BidSkim
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Service market

Professional staffing contracts

UK public sector · 179 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
179
Last 12 months
Median contract
£72k
Recorded value
Recorded value
£27.6m
175 of 179 main-service contracts have a published value
Buyers
73
Suppliers
81

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

What stands out

  • The five suppliers that won the most professional staffing contracts took 30% of them (53 of 179).
  • Contracts awarded per quarter fell 48% from the first half of the period to the second.
  • The median contract, £72k, is close to the median across recruitment & hr contracts (£70k).

Who buys professional staffing

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

  1. 1Police Digital Service14 contracts
  2. 2Scottish Government13 contracts
  3. 3Financial Conduct Authority11 contracts
  4. 4Tees Valley Combined Authority9 contracts
  5. 5Transport for London8 contracts
  6. 6Department for Education8 contracts
  7. 7West Midlands Combined Authority5 contracts
  8. 8UK Shared Business Services (UK SBS)5 contracts
  9. 9Oxford City Council5 contracts
  10. 10Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)5 contracts

Top professional staffing contractors by contracts won

The 12 months to 6 October 2026.

  1. 1Permanent Futures15 contracts
  2. 2Investigo12 contracts
  3. 3Venesky-Brown Recruitment10 contracts
  4. 4Hays8 contracts
  5. 5Venn Group8 contracts
  6. 6Insight Executive Group6 contracts
  7. 7Harvey Nash5 contracts
  8. 8Turner & Townsend4 contracts
  9. 9myProteus Limited4 contracts
  10. 10Rullion4 contracts

Latest and largest awards

Each links to the official notice.

Latest

Largest

Contracts awarded by quarter

58Q4 2025*59Q1 202630Q2 202631Q3 20261Q4 2026*
* part quarter

Where the contracts were awarded

England 150 · Scotland 27 · Wales 2

London40North West16West Midlands10South East10North East9Scotland9East of England8South West6East Midlands4Yorkshire and The Humber3Wales1UK-wide or not stated63

What is included

Temporary and interim project, programme, procurement, commercial, HR, communications, policy and other corporate professionals supplied on day rates to work in the buyer's teams, below director level and outside finance, legal, technical and digital roles.

  • Project and programme managers and PMO staff
  • Procurement, commercial and contract management staff
  • HR, resourcing and workforce planning professionals
  • Communications, engagement and digital content staff
  • Policy, governance, information governance and knowledge management staff
  • Change, evaluation and organisational psychology professionals
  • Corporate functions temporary recruitment lots

What is not included

  • Digital, data and technology roles bought alone (architects, business analysts, product, delivery, user research, service and content design, data science and analytics) (see IT resourcing)
  • Chief officer, director and head of service interims (see Interim executives)
  • Finance roles (see Finance and accountancy temporary staff)
  • Legal roles (see Locum solicitors)
  • Estates, capital and highways project managers (see Built environment, engineering and technical temporary staff)
  • Administrators and business support (see Office, administrative and customer service temporary staff)
  • HR advice and casework bought as a service (see HR advisory and consultancy service)
  • PMO and consultancy delivering an outcome under the firm's management: csl.prog.programme-management-and-delivery-support or another consulting-accountancy service

Often bought by the same buyers