NHS SBS Public Sector Construction Works 2
Lot 2: Intermediate Works £5m to £15m
Lot 2 covers intermediate works from £5 million to £15 million and is also let regionally across twelve geographical areas. It is the lot where a strong regional contractor competes on equal terms with national firms, because the panel is appointed by area rather than nationally.
The facts that decide it
- Value band: £5 million to £15 million
- Let regionally across twelve geographical areas, panel appointed per area
- Consolidates the outgoing framework's £5m to £15m lot
- Evaluated 60% quality, 30% commercial, 10% social value and sustainability
At this band the evaluator's question changes. Below £5 million they are largely asking whether you can deliver repeatedly and safely. From £5 million upward they are asking whether you can hold a programme and a commercial position on a scheme complex enough to go wrong, usually on a live NHS site with a trust that cannot decant.
That shifts what evidence works. Two or three genuinely comparable schemes described in depth, with the programme risk named and the recovery explained, score better than eight projects listed at surface level. Evaluators at this band are looking for a contractor who has been in trouble on a healthcare scheme and can describe how it was brought back, because everyone has been and the ones who say otherwise are not credible.
It is also the lot where social value stops being a bolt-on. At 10% of the total score, on a £15 million ceiling, it is worth more than most contractors' margin assumptions, and it is assessed on commitments you will be measured against for the life of the framework.
What scores
Healthcare schemes in the £5m to £15m range with programme and commercial outcomes stated, not just values; phasing and decant planning on occupied clinical estates; HTM and HBN literacy where the works touch specialist areas; named site management with healthcare experience rather than a generic CV; and social value commitments that are specific, local to the region you are bidding, and measurable.
The mistake that costs places
Reusing a Lot 1 response with the numbers changed. The questions look similar and the assessment is not. A response that describes volume delivery capability, when the evaluator is testing programme control and commercial resilience on a single complex scheme, reads as a contractor bidding above its evidence.
Common questions
We deliver £8m schemes but have never worked on an NHS site. Is it worth bidding?
It can be, and it depends entirely on how the response handles it. Healthcare experience is evidence, not a gate, and comparable live-environment work in education, custodial or blue light estates can carry a lot of the same argument if it is written to the criteria rather than left for the evaluator to infer. What does not work is hoping nobody notices.
How much does social value really matter here?
It is 10% of the score, which at this band is usually the difference between a place and a near miss. It is also the section most often written last and least well. Commitments have to be specific, deliverable in the region you are bidding, and framed as things you will be held to, because you will be.
Can we bid Lot 2 in more than one region?
Yes, and the question is whether you should. Each region is a separate panel and a separate competition. Bidding a region where your delivered work is thin can weaken the overall picture an evaluator forms of you, and it adds submission workload in a window that is already short.
On regions: Lots 1 and 2 are let regionally across twelve geographical areas, with a supplier panel appointed per area. NHS SBS publishes the per-region supplier lists on its Customer Framework Agreement Portal rather than on the open web, and the definitive area list for PS-Works 2 will be fixed by the tender notice. On the current framework the cap is ten contractors per region per lot, which is the number that should drive your bid or no bid decision.
Reviewed 22 August 2026. The tender notice had not published when this was written, so dates described as expected are exactly that. The published notice on Find a Tender and the Ariba pack are the only authority. Nothing here is legal advice.
The rest of this framework
Or start with the framework overview, the NHS tender pipeline or an independent bid review.
3 lots and 3 situations covered.
Bidding PS-Works 2?
Tell us which lots and which regions you are considering, and where you are up to. A director replies, and will tell you if we think you should not bid.
PS-Works 2: Lot 2 Intermediate Works
Which lots and regions, and how far along are you?