Denbighshire Corporate Plan and 2050 Vision

Procurement description

Denbighshire County Council is seeking expressions of interest to help us understand what the market can offer regarding support with community and stakeholder engagement for the development of our next Corporate Plan which will cover the period 2028 to 2033 and a longer-term vision for Denbighshire looking ahead to 2050.

Please note that we do not guarantee that this exercise will result in any procurement exercise. For any procurements undertaken, this PME process will help us as we consider our options. These options may include but are not limited to:-

• procuring one work package but not the other

• combining the two work packages into one procurement

• procuring work packages separately and on this basis we would be seeking suppliers who can demonstrate that they are able to work in close partnership with both the Council and another supplier

Our Corporate Plan sets out what we want to achieve for the people and communities of Denbighshire over the next 5 years. This Plan meets both our aspirations and obligations under the Well-being of Future Generations Act and the Equality Act and captures our key performance functions for the purposes of The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. A key element in the development of the plan is community engagement so that residents and other stakeholders feel confident the plan reflects their priorities.

The Council aims to develop and communicate a long-term vision for Denbighshire (looking ahead to 2050 and beyond) that reflects the aspirations and realities of its communities. The process must build trust across diverse community groups and strengthen democratic engagement, particularly reaching those who are underrepresented or have lost confidence in public institutions.

We are interested in hearing from organisations who can support us with this as further detailed below (Please note that the dates are provisional and subject to change):-

• January 27 to March 27 - Community engagement with residents and other stakeholders (must be completed by pre-election period c. end of March 2027)

• September 27 to November 2027 – Denbighshire County Council Member, staff and partner engagement, on the Corporate Plan Wellbeing Objectives + 5 Year Programme of Activities

Expected Outputs and Outcomes

Outputs

• An evidence-based long-term vision for Denbighshire [essential] – the presentation of which doesn’t have to be word based.

• An evidence-based corporate plan that clearly communicates the Council’s priorities and contribution to regional work [essential]

• An evidence-based strategic equalities plan that clearly communicates the Council’s priorities [essential]

• A number of digital or other products which can be used for future engagement with community groups, young people in particular [essential]

• Training and supported experience for up to 10 council officers in facilitation of community discussions where topics are potentially contentious [desirable].

Outcomes

• More widespread understanding within communities about future challenges and opportunities related to demographics, local government finances, climate and nature.

• More widespread understanding within communities about the council’s role and capacity in delivering local services.

• Understanding by Council Members, partner organisations and Council employees of their role in delivering the new corporate plan

• Increased trust and confidence in the council, particularly among those groups with protected characteristics or/and have never engaged with the Council before.

Higher levels of democratic engagement among residents, particularly young people and hard-to-reach groups.

Increased confidence among trained council officers in community facilitation [desirable].

Indicative budget of £50k - £60k including VAT

Main category

Services

Total value (estimated)

44000.00 GBP Excluding VAT

55000.00 GBP Including VAT

Contract dates (estimated)

02 November 2026, 00:00AM to 31 May 2028, 23:59PM

Extension end date (if all the extensions are used): 31 October 2028

Denbighshire County Council

Is the total value above threshold?

Below threshold

CPV classifications

• 73200000 - Research and development consultancy services
• 73300000 - Design and execution of research and development
• 79400000 - Business and management consultancy and related services
• 79900000 - Miscellaneous business and business-related services

Sustainability

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)

Voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE)

Contract start date (estimated)

02 November 2026, 00:00AM

Contract end date (estimated)

31 May 2028, 23:59PM

Extension end date (estimated)

31 October 2028, 23:59PM

Can the contract be extended?

Yes

Engagement process description

We are seeking to understand what approaches are currently available in the market to support us with our plans and to facilitate linkages with community groups.

We would welcome Expressions of Interest from individual organisations as well as collaborative approaches, including those involving local community organisations

To help shape a prospective future procurement, the Council seeks Expressions of Interests that outline how design and delivery of participatory engagement processes in line with the Council’s Community Engagement Policy ( https://moderngov.denbighshire.gov.uk/documents/s65428/Draft Community Engagement Policy 2026-2029.pdf?LLL=0) and Public Participation Strategy ( https://moderngov.denbighshire.gov.uk/documents/s65429/Draft%20Public%20Participation%20Strategy%202026-2029.pdf?LLL=0) could be approached. We would welcome EOI’s which cover the following:

• Approaches that could be used to facilitate discussions within at least 6 urban communities and engagement with residents of rural areas.

• How digital and in-person methods might be combined to explore priorities and tensions, while surfacing common ground

• Approaches that could be used to facilitate effective engagement of young people (following any tender process the council can provide links to schools and youth centres, as well as wider community members to the successful supplier).

• Approaches that could be used to engage hard-to-reach groups (following any tender process the council can facilitate links through Services and partners with the successful supplier)

• Approaches that ensure bilingual delivery (Welsh and English) and embed accessibility in the engagement process

• Approaches that could be used to assess number and quality of interactions, in particular from those who have not previously engaged with Council’s survey and engagement work.

Further considerations for EOIs:

• To create a deeply-held future vision, we believe it will be important to draw on the past so would like to understand how local culture and history could be considered in the engagement process.

• Young people and hard-to-reach groups are experiencing significant day-to-day challenges which may limit their ability to engage with a long-term visioning process – we would want to understand how this and related challenges could be addressed and overcome in the engagement process

• Outline the types of key questions and/or prompts which may be used in different engagement formats.

• We would welcome integration of creative methods (e.g., arts-based approaches) in engagement of young people and intergenerational audiences.

• Previous experience with any digital engagement platforms proposed.

• We would want to understand the proposed evaluation and learning approach, and how the risk of engagement/consultation fatigue could be managed.

We will be holding an online information session for potential suppliers on June 9th 3:30 - 4.30pm. Please register for the information session via the link below:

https://forms.office.com/e/06ikKmxX8P

Following the information session we invite potential suppliers to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) by 5pm on July 8th 2026. The EOI should be a maximum of 5 pages and be submitted via email to procurement@denbighshire.gov.uk.

Following close of this process and prior to any procurement, we may also invite suppliers to provide digital system demonstrations over MS Teams to obtain further information.

We do not guarantee that this exercise will result in a procurement exercise.

• The recording of the webinar is now available https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bKyZvtebQLiMTBw7Zkp1yi55FitBzsvm/view?usp=sharing. The Q & A session of this webinar starts at 29:05

• For those wishing to contact Janine Downing at DVSC please do so by email janine@dvsc.co.uk

• As a reminder, Expressions of Interests should be submitted via email by 5pm on July 8th 2026 to procurement@denbighshire.gov.uk

If you have any questions regarding the Webinar or the Pre-Market Engagement phase of this process, please email procurement@denbighshire.gov.uk by no later than close of business on the 24th June. Any questions received and our response to those questions will be circulated on the 26th June.

Due date

08 July 2026, 23:59PM

Has the engagement period already ended?

No

Publication date of tender notice (estimated)

07 September 2026