Care contract tenders in the North West

The North West is the largest care market outside London, with more than twenty commissioning authorities and three integrated care boards. The volume of opportunity is high — but so is the number of portals, frameworks and procurement calendars you’d need to track to see all of it.

This page covers who buys care in the region and what tends to be procured. If you’d rather have opportunities brought to you, the North West edition of our bid bulletin arrives twice a week.

Who commissions care in the North West

Greater Manchester’s ten authorities commission both individually and, increasingly, collaboratively through the combined authority:

- Manchester City Council

- Salford City Council

- Bolton Council

- Bury Council

- Oldham Council

- Rochdale Borough Council

- Stockport Council

- Tameside Council

- Trafford Council

- Wigan Council

Across Merseyside and Cheshire: Liverpool City Council, Knowsley Council, Sefton Council, St Helens Borough Council, Wirral Council, Halton Borough Council, Warrington Borough Council, Cheshire East Council and Cheshire West and Chester Council.

In Lancashire and Cumbria: Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council. Lancashire remains two-tier and is subject to reorganisation, so its structure will change before the end of the decade.

Three integrated care boards cover the region: Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside, and Lancashire and South Cumbria.

What comes to market here

Greater Manchester’s devolved health and care arrangements mean more joint commissioning between councils and the ICB than you’ll find elsewhere, particularly for complex care, discharge support and intermediate care. Contracts are often larger and longer as a result, with more emphasis on integration.

Home care is typically procured through zoned frameworks — you bid for specific localities rather than the whole authority — which suits providers with genuine density in a patch and penalises those spread thin.

Lancashire and Cumbria bring significant rural coverage challenges, and commissioners in both areas regularly struggle to secure provision in outlying districts.

What North West commissioners tend to score

Integration with health partners features heavily, especially in Greater Manchester. Expect questions about how you work with district nursing, hospital discharge teams and reablement services.

Local density matters. If you’re bidding for a zone, commissioners want evidence you can staff it reliably — not a promise to recruit once the contract is awarded.

Social value is often tied to specific local priorities such as employing people out of long-term unemployment or supporting the local supply chain, and the strongest bids reference the authority’s own social value framework rather than generic commitments.

Hear about North West opportunities first

Tracking twenty-plus authorities and three ICBs is more than most providers can manage alongside running a service. Our trackers do it for you and send the three opportunities worth your time, twice a week.