Supported Living and Extra Care Tenders
In supported living the person holds a tenancy and receives a separate care and support package, so housing and care are funded and contracted separately. That separation is the defining feature of the model, and most avoidable mistakes in these tenders come from treating the two as one thing.
Key facts at a glance
- The defining feature
- The person holds a tenancy and receives a separate care and support package. Housing and care are contracted and funded separately
- Who commissions it
- Local authorities for care and support, integrated care boards where the package is health-funded, and housing providers for the accommodation
- CQC position
- Regulated as personal care, not as accommodation with nursing or personal care. Registering for the wrong regulated activity is a common and costly error
- Cost drivers
- Commissioned support hours, shared versus one-to-one ratios, night cover and waking versus sleep-in, and void exposure
- What is scored hardest
- Choice, control and progression towards independence, tenancy rights, positive behaviour support, staff competency and community participation
- Policy context
- Care Act 2014 duties, transforming care for learning disability and autism, and the shift away from institutional models
Housing and care are two contracts, not one
This is the point that decides whether a bid reads as credible. A person in supported living is a tenant with tenancy rights, and separately receives a commissioned care and support package. The rent and housing costs flow one way; the care funding flows another. A provider who conflates them, or who describes the service as though it were a care home with a different name, signals that they do not understand the model.
It also matters commercially. Where a provider holds or controls the accommodation as well as the care, commissioners look hard at whether the tenant could genuinely change care provider without losing their home. Being unable to answer that cleanly is one of the few things that can sink an otherwise strong submission, and it is worth resolving before the tender rather than during it.
Extra care sits adjacently: self-contained homes with on-site care available, aimed largely at older people, and frequently commissioned alongside a housing partner. The same separation applies and the same question gets asked.
What commissioners are actually buying
Outcomes, expressed as independence. Progression towards greater independence, genuine choice and control over daily life, community participation, employment and education where appropriate, and maintained family relationships. A response written in the language of supervision, monitoring and compliance scores badly even when the service is safe, because it describes a different model to the one being commissioned.
For learning disability and autism services specifically, the transforming care agenda is the frame. Commissioners want evidence of how the model avoids institutional practice, supports discharge from hospital settings, prevents readmission, and uses positive behaviour support rather than restrictive intervention. Restraint and restrictive practice data, honestly presented with a reduction plan, is stronger than silence.
Then staff competency, which is where most providers under-evidence. Named training, supervision frequency, retention in the specific service, and how you match staff to individuals. Generic workforce answers do not survive in a sector where continuity with a specific person is the service.
The cost model, and the void question
Staffing is the cost. Commissioned support hours per person, where support is shared across a scheme and where it is one to one, night provision and whether it is waking or sleep-in, and management and on-call above that. A bid that prices without showing the ratio logic invites the evaluator to assume the worst.
Voids are the exposure nobody wants to write about. In a scheme with shared support, one empty unit changes the per-person economics for everyone in it. Commissioners know this. A provider who sets out the void assumption, the notice arrangements and how the service stays safe while a vacancy is filled is being realistic, not weak, and it is a more credible answer than pretending occupancy is always full.
Where the package is health-funded or jointly funded, the commissioning route differs and may sit under the Provider Selection Regime rather than the Procurement Act 2023.
Registration, and getting it right first time
Supported living is regulated as personal care. Providers coming from a residential background frequently register for the wrong regulated activity, discover it inside a tender window, and cannot fix it in time. From 9 February 2026 CQC rejects incomplete or inaccurate registration applications at the point of submission rather than returning them with queries, which turns a correctable delay into a restart. See CQC registration support and NHS supplier eligibility.
The framework mechanics, including how council rounds and dynamic purchasing systems readmit providers, are on council care frameworks and DPS. Where the service is health-funded, the route is the Provider Selection Regime.
How Glaxtons works on supported living bids
We qualify honestly first. Supported living tenders reward providers who can evidence the model, and a provider whose experience is residential needs either a credible transition story or a different opportunity. We will say which, before you commit management time.
Where the bid is worth making, we write the outcome responses using your own progression data, restrictive practice figures and staff continuity evidence, build the staffing and void model so it reads as deliberate rather than optimistic, handle the housing and care separation explicitly, and manage the portal submission.
You keep the response library. Supported living question sets repeat closely across authorities, so the second submission is materially faster than the first. Call 020 3668 5488.
Who should apply?
This page is written for providers of accommodation-based support:
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between supported living and residential care?
In supported living the person holds a tenancy and receives a separate commissioned care and support package, so housing and care are contracted and funded separately. Residential care is a single service providing accommodation together with personal or nursing care. The distinction changes the CQC registration, the funding route and how the tender is written.
Which CQC regulated activity applies?
Personal care, not accommodation with nursing or personal care. Providers moving across from a residential background frequently register for the wrong activity and find out during a tender window. Since 9 February 2026 CQC rejects incomplete or inaccurate applications at submission rather than querying them, so correcting it restarts the clock.
Can we bid if we also provide the accommodation?
Yes, and expect the question. Commissioners test whether a tenant could genuinely change care provider without losing their home. Having a clean answer, and ideally a structural separation, is worth resolving before a tender rather than during one.
How should we handle voids in the submission?
Explicitly. In a scheme with shared support, one empty unit changes the economics for everyone in it and commissioners know that. Setting out the void assumption, the notice arrangements and how the service stays safe while a vacancy is filled reads as realistic. Pretending occupancy is always full does not.
What does transforming care mean for our bid?
For learning disability and autism services it is the frame commissioners assess against: how the model avoids institutional practice, supports discharge from hospital settings, prevents readmission, and uses positive behaviour support rather than restrictive intervention. Presenting restrictive practice data honestly with a reduction plan scores better than omitting it.
Who commissions supported living?
Local authorities for care and support under the Care Act 2014, integrated care boards where the package is health-funded, and housing providers or registered social landlords for the accommodation. A single scheme can involve all three, which is why the housing and care separation has to be clear in the response.
Open and upcoming framework deadlines
Supported living is commissioned locally rather than through national frameworks. Ask us to map when your authorities and ICBs reopen.
See every tracked framework deadlineBidding for supported living and extra care
Send us the specification and tell us your CQC position. We will tell you whether the model is one you can evidence today, and write the submission if it is. Call 020 3668 5488.