Community Early Language Service

What the buyer is asking for

The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (the Authority) invites tenders for the delivery of the Community Early Language Service across Bradford District. The Service will support children from birth up to their sixth birthday and their parents and carers, with an enhanced focus on children aged two to three. It will improve speech, language and communication development, improve school readiness and narrow inequalities through prevention, early identification, early support, targeted intervention and workforce development. The Service forms part of Bradford's Talking Bradford pathway and Best Start Family Hub model and will be delivered in partnership with the Living Well Public Health Nursing Service, Family Hubs, speech and language therapy services, early years settings and voluntary and community organisations. The procurement is divided into three Lots. The Lots must operate as a single coherent Service with consistent pathways, tools, outcomes and messages. The Lot 2 Provider will lead cross-Lot integration while each Provider remains accountable for its own Lot. Suppliers may tender for one, more than one or all Lots. The Authority may award the Lots to different Suppliers. A separate Tender response and price must be completed for each Lot bid for, in accordance with the tender documents.

How this is scored

Published by the buyer. A winning response is written to these weightings, not to the question.

• qualityQuality

3 lots

You can usually bid for one lot without bidding for all of them.

• Lot 1: Universal Prevention; Early Identification and Support£1.2m

  Community-based universal outreach, prevention, awareness and early identification. The Provider will strengthen language-rich home learning environments; increase parent and carer knowledge and confidence; identify emerging speech, language and communication needs; provide timely group-based and proportionate support; engage underserved communities; and coordinate with Family Hubs, the Living Well Public Health Nursing Service and the other Lot Providers.

• Lot 2: Targeted Intervention and Service Integration Leadership£1.8m

  Evidence-based community early language intervention for children with identified speech, language and communication delay, including children identified through the 2 to 2½ year review and Early Language Identification Measure. The Provider will work with parents and carers, use validated outcome measures, provide specialist advice and establish clear discharge and escalation routes. The Lot 2 Provider will lead integration across all Lots, including shared referral routes, tools, outcomes, messages and coordinated delivery footprint.

• Lot 3: Workforce Development£600k

  A cross-cutting workforce development offer to improve confidence, knowledge and practice across the early years system. The Provider will design and deliver accessible evidence-informed learning for health, Prevention and Early Help, early education and childcare, voluntary and community sector staff and volunteers, managers, commissioners and strategic leaders. The offer will embed consistent tools, messages and pathways and create sustainable capability through approaches such as train-the-trainer, champions and communities of practice.

How contested is this?

Buyers publish how many bids they received. Across 193 comparable procurements we can tell you the typical field size, how often one of these goes uncontested, and whether the buyer awards on price or on quality.

Timeline

4 published dates · Europe/London

1. Tender notice publishedyesterday

   28 Sept 2026, 11:43 BST
2. Clarification questions byin 28 days

   27 Oct 2026, 16:00 GMT
3. Submission deadlinein 28 days

   27 Oct 2026, 16:00 GMT
4. Award decision expected byin 77 days

   14 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT

Commercial outcome and contract awards

Nothing awarded yet

Notice history

3 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender

1. Pipeline or early engagement notice5 May 2026, 13:48 BST041029-2026
2. Notice published10 Jul 2026, 11:33 BST065074-2026
3. Tender notice28 Sept 2026, 11:43 BST091358-2026

Documents

• biddingDocuments
• Tender notice on Find a Tender