What is social value in procurement?
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public bodies to consider how services they commission could improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of the area. For most of its first decade, the Act was interpreted loosely: buyers considered social value in a general sense but rarely scored it formally.
That changed in January 2021 when the Cabinet Office published Procurement Policy Note 06/20. PPN 06/20 requires central government contracting authorities to include social value as a scored element of every procurement, with a minimum weighting of 10% of the total evaluation score. In practice, many buyers set it at 10% to 20%, and some go higher for contracts where community impact is central to delivery.
Social value encompasses a broad range of commitments: local economic impact, employment creation, environmental sustainability, health and wellbeing, and equal opportunities. Almost every supplier, in almost every sector, can make genuine and measurable commitments across at least some of these themes.
The five social value themes (PPN 06/20)
Economic recovery: Helping people who face barriers to employment find jobs or training, supporting local businesses, and investing in local supply chains.
Tackling economic inequality: Creating new businesses, jobs, and skills -- recruiting from areas of unemployment, creating apprenticeships, working with social enterprises and voluntary organisations.
Fighting climate change: Carbon reduction targets, sustainable procurement policies, fleet electrification, supply chain sustainability audits. Specific measurable targets score well; vague ambitions do not.
Equal opportunity: Closing pay gaps, improving workforce diversity, supporting people with disabilities, inclusive hiring practices. Workforce diversity data, if you have it, belongs in your response.
Wellbeing: The mental and physical health of your workforce and the wellbeing of local communities. Fair pay, mental health support, and community investment all fall under this theme.
How SMEs can compete on social value
The common assumption is that larger organisations with dedicated CSR teams will always outscore SMEs. In practice, SMEs often have structural advantages they fail to articulate.
Local employment is the clearest example. A regional business naturally recruits locally, subcontracts locally, and spends its supply chain budget within the area. For a national competitor, local employment is an aspiration to be managed. For you, it may simply be how the business already operates. The key is to quantify it: what percentage of your workforce lives within the contract area? What proportion of your subcontract spend goes to local businesses?
Community connections are similarly powerful. If you sponsor a local sports club, support a food bank, or provide mentoring to local schools, these are genuine commitments that national competitors cannot replicate. Named partnerships, specific numbers of volunteer hours, and identified beneficiary organisations are far more credible than generic statements about supporting the community.
Specificity is what separates winning social value responses from weak ones. Rather than committing to "support local employment", commit to recruiting two apprentices from within the contract area during the contract term, partnering with a named local college, and reporting quarterly against placements.
Social value under the Procurement Act 2023
PA23 reinforces social value requirements. Contracting authorities must include social value considerations in their procurement strategies and publish those strategies. The enhanced transparency requirements mean that award notices now include more detail about what winning suppliers committed to, which gives you useful benchmarks when preparing your own responses.
PA23 also places a greater emphasis on SME access to public procurement. Buyers are expected to consider how their approach supports SME participation, which is consistent with not setting social value requirements achievable only by large organisations.
What to avoid in your social value response
Generic commitments are the most common failing. "We will support local employment, promote wellbeing, and reduce our environmental footprint" tells evaluators nothing. They are scoring specificity, measurability, and genuine additionality.
Copy-pasting from a previous bid without tailoring is equally damaging. Buyers want commitments linked to the specific contract, area, and community. A response written for a Leeds contract that mentions Birmingham supply chain partners will not score well.
Avoid over-committing on targets you cannot deliver. Pledging net zero by an unrealistic date, or supply chain audits you lack the resource to conduct, creates a liability if the contract includes social value reporting requirements.
How to find tenders with social value information early
The earlier you know about a contract, the more time you have to prepare a credible social value narrative. Reactive bidding, where you find a contract in its final weeks before submission, consistently produces weaker scores than planned, evidenced commitments built over months.
TenderSignal's pipeline intelligence identifies contracts approaching renewal so you can start building your social value narrative, gathering evidence, and forming supply chain partnerships before the ITT is published. Register for TenderSignal to see upcoming contracts in your sector and start preparing before your competitors know the tender exists.