Update: 6 October 2026

Further to the recent market engagement for this project, it may be useful to note that Essex County Council (“ECC”) is currently finalising the requisite internal governance to proceed with the recommissioning of this service. Please note that the precise timescales for this project remain subject to confirmation and ECC will provide any updates regarding this position as soon as practically possible.

However, in preparation for the proposed procurement, it may be useful to note that this project will be undertaken under the following conditions:

1. Procurement procedure: please note that subject to the ratification of the internal governance, this procurement is due to be conducted via a mini-competition under ECC’s Live at Home (LAH) framework. Hence, prospective bidders must hold a position on either Tier 1 or Tier 2 of the aforementioned LAH framework in order to be considered eligible to engage in this opportunity. For the avoidance of any further doubt, please be advised that any provider which is currently suspended from the LAH framework will not be eligible to participate in this procurement.
2. NEPO:OPEN registration and Expression of Interest (EOI) form: please be advised that prospective bidders who satisfy the aforementioned pre-requisites for this procurement must be registered on ECC’s e-sourcing platform NEPO:OPEN. If your organisation does not already hold a user account for NEPO:OPEN, please use the following link to register for an account:

Home - Open | Developed by Nepo

Please use the “Get Started” button at the top right-hand side of the screen to access the inbuilt registration form to secure a user account for NEPO:OPEN. If you require any guidance regarding this process or wish to familiarise yourself with this system, please feel free to use NEPO’s supplier guidance and training materials which can be accessed via the following link:

 Open Training: https://www.open-hub.org/how-to-guides/

Once you have registered for a user account, please complete the following online form to express an interest in this opportunity:

Additional Reablement Capacity (ARC) Procurement - Expression of interest form – Fill in form

For the avoidance of any further doubt, please be advised that the rationale for requesting expressions of interest via a dedicated form relates to the NEPO:OPEN system requirements for mini-competitions, whereby ECC must manually add each bidder to the opportunity. Unfortunately, there is no feasible alternative to this approach and this opportunity will not be publicly visible to mitigate any undue issues with requests to participate from organisations which are not members of the LAH framework. Therefore, please could you ensure that your organisation conducts the registration process for NEPO:OPEN as soon as practically possible and retains awareness of the applicable password to mitigate any undue accessibility issues.

If you encounter any system related issues, please use the inbuilt form to request support from NEPO which can be accessed from the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the OPEN homepage or via: Contact Us - Open | Developed by Nepo

Please note that NEPO delivers the supplier support for the OPEN system on ECC’s  behalf and ECC colleagues do not have access to any supplier user accounts to facilitate password changes or address any accessibility issues.

Following the publication of this procurement, ECC will add all the eligible providers who have expressed an interest in this opportunity using the contact details which they have provided in the expression of interest (EOI) form. Please ensure you notify ECC of any accessibility issues affecting your ability to access this opportunity once you have received this e-mail. If this situation applies or if you do not receive a courtesy e-mail following the publication of this procurement, please contact ECC via:

ICT@essex.gov.uk

Please note that once your organisation has successfully registered and accessed this opportunity, you must submit any clarification questions and requests for additional information through the “correspondence” functionality in the project. For the avoidance of any further doubt, please be advised that ECC will not accept or respond to clarification requests submitted via email or any other communication channel. Likewise, ECC will issue anonymised responses to clarification enquiries via the same “correspondence” functionality to preserve the transparency of the process and maintain equal treatment of all bidders.

Original guidance:

N.B. the following guidance remains unaffected by the update which was published on 6 October 2026.

Please note that this section will be populated with details of any forthcoming market engagement events or updates regarding this project. 

In the meantime, please note that whilst the Council will continue to promote any further engagement opportunities for the ARC service via the Provider Bulletins and courtesy e-mails to existing providers and organisations which have expressed an interest in the market engagement to date, as this process forms part of a procurement, the Council is required to advertise any market engagement on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) – Find a Tender . For ease of reference, please note that CDP is a national resource which advertises all public sector procurement. Therefore, it would be prudent to ensure you register on CDP and review this platform to facilitate awareness of future events. In order to support your registration, please consult the following supplier guidance which has been published by the Cabinet Office which administers the CDP site:

 Information and guidance for suppliers - GOV.UK

Please note that whilst the Council has used its best endeavours to verify that the above link is accessible, this website is owned and administered by an external third-party. Therefore, the Council is unable to accept any liability whether express or implied for the content within this website.