The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is looking to understand current fit-testing capacity across the UK and how this could be increased quickly in a pandemic. This work will help DHSC to develop a fit-testing surge plan and put in place practical delivery models that can be used during a pandemic, as part of wider pandemic preparedness planning.
Background
To support HMG’s Pandemic Preparedness Strategy [1] and reflect recommendations published in the COVID-19 Inquiry module 3 report [2], DHSC is conducting market engagement to better understand the capacity for fit testing. This will consider capacity during business as usual and a pandemic, recognising that during a pandemic demand for fit testing for filtering facepiece class 3 (FFP3) respirators across health and adult social care could increase rapidly. This would result in a significant volume of staff requiring fit testing quickly in the early stages of a pandemic. Without a surge plan, there’s a risk of delays in enabling frontline staff to safely use FFP3s, which is a key risk to health and social care pandemic resilience.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pandemic-preparedness-strategy-building-our-capabilities
[2] https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/module-3-full-report/
Who we want to hear from
We are seeking input from:
• fit testers and/or organisations providing fit testing
• fit-testing trainers and/or organisations providing fit testing training
DHSC recognises that organisations may not have previously surged fit testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How to take part
Please complete this Microsoft Forms survey:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MIwnYaiRMUyMH-9N6Jc6HD5FeWMrqfNMlI-J0y-poM1UOTFJT0pEWlNEVDZPUlhWVDRORVM5MVdZOC4u
The deadline is Tuesday 23rd June 2026, at 11:59pm, and the survey is likely to take less than 20 minutes if you have the information readily available.
Department of Health & Social CareLondon23 Jun 2026WAC-605400
DHSC:ASC Fair Pay Agreement Negotiation Support Fund
The government’s manifesto committed to establishing Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) in the Adult Social Care (ASC) sector – aimed at improving pay, terms and conditions, and other related employment matters for the ASC workforce, by introducing a new form of sectoral collective bargaining. The Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA) provides the legislative basis for this, and negotiations are expected to start in April 2027. In order to ensure negotiations are as successful as possible, ministers have approved a £321k Negotiation Support Fund (NSF) to support the sector prior to the start of negotiations. This fund is seen as key for mitigating delivery and handling risks associated with this top Government priority for ASC.
Department of Health & Social Care29 Jun 2026WAC-604809
Background
Personal protective equipment and hygiene consumables (PPE) is a critical component of the health and social care system’s ability to respond effectively to pandemics and other public health emergencies.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, unprecedented global demand for PPE placed significant pressure on international supply chains, highlighted vulnerabilities in availability and production capacity, and emphasised the importance of resilience, flexibility and rapid scale up capability.
To support HMG’s Pandemic Preparedness Strategy, and incorporate lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) is conducting this market engagement to better understand the capacity for domestic and international PPE manufacturing, and impacts on this production in a future pandemic.
Engagement Objective
Through this market engagement, DHSC wants to build a clearer picture of:
• Your current PPE manufacturing capability and capacity (products, volumes, lead times, and constraints).
• If you are not a PPE supplier today, whether (and how) your organisation could pivot to PPE manufacture (capability, requirements, and timescales).
• How capacity could change during a pandemic surge, including key challenges, dependencies, and opportunities to increase output.
• Were you an organisation that attempted to pivot or previously supplied PPE that no longer currently does.
All respondents will be asked to complete a questionnaire covering these topics. This can be found in the following link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MIwnYaiRMUyMH-9N6Jc6HAKxbC1k63lNsNWq5Fxa0I5UMVVHQ1BCRlJDWUJXQ1cwN0NIN0w4VVhGRy4u
DHSC may contact respondents to clarify information in their response. This may take the form of a follow-up one-to-one meeting during or after the engagement, or a small roundtable discussion.
This notice relates to a market engagement exercise for information gathering purposes only. It is not a call for competition and does not constitute the start of a procurement process. The information gathered may be used to inform future policy development and, where appropriate, the design of any potential future procurement activity.
The deadline for responses is 30/06/2026 at 23:59. If you have any questions, please contact PandemicPrepPPE@dhsc.gov.uk.
Additional information
This engagement is focused on organisations with the capability to scale or pivot PPE production rapidly in response to a pandemic scenario, using established or near operational manufacturing processes. Innovation focused activity, including the development of novel technologies or concepts at lower technology readiness levels (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/defence-and-security-accelerator-terms-and-conditions-and-contract-guidance#what-dasa-funds), is better supported through alternative mechanisms such as the Biosecurity Frontiers competition (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/biosecurity-frontiers/biosecurity-frontiers-competition-document), which is designed to fund and test emerging solutions for future biosecurity challenges.
Department of Health & Social CareLondon30 Jun 2026WAC-605407
Service Partner to deliver over-arching E2E capabilities with appropriately trained staff to provide 24x7 Service Desks and associated ITSM Tooling to ensure consistent availability of ARP Solutions & services - Managed by the Ambulance Radio Programme.
DHSC: ARP: Core Network and Security Management (2027-2030)
Network and Security Management services in support of nationally resilient infrastructure. Please contact commercial@arp.nhs.uk if you would like to learn more details of this opportunity - Managed by the Ambulance Radio Programme.
Requirement for a new media planning and media buying call-off contract using CCS Framework RM6364 Lot 1 supplier (WPP) for media planning and buying. The contract will run for a term of 4 years until 14 June 2030, which coincides with the CCS framework end date.
Department of Health & Social CareLondonWAC-596722
