Framework agreement for work–family balance services

Summary

Fraunhofer is seeking a framework agreement partner to provide services supporting work–family balance. The services include emergency childcare and home and elder-care support, an employee assistance counselling service (EAP), health-management advice, workshops for managers, an online platform and an EAP hotline. The price offer must allow for annual reference volumes of 110 childcare, home-care and elder-care requests and 185 employee counselling cases. Unit prices are also required for requests exceeding these allowances, hourly rates for health-management advice and workshops, and annual fees for the online portal and hotline. The pricing schedule lists an initial term of 1 December 2026 to 30 November 2028, with possible extensions from 1 December 2029 to 30 November 2030 and from 1 December 2030 to 30 November 2031. The invitation to tender gives the service period as 1 December 2027 to 30 November 2028, so the discrepancy between the periods should be checked in the tender documents. Bids are evaluated on price (35%), the care/service concept and health-management concept (35%), and quality, technical delivery and flexibility (30%). The latter includes an online platform with different formats, such as a media library of expert talks and webinars, and backup childcare options. The bidder must demonstrate certified quality management, at least 25 locations in Germany, nationwide cooperation networks and service availability 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. An experienced central adviser or account manager and references from the last five years are required. Bids had to be submitted electronically by 2 November 2026 at 11:00. The bid remains binding until the contract is awarded; the invitation to tender specified 29 January 2027 as the bid validity date.