RM6399 Consultancy and Professional Services – known informally as CaPS – is being brought to market by the Government Commercial Agency (GCA).
This article gives you the essentials: what CaPS is, where it fits alongside the frameworks you already know, and why technology suppliers should start paying attention now, well before the tender lands.
What is CaPS?
RM6399 is a framework agreement that will replace RM6309, the Management Consultancy Framework 4 (MCF4). Once live, it will give central government and the wider public sector a compliant, pre-approved route to buy consultancy and professional services without running a full procurement from scratch every time.
It’s being let under the Procurement Act 2023, the newer legal regime governing UK public procurement, and covers a broad scope, including:
- business, strategy and policy consultancy
- finance
- HR
- procurement
- health or social care and community services
- infrastructure and environment
- restructuring and insolvency
The framework is structured across 10 lots, each covering a defined set of service lines. The full lot structure hasn’t been finalised and published yet, so exactly how digital, data and technology-enabled work is carved up is still to be confirmed. This is one to watch closely as the procurement documentation is released.
Where CaPS fits for tech suppliers
It’s worth being clear about what CaPS is not: it isn’t a technology procurement framework in the way G-Cloud or the Technology Services frameworks are. CaPS is a consultancy framework first.
That said, tech suppliers have a real stake in it. Public sector buyers increasingly procure “digital transformation,” “data strategy,” or “technology-enabled business change” as consultancy engagements rather than as software or hosting purchases, and that kind of work sits squarely within CaPS’s scope. If your business sells advisory, strategy, or delivery-led services that happen to be technology-driven (rather than selling a product or a hosting platform), CaPS is likely to be a relevant route to market alongside the tech-specific frameworks you may already hold a place on.
In practice, this means CaPS is worth attention if you offer things like:
- digital or data strategy advice
- technology-enabled business change and transformation consultancy
- digital service design and delivery consultancy
- specialist advisory work with a strong technology or data component
Why the framework matters
A few features are designed to make CaPS easier for buyers to use – and therefore worth suppliers understanding, since they shape how buyers will run competitions:
- A broad supplier base. CaPS is intended to include everyone from SMEs to large multinationals, rather than favouring only the largest consultancies.
- Cyber Essentials accreditation. Suppliers will need Cyber Essentials accreditation, which is a relevant baseline for tech-adjacent suppliers to have in place already.
- Flexible pricing models. Buyers will be able to choose between time and materials, fixed price, or risk/reward pricing — so it’s worth thinking now about how your business can price consultancy-style engagements under each.
- Standard terms and a shortlisting tool. Standardised terms and conditions, plus a tool to help buyers shortlist suppliers, mean evaluation is likely to be more structured and comparable across bidders than ad hoc procurements.
- Dedicated contract management support. A named GCA contract management team will support the framework once live.
Timeline: where things stand today
As of today, CaPS has not yet gone out to formal tender. Here’s the timeline so far and what’s ahead:
- September 2025 – March 2026: pre-market engagement, including customer and supplier engagement sessions (initial sessions in October 2025, a second round in February–March 2026, and a further supplier session in May 2026 covering carbon reduction plans, prompt payment, and financial viability risk assessments).
- September 2026 (expected): publication of the Find a Tender notice, marking the formal start of procurement.
- July 2027 (expected): framework award.
Estimated framework value has been reported at different figures across industry sources, from roughly £3.4 billion to £6 billion. So treat any specific number with caution until GCA confirms it in the tender documentation.
What suppliers should do now
Because the tender hasn’t launched yet, there’s a genuine window to prepare rather than react:
- Map your consultancy-style offer. Separate out the parts of your business that look like advisory or transformation consultancy from the parts that are pure technology delivery or licensing – CaPS is about the former.
- Check your accreditations. Confirm Cyber Essentials is in place, since it’s likely to be a baseline requirement.
- Build your evidence base early. Case studies with measurable outcomes (not just activity) tend to score well on consultancy frameworks. Start gathering these now rather than at tender release.
- Watch for the finalised lot structure. This will clarify exactly where digital and data-enabled propositions sit, and which lots are the best fit for your business.
- Think about pricing flexibility. Be ready to price under time and materials, fixed price, and risk/reward models, since buyers will have the choice.
Next steps
We’ll update this page as and when we hear more, and also publish further articles helping interested suppliers to prepare before the application window opens.
To get ahead of the game and ensure you’re more than ready when the time comes, book a chat with our team now to find out how we can help you.
