results by budget, keyword, location and more.

We source opportunities to bid for the following:

• Domiciliary Care Tenders
• Medical PPE
• Social Care Contracts
• Medical Supplies & Consumables
• Mental Health Tenders
• Supported Living Tenders
• Medical Equipment Tenders.

Book a free live demo today.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering efforts, even when you’re busy!

The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool offers your business:

• An annual subscription to a maximum of two Discover portals of your choice.
• Up to five bid breakdowns per month to help you make your bid or no-bid
• Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable home care leads and tendering opportunities.
• Award and pre-market engagement notice monitored on your behalf.
• Public and private buyer portal management including registering, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid strategy.

The Pre-Bid Master package can offer your business:

• All of the above
• Up to seven bid breakdowns per month
• A bespoke bidding strategy, developed by our senior bidding professionals.

Contact us for more information and start winning work today!