The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has issued a formal tender notice for stakeholder engagement services on a confidential and sensitive project it describes as “complex, multi-year and involves stakeholders who are accustomed to current arrangements and may be resistant even to the discussion of change.”
Defra is managing the project which is exploring options to deliver organisational change to support a long-term strategic objective. The Department has already completed stakeholder mapping but requires support in engagement planning, advisory services, and risk management.
Defra is now looking for an experienced Stakeholder Engagement Adviser to provide strategic advice and support on a range of issues. These include shaping and delivering an engagement approach that helps to build trust, address concerns, and guide stakeholders through a common-sense discussion of the options and their benefits/disbenefits - and potentially also a sensitive transition process.
The tender also includes a description of risks to contract performance - a “Risk that Ministerial Approval won't be given.” The tender document says:
“There is a risk that Ministerial approval of the overarching project won't be obtained in May/June. In this event the procurement may be withdrawn.
“Please be advised this project is subject to the Ministerial approval (anticipated date May/June 2026). We reserve our right to withdraw the tender at any place in the procurement process.”
Defra asks interested suppliers to “bear this in mind when considering tendering for this opportunity.”
The contract has a total estimated value of £204,000 (inc VAT). Current estimated start and end contract dates are 16 July 2026 to 15 March 2027 with a current estimate daward decision date of 2 July 2026
The procurement procedure process is set out as follows:
Stage 1 - Selection Questionnaire Stage
This stage will include Yes/No questions to help down-select suppliers invited to full tender based on their responses to the questions which will focus on required skills, qualifications and experience. In addition to Yes/No questions, there will be some written responses which will be formally evaluated using the standard evaluation scoring criteria.
Suppliers must meet a minimum consensus score of 70 on the written questions in addition to passing all the Yes/No questions to be taken through to Stage 2. All successful suppliers at stage 1 will be taken through toTechnical Evaluation (stage 2).
The full bidder pack/specification will not be available to view until stage 2 and will only be released to successful tenders at stage 1 who have signed and returned a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement, to Defra.
Stage 2 - Full written tender submission
All successful suppliers from stage 1 (PSQ) will be invited to submit their written bid for the tender. This will be subject to them signing and returning the NDA within 5 working days of receipt. Failure to return a signed NDA within this timeframe will result in disqualification from the tender process. Tenders must agree to this as part of Stage 1.
They will be required at this stage to also submit their commercial bid – however, this will only be evaluated if they are successful at stage 2 and invited to stage 3.
Commercial submissions will be requested upfront to avoid delays at the next stage.
Stage 3 - Virtual Pitch
All suppliers will then be invited to present a virtual pitch on a specified question outlined in the bidder pack. The question will be based on a scenario and will help to demonstrate and provide confidence to the contracting authority that they have the capability to deliver the requirement to a high standard.
Stage 4 - Commercial Evaluation
Deadline to submit enquiries about the tender is 5:00pm on 6 February 2026 and the tender submission deadline is 12:00pm on 20 February 2026.
The procurement documents are available for access, free of charge, at https://defrafamily.force.com/s/Welcome or https://atamis-9529.my.salesforce-sites.com/?searchtype=Projects
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