Closes in 8 days
The Kirkby Family Wellbeing Pilot
Ashfield District Council · East Midlands
Early help tenders and contracts
UK public sector, covering 600+ buyer sites
75 contracts awarded in the 24 months to 12 October 2026
Get early help tenders every morningStart by seeing every early help contract we'd have matched you with last year. No card needed.
Updated 12 October 2026 · compiled by BidSkim Limited · How we count
Early help contracts ,
75 contracts across the UK, of any size
Live now
8 early help opportunities are live now
7 from councils, 1 from the NHS and health bodies. The 2 closing soonest are shown in full.
Closes in 2 weeks
Family Support Services (Inverclyde)
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde · Scotland
Early help opportunity from a councilWest Midlands£1m or morePublished 8 October 2026Early help opportunity from a councilSouth WestUnder £100kPublished 18 September 2026Early help opportunity from a councilSouth WestUnder £100kPublished 9 September 2026Early help opportunity from a councilSouth WestUnder £100kPublished 9 September 2026
Show all 8 live early help opportunitiesWho wins · 24 months to October 2026
Barnardo's won the most early help contracts
Each dot is one contract, coloured by who bought it.
CouncilsNHS and health
| Rank | Contractor | Contracts won, by buyer | Contracts | Value won | Buyers | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barnardo's Wales · See every contract | 8 | £5.3m | 8 | ||
| 2 | Action for Children North East · See every contract | 4 | £4.4m | 3 | ||
| 3joint | Home-Start Cymru Wales · See every contract | 3 | £953k | 2 | ||
| 3joint | Safe Families North East · SME · See every contract | 3 | £738k | 3 | ||
| 3joint | Aspire Foundation SME · See every contract | 3 | £127k | 1 | ||
| 6joint | Homestart Kirklees Yorkshire and the Humber · SME · See every contract | 2 | £2.9m | 1 | ||
| 6joint | Caring for Communities and People South West · SME · See every contract | 2 | £911k | 2 | ||
| 6joint | Coram Family Lives London · SME · See every contract | 2 | £822k | 2 | ||
| 6joint | Fresh Futures (NCC) Yorkshire and the Humber · See every contract | 2 | £656k | 1 | ||
| 6joint | PURPLE HEART HEALTHCARE LIMITED East Midlands · SME · See every contract | 2 | £185k | 1 |
61 more early help contractors ranked. See the full ranking →
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Who buys
Councils award 96% of early help contracts
Contracts with a published value in the last 24 months, from the type of buyer to the size of the contract.
10 buyers bought early help more than once in the last 24 months
Each dot is a buyer, by how many early help contracts it awarded in the last 24 months.
See who they are and when they usually buy →
Few and big, or many and small
Each dot is a buyer: how many early help contracts it awarded against what they were worth. The busiest and biggest are named.
CouncilsNHS and health
Top buyers by contracts awarded
| Rank | Buyer | Contracts | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gloucestershire County Council | 6 | £298k |
| 2 | Kirklees Council | 5 | £3.6m |
| 3 | DERBY CITY COUNCIL | 5 | £519k |
| 4 | Middlesbrough Council | 3 | £548k |
| 5 | Newport City Council | 2 | £8m |
| 6 | Staffordshire County Council | 2 | £8m |
| 7 | Manchester City Council | 2 | £2.8m |
| 8 | Stoke-on-Trent City Council | 2 | £1.3m |
| 9 | Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council | 2 | £715k |
| 10 | The City of Edinburgh Council | 2 | £229k |
Prices
Half of early help contracts are worth less than £301k
Every contract with a published value, on a log scale, coloured by who bought it.
CouncilsNHS and health
The 10 biggest contracts hold 88% of the money
Coloured by who bought it.
- NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care BoardA Place to Call Our Own (APTCOO) · 7 Mar 2026
- Staffordshire County CouncilMalachi Specialist Family Support Services CIC, Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia Support Project, The Stoke-on-Trent and District Gingerbread Centre Limited · 11 Feb 2025
- Newport City CouncilWinner not published · 13 Dec 2024
- Newport City CouncilBarnardo's · 13 Dec 2024
- Lancashire County CouncilFamily Safeguarding Service · 22 Jul 2025
- East Ayrshire CouncilHealios Limited, CAN Digital Solutions Limited, The Honeypot Children's Charity, Venture Trust · 12 Mar 2026
- Manchester City CouncilAction for Children · 21 Nov 2024
- Westminster City CouncilFamily Lives, Coram Family Lives · 3 Jul 2026
- Inverclyde CouncilAberlour Children's Charity · 13 Oct 2025
- Kirklees CouncilHomestart Kirklees · 29 Jan 2026
Where and when
Wales awards the most early help contracts. February and April are the busiest months.
Contracts by region and by month awarded. Click a region to filter the page.
FewerMore contracts
See the regions as a table
| Region | Contracts | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Wales | 12 | £12.4m |
| North East | 10 | £3.1m |
| North West | 8 | £6.9m |
| East Midlands | 7 | £122m |
| West Midlands | 7 | £9.6m |
| London | 7 | £2.4m |
| Scotland | 7 | £4.6m |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 6 | £3.7m |
| South West | 2 | £1.2m |
| East of England | 1 | £153k |
| South East | 0 | Not published |
| Northern Ireland | 0 | Not published |
Often bought with early help
Related services
Deadlines
Half of early help tenders close within 31 days of being published
Each dot is a early help tender published across the UK in the last 24 months, by how many days it was open. 43% closed within a month. Spot one a week late and 23% of the time to respond has gone.
Hear about new early help tenders the moment they're published →
Key findings
- 31 days
is how long the typical early help tender is open, from publication to deadline.
Median of 51 UK early help tenders published in the last 24 months. - 3
new early help tenders are published across the UK in a typical month.
67 in the last 24 months. - 88%
of the money is in the 10 biggest early help contracts.
Of 70 contracts with a published value. - 55%
of early help contracts are won by SMEs.
As recorded by the buyer, on 58 award notices. - 29%
of early help contracts are awarded in February and April.
22 of 75 contracts.
Questions
How many early help contracts does the UK public sector award?
75 in the 24 months to 12 October 2026, from 54 public buyers.
How long are early help tenders open for?
The median early help tender is open for 31 days from publication to deadline.
How much is a typical public sector early help contract worth?
The median is £301k, and 49% are worth less than £250k.
Who wins the most public sector early help contracts?
Barnardo's won the most (8).
Which buyers award the most early help contracts?
Councils award 96% of them.
What is included
Key-worker and whole-family support for families with emerging, multiple or acute difficulties, from early help before statutory involvement to intensive and crisis-led edge of care work with families whose children are at risk of entering care, delivered at home, in schools or in the community.
- Whole-family early intervention and prevention
- Home-based family support interventions
- School-based family support coordinators
- Family support for families affected by alcohol and drugs
- Outreach and inclusion support for particular communities
- Befriending and practical help for families with children
- Edge of care crisis response
- Planned edge of care interventions
- Therapeutic parenting support to prevent family breakdown
What is not included
- Family hub or children's centre operation (soc.family.family-hubs-and-childrens-centres)
- Family group conferencing (soc.family.family-group-conferencing)
- Parenting programmes and perinatal parent support (soc.family.parenting-programmes)
- Residential and foster placements (soc.child.childrens-residential-home-placements; soc.child.foster-care-placements)
- Autism and neurodiversity support for children (soc.supp.autism-support)
- Floating housing support (soc.house.floating-support)
- Drug and alcohol treatment (another industry: healthcare)