Prior information notice
This notice is for prior information only
Section I: Contracting
authority
I.1) Name and addresses
Department for Work & Pensions
Caxton House, 6-12 Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA
London
SW1H 9NA
UK
Contact person: Commercial Team
E-mail: cddigital.ucwa@dwp.gov.uk
NUTS: UK
Internet address(es)
Main address: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions
Address of the buyer profile: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions
I.3) Communication
Additional information can be obtained from the abovementioned address
I.4) Type of the contracting authority
National or federal agency/office
I.5) Main activity
General public services
Section II: Object
II.1) Scope of the procurement
II.1.1) Title
Open Referral Tool
II.1.2) Main CPV code
72222300
II.1.3) Type of contract
Services
II.1.4) Short description
The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP). referred to as “the Authority", is conducting market research to assess the availability, capability, and indicative costs of off the shelf solutions for storing and managing service information that supports individuals. These solutions must comply with the Open Referral UK standard and be suitable for use across multiple organisations and use cases.<br/><br/>This RFI does not commit the DWP to undertaking any formal procurement activity. This notice has also been published on Contracts Finder.<br/><br/>For further information and details on how to respond to this RFI, please refer to the attachment found on the documents section of the Atamis e-Procurement portal:<br/><br/>https://dwp2--prospend.vf.force.com/apex/CS_ContractPage?filters=&page=1&Preview=Yes&searchStr=&SearchType=Projects&sortStr=Alphabetical&uid=a1MdO000002h4wrUAA&sfdcIFrameOrigin=https%3A%2F%2Fdwp2.lightning.force.com
II.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots:
No
II.2) Description
II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKI
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
The Authority supports individuals to access appropriate services and interventions (collectively “referrals”), including local and national support offers delivered by public, voluntary, community, and private sector partners.<br/>The Authority’s objective is to improve:<br/>• Data standardisation across organisations<br/>• Interoperability between systems<br/>• Data quality (accuracy, completeness, timeliness); and<br/>• Reusability of referral data across multiple channels and users.<br/>The Authority is exploring a tool aligned to Open Referral UK (currently v3.x) to enable consistent publication, search, validation, and reuse of referral data.
II.3) Estimated date of publication of contract notice:
01/04/2026
Section IV: Procedure
IV.1) Description
IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement:
Yes
Section VI: Complementary information
VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice
13/02/2026