For local authority tenders you will be invited to apply online, which involves filling in 64 pages and supplying further information on your financial position, proof of staff training, previous trading history including references, copies of company policies and procedures and more. Also all of your staff will require to have a CRB / Disclosure certificate.
At least that's the stus quo in Scotland and will follow in England in due course.
We recently applied for a tender and what transpired was ( interesting )
There were 18 original suppliers on the invitation to tender list, there were meetings at which we were enlightened about the process and told that ( to make things easier for the council ) only six of the original 18 would be considered at the end of the day ( based on scoring points )
PRICE would account for 50% of the points.
The result is ( we withdrew from the process ) the cheapest has a massive head start and the winner could be the WORST PROVIDER in the area as was recently shown on Panorama.
Sooooooooooooo
If you're s***t hot with your administration / record keeping and absolute CRAP at providing a service you may win the contract in fact you are more likely to win the contract.
After lives have been lost / endangered / and you are unable to fulfil your obligations the contract will be withdrawn and offered to another provider.
While you've serviced the contract however, you may have made enough to retire !
Finally ( and this is why I withdrew our submission ) funding a large contract is very, very difficult and you may hve to spend many thousands on staff training to meet the council's requirements.
Have fun