BidBeforeBidBefore

Hear about council contracts months before the tender.

Councils decide to retender a service in committee long before they advertise it. We read London councils' committee papers and tell you what's coming, so you can line up partners, evidence and pricing while others are still waiting for the notice.

See an example

For bid and business development teams at providers of care, support, housing and health services, and anyone else who sells to London councils.

One contract's road to tender. An illustrative example: the service and dates are made up, the pattern is typical.
  1. Cabinet agrees to re-procure a supported housing service, £4.2m over five years You hear about it here.
  2. Scrutiny reviews the model fewer, larger schemes, paid partly by outcomes
  3. Market engagement providers invited to a briefing
  4. Tender published Most bidders hear about it here.
  5. Contract awarded

Nine months between the first committee paper and the tender: time to find partners, gather evidence and shape your bid.

What an early warning looks like

A real one, as BidBefore wrote it up. We picked it up from a Bromley committee paper on 10 June 2026, nearly six months before the tender is due.

Every early warning links to the council's own page, so you can read the papers yourself.

Bromley Committee paper, 10 June 2026

Bromley Council seeks approval to tender for an independent fostering agency framework, with a projected annual spend of £7.16M.

  • £7.16ma year, up from £6.79m
  • 1 Dec 2026tender expected
  • 6 monthswarning before the tender

Bromley Council is planning to tender for a four-year framework to commission independent fostering agencies, aiming to standardise the process and ensure value for money. The projected annual spend is £7.16M, up from £6.79M in 2024/25, due to high demand for fostering services.

Framework
4 years
Runs to
30 November 2030
Next step
Executive approval
Sector
Children's services
Read it on Bromley Council's website

We read committee papers from London's councils every night and follow each contract they mention through to tender, award and renewal.

Greater Manchester and Birmingham & the West Midlands are next.

Councils we read today

How it works

  1. We check council papers

    Every night we look for new agendas and reports on the committee websites of the councils we cover.

  2. We pick out contracts

    We keep the items about contracts, budgets and commissioning, in any sector, and skip the rest.

  3. We write them up

    Each item gets a short write-up with the value, stage and key dates, and a link to the original paper.

  4. We follow the contract

    Later papers, notices, the award and the contract register are added to the same timeline.

We don't republish council papers. Every write-up links to the original on the council's website.

What you get

Early warnings in your sectors
New contract items from committee papers, written up in plain English, with the decision asked for, the value where known and the key dates.
A timeline for every contract
Each committee paper, notice and award on one line, with the window you have to prepare marked out.
Key dates in your calendar
Tender deadlines, committee decisions and contract end dates for what you track, ready to add to Outlook or Google Calendar.
Your pipeline
Track contracts from watching through go/no-go to submitted, with notes, on a board your organisation shares.
Who holds what
Incumbents, contract end dates and track records from public award data, so you know who you're up against.
Exports
Download contracts and your pipeline as spreadsheets for bid meetings and board papers.

Plans

Prices depend on the size of your organisation and the areas you need. Tell us what you bid for and we'll send a quote.

Team

For a bid team in one or two sectors.

  • Early warnings in your sectors, across London
  • Contract timelines with links to every source
  • Live tenders and key dates
  • A shared pipeline board
Talk to us

Organisation

For providers bidding across several services. Most organisations choose this.

  • Everything in Team, in every sector
  • Incumbents and end dates from public award data
  • Councils' contract registers
  • Spreadsheet exports
Talk to us

Questions

Where does the information come from?

From papers councils publish themselves: committee agendas, reports and minutes, tender and award notices, and councils' contract registers. Every write-up links to the original document.

Can other customers see the contracts we track?

No. The contracts you track, their stages and your notes are visible only to your organisation. We never show one customer's pipeline to another, and the competitor information comes only from public award data.

Which councils do you cover?

London's councils, read every night. The map above shows the ones we read today. Greater Manchester and Birmingham & the West Midlands are next.

How far ahead will I hear about a contract?

It depends on the council and the contract. Large re-procurements usually go to committee several months before the tender, sometimes more than a year. Smaller contracts may never go to committee, and then the tender notice is the first sign.

Which sectors do you cover?

Any service a council buys. We tag each contract with its sector so you see the ones you bid for: care and support, housing, health, works, IT and the rest.