How to win: Mental Health and Homelessness Commission

About this contract

Manchester City Council intend to design and commission a service, or services, to provide specialist housing-related support for people who are experiencing homelessness and have multiple and complex needs. The service will be designed to meet the needs of people who face significant barriers to accessing mainstream housing and support services as they have a combination of needs, including impaired executive functioning, alcohol-related brain damage and/or other acquired brain injuries, neuro-divergence, mental ill health, substance misuse and complex trauma. Some people who use the service will have eligible Care Act needs. The service will be jointly designed with homelessness and mental health services, with specialist support from health and treatment services built into the service model. We expect the service to provide support in an accommodation-based setting for approximately 10-16 people in each scheme. The contract will commission the support delivery within the service, and the successful provider(s) must have access to suitable accommodation from which they will be able to deliver the support service.

How to win contracts like this

• ✓Answer against the marking scheme, not the question text — Manchester City Council scores each response, so map your evidence to the published criteria and weightings.
• ✓At £6,800,000, expect quality and social value to carry a large share of the score — price alone rarely wins services work.
• ✓Show recent, comparable delivery: name similar services contracts you've delivered for public bodies, with measurable outcomes.
• ✓Start early: it closes 3 September 2026 and a strong bid takes iteration.

BidWriter drafts your responses from your company profile, scores them against the marking scheme, and tracks your whole pipeline. Free to start — no card needed.

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