Angus Council and the Angus Health and Social Care Partnership are establishing a new framework for home and community-based care and support under Self-Directed Support Option 3. The framework is intended to commence in April 2027 and covers personal care, support and care, housing support and home-based respite within people’s homes in Angus.
This opportunity is aimed at care-at-home and housing-support providers with the registration, workforce and local delivery capacity needed for the relevant lots. It is not a broad healthcare staffing framework. Providers assessing the opportunity can contact Thornton & Lowe for a structured bid review.
What SDS Option 3 means for delivery
Under Option 3, the relevant authority arranges support on the individual’s behalf. Providers still need to deliver person-led services that reflect assessed outcomes, preferences, routines and changing needs. A competitive bid should therefore explain both the operational system and the quality of the individual experience.
The framework replaces the current Angus arrangement and is expected to run for four years. The notice shows an estimated value of £248.358 million excluding VAT, or £298.0296 million including VAT, across the full framework. Suppliers should assess the value and service requirements of individual lots rather than judging fit from the overall figure.
Who should consider tendering?
Likely bidders include registered care-at-home providers, housing-support organisations and specialist providers serving particular age groups or needs. The lot structure may distinguish geography, service-user groups, complexity or reserve capacity, so each organisation should identify where it has genuine workforce depth and management oversight.
Providers without an established Angus operation will need a convincing mobilisation plan. Recruitment targets alone are unlikely to be enough. The bid should show how workers will be sourced, vetted, trained, supervised and retained in the relevant localities.
What evaluators are likely to focus on
- Person-led support: translating outcomes and choices into day-to-day care plans.
- Workforce continuity: recruitment, retention, matching and reduction of missed or late visits.
- Safeguarding and risk: escalation, incident management, medication controls and learning.
- Quality assurance: supervision, observations, audits, feedback and improvement action.
- Partnership working: communication with supported people, families, social work and health professionals.
- Mobilisation: safe transition, information transfer, rota build and contingency planning.
Our guide to what bid evaluators want explains how to make quality evidence easy to find and score.
Deadline and documents
The tender submission deadline is shown as 10 September 2026. Review the official notice, Public Contracts Scotland documents and any lot-specific schedules for the exact requirements.
Before writing, providers should confirm registration coverage, workforce assumptions, local management capacity and which examples best demonstrate safe, reliable and person-led delivery.
Thornton & Lowe can support qualification, answer planning, writing and independent review for social care tenders. Talk to our bid writing team.
