RM6397 Lot 4 of 12
RM6397 Lot 4: Social Care Staffing
Social workers, care staff and social care professionals for local authorities, NHS bodies and the wider public sector. Part of the £2 billion excluding VAT (£2.5 billion including VAT) NHS Workforce Alliance framework, which replaces RM6281 (clinical and healthcare staffing) and RM6277 (non-clinical staffing).
Submissions close 3pm on Monday 21 September 2026 (11 days remaining). Clarification questions close 3pm on 2 September 2026.
Lot 4 at a glance
- Framework
- RM6397 Clinical and Non-Clinical Temporary and Permanent Staff
- Buyer
- Government Commercial Agency, for the NHS Workforce Alliance
- Submissions close
- 3pm on Monday 21 September 2026
- Clarifications close
- 3pm on 2 September 2026
- Framework value
- £2 billion excluding VAT (£2.5 billion including VAT)
- Term
- Four years from February 2027
- Portal
- CCS/GCA Bravo Solution (Jaggaer)
- Supplier numbers on this lot
- Indicated as unlimited
- Staff groups in scope
- Qualified social workers across children's and adults' services, approved mental health professionals, social work assistants, care workers and support workers, registered managers and team managers.
Who should bid this lot
Social work agencies, care staffing providers, agencies supplying children's and adults' services, and providers covering residential, supported living and community care roles.
The general rule across RM6397 is to bid the lots you can evidence rather than the lots you would like to hold. Evaluators score depth of evidence per lot, not breadth of ambition, and providers who bid three lots properly consistently outperform those who spread thin across eight.
The compliance discriminator for Lot 4
Social Work England registration, enhanced DBS with the correct workforce barred list checks, and safeguarding training currency. Safeguarding is scored more heavily in this lot than anywhere else on the framework, and evaluators are alert to submissions that describe a policy rather than evidence how it operates when a concern is raised about a placed worker.
What actually scores
Retention on long placements, because local authority children's services in particular suffer badly from churn and value continuity above almost everything. Evidence how you handle a safeguarding allegation against a placed worker end to end, and name the authorities you supply with contract durations.
The mistake that loses marks on this lot
Writing safeguarding as a policy statement. Every bidder has a safeguarding policy. What differentiates is a described, dated example of how a real concern was handled, escalated and closed, with the referral route and the outcome. Anonymise it, but make it concrete.
Lot 4 questions
Do local authorities buy social work supply through this NHS framework?
Yes. The framework is available to public and third sector organisations well beyond NHS trusts, including local government, and social care staffing is one of the areas where local authority use is heaviest. Write your submission for a local authority children's services buyer as much as for an NHS one.
Does this lot cover care workers as well as qualified social workers?
Social care staffing scope covers the range from care and support workers through to qualified and senior social work roles. The compliance and evidence expectations differ sharply between them, so treat them as distinct supply propositions within your response rather than describing a single recruitment process covering both.
Lot names, the framework value and the timetable were last reviewed on 21 August 2026. Published summaries of RM6397 differ on the submission date and on the term commencement, so treat the ITT on the CCS/GCA Bravo Solution (Jaggaer) portal as the only authority. See the full RM6397 guide for the detail on those discrepancies.
The other eleven RM6397 lots
Most providers bid more than one. Each lot has its own regulator, evidence expectations and characteristic failure mode.
See also the RM6397 framework guide, the NHS tender pipeline and the NHS Workforce Alliance overview.
Bidding Lot 4? The evidence is the work
Getting fill rates, compliance audit outcomes and named contract references out of your operational systems and written to the published criteria is what decides the score, and it is the part providers start too late. Call 020 3668 5488 or send us the deadline and we will come back with a Teams time.
RM6397 Lot 4: Social Care Staffing
Which lots are you bidding, and what does your social care staffing evidence look like today?