When a tender is published, providers are given a formal window to submit questions to the commissioning authority before preparing their response. These are clarification questions and in social care tenders, they are one of the most important tools available to providers at any stage of the process.
What Clarification Questions Are
Clarification questions are part of the formal procurement process. They allow providers to raise points of ambiguity, confirm service scope, test delivery assumptions, and check whether a specification means what it appears to mean.
They are not informal queries, and they are not viewed negatively by councils. All clarification questions are anonymised and shared with every bidder as part of the official tender record — which means a question you raise benefits every provider in the process, including the commissioner, who uses them to refine the specification and ensure everyone is working from the same understanding.
One important practical note: clarification questions must be submitted anonymously. The commissioner does not remove identifying information on your behalf — if your question references your organisation, your service, or anything that could identify you, that will be visible to every other bidder when the register is shared. Keep questions neutral, factual, and free of any identifying details.
Why They Matter in Social Care
Care specifications are often written in broad, high-level language to describe services that are, in practice, operationally complex. Terms like “complex needs,” “high support,” or “cognitive impairment” can cover very different client groups, very different levels of risk, and very different regulatory and staffing requirements.
A provider can meet the headline eligibility criteria while still being genuinely unsuitable for the service being commissioned. Clarification questions are how you find that out before committing to a full submission — not after.
A Scenario Worth Considering
Imagine a local authority publishes a tender for a supported living service for adults with complex needs. The specification references cognitive impairment, increasing support needs over time, and behavioural challenges — but it doesn’t clearly state whether the service is primarily dementia-focused, whether specialist dementia training is required, or whether progressive cognitive decline is expected within the service model.
A provider reviewing the tender has strong, well-evidenced experience supporting adults with learning disabilities and autism. On the surface, the service looks like a reasonable fit. In practice, the needs and risks could be significantly different.
Rather than assuming, the provider submits a clarification question:
“Can the Authority confirm whether the primary service user group includes individuals with diagnosed dementia or progressive cognitive conditions, and whether specialist dementia care experience or training is expected as part of service delivery?”
The council’s response then determines whether to proceed. If dementia care isn’t central to the service, the provider may be very well suited. If it is, they’ve avoided bidding for something they’re not equipped to deliver — protecting both their organisation and, more importantly, the people who would be using the service.
Don’t Feel Shy About Asking
One of the most common concerns providers raise is whether a question sounds too basic, or whether asking it makes them look inexperienced. It doesn’t.
If something in the specification is unclear to you, it is almost certainly unclear to other providers too. Councils expect clarification questions — they are a sign of responsible practice, not uncertainty. Asking a straightforward question about client group characteristics, staffing expectations, or service scope shows that your organisation takes the commissioning process seriously and understands the difference between meeting eligibility criteria and genuinely being the right fit for a service.
When Clarification Questions Are Identified
Clarification questions are typically identified during the SME review — the stage that follows the kick-off call, once the specification has been reviewed in detail and any areas of ambiguity or risk have been worked through carefully. The window for submitting them is time-limited, which is why planning them early matters.
If you wait until drafting has started to realise something is unclear, you may have already missed the opportunity to ask.
What Happens When They’re Skipped
When clarification questions aren’t used, providers can find themselves bidding for services outside their core expertise, underestimating staffing or training requirements, or — in the most serious cases — winning contracts that are genuinely difficult or unsafe to deliver. In care services, the consequences of a mismatched contract go beyond operational strain. They affect service users directly.
Clarification questions exist precisely to prevent this — for providers and commissioners alike.
How BidElevate Approaches This
At BidElevate, clarification questions are discussed and drafted during the SME review as a standard part of our process. We make sure they are specific, neutrally worded, and focused on the information your organisation genuinely needs to make an informed decision about whether to proceed.
Get in touch and we’ll make sure nothing important gets missed before your submission window closes.