RM6399 Lot 2 of 10
RM6399 Lot 2: Strategy and Policy
End-to-end design, execution and optimisation of organisational strategy and public policy, from identifying options and recommendations through to implementation and delivery. Part of the £5 billion excluding VAT (£6 billion including VAT) Consultancy and Professional Services framework, which replaces RM6309 Management Consultancy Framework Four (MCF4).
Submissions close 3pm on Monday 9 November 2026 (32 days remaining). Clarification questions close 3pm on Thursday 22 October 2026.
Lot 2 at a glance
- Framework
- RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services
- Buyer
- Government Commercial Agency
- Submissions close
- 3pm on Monday 9 November 2026
- Clarifications close
- 3pm on Thursday 22 October 2026
- Estimated lot value
- £850 million excluding VAT
- Award criteria
- Quality 90%, price 10%
- Call-off cap
- None stated in the notice
- Term
- 24 June 2027 to 23 June 2031 (estimated), four years
- Suppliers
- Maximum 500 across all ten lots
- Portal
- CCS/GCA BravoSolution (Jaggaer)
- Scope cues from the notice
- Strategy consultancy, public policy design and evaluation, feasibility studies, business analysis, information systems strategic review, development consultancy and project management consultancy in a strategy context.
How Lot 2 is scored
Award criteria as published on Find a Tender notice 2026/S 000-087183. Confirm the question set and sub-weightings in the ITT on the portal.
Quality 90 percent, price 10 percent. On a 90 percent quality lot the written response is the competition. Price matters only at the margin, and a firm that discounts heavily to win here is giving away margin that would not have changed the result.
Who should bid this lot
Strategy houses, policy consultancies, economics and evaluation firms, and specialist advisers who work with departments, arm's length bodies and councils on what to do rather than how to run it. Firms with a track record in policy design, options appraisal, Green Book business cases and evaluation are the natural bidders. Delivery-led firms without a strategy practice should bid Lot 3 instead.
The notice flags every RM6399 lot as particularly suitable for SMEs and VCSEs, and caps the framework at 500 suppliers in total. The general rule is to bid the lots you can evidence rather than the lots you would like to hold. Evaluators score depth of evidence per lot, and firms that bid two or three lots properly consistently outperform those that spread thin across six.
What actually scores
Named policy or strategy engagements with the decision they informed and what happened afterwards, written to the standard of a Green Book appraisal rather than a brochure. Evidence of working across political and organisational boundaries, because public policy work rarely has a single client. Named individuals with policy, economics or evaluation credentials and the departments they have worked in. Knowledge transfer, meaning how the client ended up able to do the next piece themselves.
The mistake that loses marks on this lot
Describing strategy work by its outputs rather than its consequences. A strategy document delivered on time is not evidence. The decision it enabled, the funding it unlocked, or the programme it stopped is. Evaluators on a quality-weighted lot are reading for consequence, and most submissions never get past the deliverable.
Lot 2 questions
Is Lot 2 only for central government strategy work?
No. The customer list attached to the notice covers councils, NHS bodies, police, fire and rescue, education, housing associations and charities as well as departments and NDPBs. Strategy and policy work for a combined authority or an integrated care board is in scope. What matters is that your evidence shows strategy and policy work, not delivery work with a strategy label on it.
Should an economics or evaluation consultancy bid Lot 2?
Usually yes. The CPV codes on Lot 2 include feasibility and advisory analysis, business analysis and development consultancy, and policy evaluation sits naturally inside strategy and policy. Check the Framework Schedule 1 specification on the portal for the full scope before deciding.
How much does price matter on Lot 2?
Ten percent, according to the notice. The quality response decides the outcome. Set rates you can deliver on for four years rather than rates designed to win a lot where price was never the decider.
Lot values, weightings and the timetable were taken from Find a Tender notice 2026/S 000-087183 and last reviewed on 6 October 2026. The ITT on the CCS/GCA BravoSolution (Jaggaer) portal is the only authority on the questions, the word counts and the conditions of participation, so confirm them there before you plan.
Bidding RM6399 Lot 2?
Submissions close 3pm on Monday 9 November 2026. Tell us which lots you are considering and what evidence you hold, and a director will come back the same working day with a straight view on whether the bid is winnable and what it would take.