Child Poverty and Health Market Engagement Notice
Summary
The UK Department of Health & Social Care published a market engagement notice regarding child poverty and its health impacts. The notice announces a virtual roundtable event on April 15, 2026, to discuss collaboration opportunities with external organizations.
What changed
The Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) has issued a preliminary market engagement notice concerning child poverty and its health impacts in the UK. This notice, published on March 23, 2026, follows the government's strategy 'Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty' and aims to explore collaboration opportunities with external stakeholders. A virtual roundtable event is scheduled for April 15, 2026, to facilitate discussions on how organizations are addressing the health consequences of child poverty.
This is a non-binding engagement notice, and no specific compliance actions are required from regulated entities at this stage. The primary purpose is to gather information and foster dialogue. Interested parties should note the date of the virtual roundtable and any subsequent communications from DHSC regarding potential future collaborations or procurements related to this initiative.
What to do next
- Register interest for the virtual roundtable event on April 15, 2026.
- Review the DHSC's 'Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty' strategy.
Source document (simplified)
Planning
Child Poverty and Health - Market Engagement
- Department of Health & Social Care UK2: Preliminary market engagement notice - Procurement Act 2023 - view information about notice types
Notice identifier: 2026/S 000-026504
Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-0671fd
Published 23 March 2026, 5:23pm
Last edited 23 March 2026, 5:40pm
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- 23 March 2026, 5:40pm (this version)
- 23 March 2026, 5:26pm
- 23 March 2026, 5:23pm
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Contents
Scope Engagement Contracting authority
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Scope
Description
Child poverty in the UK has increased by 900,000 children since 2010/11. 4.5 million children now live in poverty and 1.1 million have used foodbanks within the last 12 months.
Tackling child poverty is central to this government’s mission to remove barriers to opportunity and raise the healthiest generation of children ever. On 5th December 2025, the government published Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696646bc99fbdc498faecd98/child-poverty-strategy.pdf, which sets out immediate actions to reduce poverty and the long‑term foundations needed to change its trajectory. As part of the Strategy, DHSC has committed to engage with the market and wider stakeholders outside of government to better understand and explore potential opportunities for collaboration to address the health impacts of child poverty.
The purpose of this notice is to announce that DHSC will be hosting a virtual roundtable event with a Q&A on 15th April 2026. The roundtable will involve a facilitated discussion on what organisations are doing, or interested in doing, to tackle the health impacts of child poverty. Please see the letter from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care inviting industry to the virtual roundtable: https://atamis-1928.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/0O000000rwim/a/Pz00000IYa8L/xfGPul26MvskSjmFvX464jTxxojCnySEQ3TgZ18yA6g
Total value (estimated)
- £0 excluding VAT
- £0 including VAT
Contract dates (estimated)
- 23 March 2026 to 9 April 2026
- 18 days
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
Provision of services to the community
Data services
Recreational, cultural and sporting services
Sports goods and equipment
Guidance services
Guidance and counselling services
Hotel, restaurant and retail trade services
Retail trade services
Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products
Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment
Community health services
Health training services
Education and training services
Miscellaneous business-related services
Community action programme
Miscellaneous services
Sport-related services
Transport services (excl. Waste transport)
Supporting and auxiliary transport services; travel agencies services
Railway transport services
Miscellaneous food products
Welfare services for children and young people
Canteen and catering services
Special education services
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Computer-related services
Networks
Telecommunications services
Training services
Other community, social and personal services
Membership organisation services
Equal opportunities consultancy services
Child daycare services
Daycare services
Social work services without accommodation
Engagement
Engagement deadline
9 April 2026
Engagement process description
Background
Child poverty in the UK has increased by 900,000 children since 2010/11. 4.5 million children now live in poverty and 1.1 million have used foodbanks within the last 12 months.
Tackling child poverty is central to this government’s mission to remove barriers to opportunity and raise the healthiest generation of children ever. On 5th December 2025, the government published Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696646bc99fbdc498faecd98/child-poverty-strategy.pdf, which sets out immediate actions to reduce poverty and the long‑term foundations needed to change its trajectory. As part of the Strategy, DHSC has committed to engage with the market and wider stakeholders outside of government to better understand and explore potential opportunities for collaboration to address the health impacts of child poverty.
Purpose
The purpose of this notice is to announce that DHSC will be hosting a virtual roundtable event with a Q&A on 15th April 2026. Please see the letter from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care inviting industry to the virtual roundtable: https://atamis-1928.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/0O000000rwim/a/Pz00000IYa8L/xfGPul26MvskSjmFvX464jTxxojCnySEQ3TgZ18yA6g. The roundtable will involve a facilitated discussion on what organisations are doing, or interested in doing, to tackle the health impacts of child poverty. In the event that that there are a significant number of organisations that meet the eligibility criterion for the event, DHSC reserves the right to run more than one virtual event.
There is no planned procurement activity relating to the publication of this preliminary market engagement notice. For avoidance of doubt this is not a call for competition nor a procurement and therefore it will have a monetary payment value of £0 attached. The sole purpose of the engagement is to initiate a discussion with suppliers interested in addressing the health impacts of child poverty.
Eligibility
To be eligible to attend this event you must be a VCSE or private sector organisation interested in improving health outcomes for children in poverty. If the roundtable is significantly oversubscribed, DHSC reserves the right to run more than one virtual event dictated by organisation type / interest area.
Questionnaire
To participate in this roundtable, we ask any party linked to or interested in child poverty to complete a short questionnaire about what they feel are potential areas of opportunities for collaboration, as well as any work they have underway to improve health outcomes for children in poverty. This questionnaire is for information purposes only and will not form part of the assessment of those organisations that DHSC may collaborate with. Please complete the questionnaire at this link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MIwnYaiRMUyMH-9N6Jc6HBHgJ-bvHrVLjKnNEfCmB79UQVpQSUVMSzNHODBJQUUzMFRTUDhDUEkwNi4u. The deadline to complete the questionnaire is 1700 on Thursday 9th April 2026.
If you have any challenges in registering for the event or specific questions around the market engagement, please contact childpovertyengagement@dhsc.gov.uk
Following this market consultation, should any opportunities for collaboration arise, DHSC will ensure these are advertised openly for all interested organisations.
All responses will be stored securely by DHSC and kept only for as long as is strictly necessary. You can read more at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-privacy-notice/dhsc-privacy-notice. During the analysis DHSC may use its own artificial intelligence tools to help analyse responses. No external Artificial Intelligence tools will be used. No raw data will be shared outside of DHSC, NHS England or uploaded to external tools.
Artificial Intelligence will not be relied upon in isolation; it will only be used as a supplement to manual analysis in the context of the holistic findings.
Contracting authority
Department of Health & Social Care
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PMQG-9965-CHZR 39 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0EU
United Kingdom
Email: childpovertyengagement@dhsc.gov.uk
Website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care
Region: UKI32 - Westminster
Organisation type: Public authority - central government
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