Domiciliary care tenders cover care delivered in people’s own homes: council and NHS-funded home care packages, reablement services, and the zoned frameworks and dynamic markets that councils use to buy them. Providers can join a list first, then win packages in the zones they can staff. Buyers include councils and NHS bodies. This page sets out the registration and vetting rules and how zones and lots work. Our tender eligibility checker is coming soon. Until then, tell us your trade and postcode to join the free weekly list of live tenders, starting soon.
There is no home care code in the official CPV list, so the live list on this page uses notice titles. It picks out social care notices whose titles mention domiciliary care, home care, care at home or reablement. A notice that describes home care in other words may not appear, so also browse social care tenders.
What buyers usually ask domiciliary care providers for
The points below are written for England. If you operate in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, check the regulator and rules the pack names. The tender pack sets out anything on top.
Registration: personal care is a regulated activity
Schedule 1 to the Regulated Activities Regulations 2014 covers the provision of personal care for people who, because of old age, illness or disability, are unable to provide it for themselves, where it is provided in the place where they are living at the time (with further conditions in the paragraph). It is an offence to carry on a regulated activity without being registered, and in England the regulator is the Care Quality Commission. If your service includes personal care, expect buyers to ask about registration. When they want to see it is in the pack.
Enhanced DBS checks for care workers, where eligible
Standard and Enhanced DBS checks are only available where the role meets the legal criteria (England and Wales); Basic checks are open to anyone. The DBS eligibility guidance says the recruiting organisation is responsible for deciding if a check is needed and at what level. The DBS guide to roles working with adults covers when an Enhanced check with barred list(s) applies. Check each role against it before you price vetting.
Insurance
Employers’ liability insurance is compulsory for employers in Great Britain, with limited exemptions (Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969), and gov.uk says the cover must be at least £5 million. Public liability and professional indemnity are set contract by contract. The buyer sets this in the tender pack.
Rostering, call monitoring and missed-visit reporting
Buyers may ask how you roster, how you record that a visit took place, and how you report late or missed visits. No legal rule sets this; the buyer does, in the tender pack. That includes whether it names a particular system.
How to win home care contracts
For context, there were 68 live health and social care notices in our data in the week to 10 Oct 2026 (as of 10 Oct 2026). That is the whole of CPV division 85, so it is far wider than home care alone.
Zones and lots
On above-threshold contracts, a buyer must consider lots, or give reasons for not using them. For light-touch contracts the buyer doesn’t have to justify in the tender notice a decision not to use lots (regulation 18(2)(q)), as the guidance explains. Home care can be split into geographic zones. For example, if a council offers six zones, a 25-carer agency based in one town should bid for that town’s zone rather than all six. Check how many care hours a zone is likely to need and whether your rota can cover them.
Frameworks and dynamic markets, call-offs and packages
Home care bought under the social work codes (853xxxxx) is a light-touch service (Procurement Regulations 2024, Schedule 1). At or above £663,540 including VAT (PPN 023), the buyer must advertise with a tender notice unless a direct award is justified, as the light-touch guidance says. Below that, the below-threshold rules apply.
Dynamic markets (formerly dynamic purchasing systems) must remain open to new suppliers at any time. Our guide explains how dynamic markets work. Light-touch frameworks aren’t subject to the four-year cap, so check the notice for the term.
Once you are a member, packages are offered under the framework’s terms, and call-offs can be awarded with or without competition. Read how packages are allocated, because it decides how much work membership brings.
If the buyer is an NHS body in England, the Provider Selection Regime may apply instead. Under regulation 6, direct award process B applies where patients are offered a choice of provider and the authority offers contracts to all providers who meet the requirements. See our page on health and social care tenders.
Workforce recruitment and retention
Home care buyers want to know you can staff the hours. Describe how you recruit, train and keep carers, using dated figures from your own records, such as average length of service. Do not claim numbers you can’t back up. If you use agency staff to cover gaps, see care staffing tenders for how that market works.
Social value
Central government departments, their executive agencies and NDPBs must give social value at least a 10% weighting on above-threshold contracts where it is relevant and proportionate (PPN 002). Councils and NHS bodies aren’t in its scope. Themes that fit home care include local employment and shorter travel between visits, so see what the pack weights.
Pitfalls
- pricing a rural zone as if travel between visits were short
- accepting a start date you can’t recruit to in time
- ignoring TUPE on a re-let contract: a service provision change can move the outgoing provider’s staff to you, so ask for staffing information early
- bidding for several zones with one rota
Domiciliary care sits under social care tenders, where we cover commissioning more widely.
Questions
How do councils buy domiciliary care?
Councils can use zoned frameworks or dynamic markets that providers join, with packages of care offered to members afterwards, or run a tender for a defined area. Home care bought under the social work codes (853xxxxx) is a light-touch service (Procurement Regulations 2024, Schedule 1). At or above £663,540 including VAT (PPN 023), the buyer must advertise with a tender notice unless a direct award is justified. Below that, the below-threshold rules apply. NHS-funded health care in England follows the Provider Selection Regime instead.
Do I need to be registered before bidding for a home care framework?
The law makes it an offence to carry on a regulated activity in England without registration, and personal care in people's homes is a regulated activity. That is about carrying on the activity, not about bidding. When the buyer wants to see your registration, at tender stage or before the contract starts, is set out in the tender pack.
What is a home care dynamic market and when can I join one?
A dynamic market is a list of qualified suppliers a buyer can award contracts from. It must stay open to new suppliers to join at any time, so you don't have to wait for a re-tender. The notice explains how to apply and what the buyer assesses.
What DBS level do home care workers need?
There is no single answer. Standard and Enhanced DBS checks are only available where the role meets the legal criteria (England and Wales), and Basic checks are open to anyone. The recruiting organisation decides whether a check is needed and at what level, using the DBS eligibility guides. The tender pack says what the buyer expects.
Can a new care agency win council packages?
It can try. In England, you must be registered with the CQC before you carry on personal care, so sort that first. Then look for dynamic markets, which stay open to new suppliers, smaller zones and subcontracts. Buyers may ask for evidence of delivery, so keep dated records from day one.