BidSkim
Free report
Service market

Connect to work contracts

UK public sector · 70 contracts awarded in the 12 months to 6 October 2026

Covering 600+ buyer portals · 5 years of records · Updated 6 October 2026 · How we count

Contracts awarded
70
Last 12 months
Median contract
£400k
Recorded value
Recorded value
£136m
67 of 67 main-service contracts have a published value
Buyers
49
Suppliers
145

BidSkim assigns contracts to services from the notice text. How services are assigned

What stands out

  • The five suppliers that won the most connect to work contracts took 23% of them (16 of 70).
  • The median contract, £400k, is 7.4 times the median across education & training contracts (£54k).
  • East Midlands had the most contracts: 9, or 13% of the total.

Who buys connect to work

By contracts awarded, the 12 months to 6 October 2026.

  1. 1Lincolnshire County Council7 contracts
  2. 2Somerset Council4 contracts
  3. 3East Sussex County Council3 contracts
  4. 4Inverclyde Council3 contracts
  5. 5West Midlands Combined Authority2 contracts
  6. 6Devon County Council2 contracts
  7. 7South Ayrshire Council2 contracts
  8. 8Greater Manchester Combined Authority2 contracts
  9. 9North East Combined Authority2 contracts
  10. 10London Borough of Croydon2 contracts

Top connect to work contractors by contracts won

The 12 months to 6 October 2026.

  1. 1Shaw Trust5 contracts
  2. 2INTUITIVE THINKING SKILLS LTD3 contracts
  3. 3Ingeus3 contracts
  4. 4BETTER CONNECT LIMITED3 contracts
  5. 5Crystal Pathways3 contracts
  6. 6The Salvation Army3 contracts
  7. 7The Growth Company2 contracts
  8. 8Community Learning in Partnership2 contracts
  9. 9Discovery2 contracts
  10. 10INCLUSIVE MEDIA SOLUTIONS LTD2 contracts

Latest and largest awards

Each links to the official notice.

Latest

Largest

Contracts awarded by quarter

12Q4 2025*13Q1 202624Q2 202621Q3 20260Q4 2026*
* part quarter

Where the contracts were awarded

England 58 · Scotland 9 · Northern Ireland 2 · Wales 1

East Midlands9South East9Scotland9Yorkshire and The Humber8South West7North West6East of England6West Midlands5North East4London4Northern Ireland2Wales1

What is included

Programmes that help unemployed and economically inactive people into work, from national or devolved outcome-funded programmes such as Connect to Work and Restart to council, combined authority and UKSPF employability support, including keyworker support, work placements and health-and-work case management.

  • Keyworker employment support for residents
  • Outreach to economically inactive parents
  • Employment support for homeless people and care leavers
  • Health and work case management outside IPS
  • Employability coaching for hospital patients
  • Labour Market Partnership employability programmes
  • Connect to Work delivery using IPS and SEQF models
  • National or devolved programmes for a target cohort such as unemployed lone parents
  • Employment support for refugees and new arrivals
  • Work placement and employability skills programmes for unemployed adults
  • Pre-employment support for ethnic minority parents

What is not included

  • IPS and supported employment services commissioned on their own (soc.supp.supported-employment)
  • Sector-based work academies and routeways (edu.emp.sector-work-academies)
  • Youth and NEET programmes (edu.emp.youth-neet-programmes)
  • Resettlement and employment support for people in prison and on probation (edu.emp.offender-resettlement-and-employment-support)
  • Education inside prisons (edu.adult.prison-education-contracts)
  • Other rehabilitative services for people on probation (soc.abuse.rehabilitative-services-for-people-in-the-justice-system)
  • Benefits and debt advice (soc.prev.information-and-advice)
  • Staff supplied to the buyer and outplacement (another industry: recruitment-hr)

Often bought by the same buyers